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Posted by Duncan on January 10, 2003 at 11:51:21 from 152.163.188.167 user Duncan.


Could somebody please forward this message to Ted Alexander or, if that is not possible, let me know and I shall print it out and post it. (I don't have Ted Alexander's email, and he can't access this board apparently). I did however feel that this discussion should be continued in this public forum if possible, because there has been some general interest in it.

Usual disclaimer for those who don't want to read about politics to move on to the next message...

I received a letter from TA responding to my posting on here and I was initially quite cross. I think I misinterpreted the tone having mellowed somewhat with subsequent readings; but I am bristling somewhat about what appears to be an assumption of my considerable ignorance. There is no reason why people in TARS should be aware of my academic specialisms, but I would hope that my remarks on modern political history should be considered a resource for the society rather assumed to be wrong!!!

So to that first of all: when I said AR came from a Liberal family I was NOT incorrect. His family and the society in which they moved/dined/etc. was almost exclusively Liberal. AR's father shared the views of the Birmingham Liberal leader, Joseph Chamberlain on Irish Home Rule and a number of other issues (and just generally disliked Gladstone) and so was amongst those from the National Liberal Federation who left the Party being known as the Unionists or the Imperial Federationalists (quite different from the Unionists referred to in the Conservative and Unionist Party). Many of these - including Chamberlain - did eventually join the Conservative Party because of shared interests in Tarrif Reform (I don't know if AR's father was one of these), but the organisational origins of that group came from Chamberlain's wish to radicalise the Liberal Party and prevent a repeat of what he considered to be a betrayal by the 1880-5 Gladstone Government.
I suspect that TA's point got lost somewhere in the translation into 'the modern parlance', but be that as it may, AR's family and society was a Liberal one, and the arguments that were conducted over the breakfast table were arguments within Liberalism. This doesn't further my own point very much (other than to further undermine the idea that AR was entirely non-political) but I feel it had to be said!!!

I haven't much to add to what TA has said about AR's meetings with Lenin and Trotsky - I accept that 'close' is a relative term. I was fully aware of the historical sequence of events that TA refers to (therefore entirely unsurprised that AR and Lenin had not met prior to 1918) A slight misunderstanding ensued later where I referred to 'the early part of the Revolution' and I was referring to 1917-1919 (and particularly after December 1917 as AR was not in Russia for the first two months of the bolshevik revolution to which I was referring).

TA's assertion that Lenin spent no time on activities that did not further his objectives is pure speculation and modern western mythology. In fact, although often coming across as cold and cunning, he was sociable in his way (even though he had a rather one-tracked conversation). One could even argue that discussing politics with his comrades outside the office (which all vaguely non-hysterical biographies are clear that he did) could be considered to further his objectives, if you'd prefer. I see no reason why AR would have invented a chess game, although I have seen no record of his referring to it either (I have some interest in the game having taken place as I'm currently writing a radio play called 'Chess with Lenin'!!!).

We may just have to agree to differ on whether Ransome was a socialist. I am quite convinced that he was. I cannot otherwise account for a man owning 'News from Nowhere' (and being a self-confessed fan), subscribing to the Clarion, befriending the likes of Molly Hamilton and Edith Nesbit, becoming closely associated with the Congress of Soviets ('the first Proletarian Parliament in the world') and being entirely disinterested in the 'bourgeois' Constituent Assembly, being unsure about the merits of Lenin's NEP, confidently using the Labour Theory of Value, supporting China and opposing NATO in the 1960s... I am more than willing to accept that AR did not enjoy political machinations very much and that might - in part - explain why he did not spark up any organisational political activity post-Russia.

Just a couple of other things: although the US media had some support for the first 1917 revolution (and ended up with a very odd view, to be honest, leading to the requirement for AR's 'The Truth about Russia') the western European press were largely opposed even to the first revolution because they were frightened about it's influence on the War and the lead it might give to radicals in their own countries.

Contrary to western mythology, the Bolsheviks were by far the largest party in the Council of Soviets (although they didn't hold an OVERALL majority - the meagre origins of this interminable historical falsehood that there were more Menshoviks than Bolsheviks - there were not).

The poetry, passion and foresight evident in the final paragraph of 'The Truth About Russia' is not written by someone who did not really believe what he was saying, or wasn't very interested in it, or was naive about it... The knee-jerk anti-communism of some Ransomites (particularly Hugh Brogan, to be honest) has led to an unfortunate dismissal of AR's political writing, much of which is extraordinarily insightful and well written. (I was trying to post that last paragraph from 'The Truth About Russia' but my cut and paste wasn't working, but I'll have another go some time).

Anyway, I think we began all this agreeing that AR wasn't a spy!!!!!

Duncan




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