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wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
Slow going with this one, but I've gotten a little further in to it and it's quite interesting on several levels.
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It's a little dense and keeping track of all the names and factions and issues takes a bit of work, but the payoff is pretty decent. At first I was hoping for a little more context and a lot more theory and analysis, but really, what this volume does and, as it turns out, what it needs to do most is show how the major charges against Pauker -- in particular the charges that she was The Big Romanian Stalinist -- were not quite accurate and that, in fact, although she is not without blame and was indeed a supporter of Soviet Communism, she resisted many of the major things that she was then accused of when she was purged. Things like forced collectivization, the purging of the "cosmopolitan" communists who fought in Spain, the bad treatment of the "kulaks" (the more independent, successful peasant farmer class), etc. It also shows that although Pauker considered herself an assimilated Jew, how she helped support Jewish emigration and (somewhat) fought anti-Semitism. What struck me most was how bizarre, brutal and yet bureaucratic the factional machinations of Communism manifested especially in relation to the Soviets. And if I have one criticism of the book is that it doesn't quote more of the minutes and correspondence and interrogations because when that language is presented, it's quite chilling and illuminating in it's doublespeak.
Now this is no hagiography, but it's clear that Levy is somewhat sympathetic towards Pauker, especially since she was so fully misrepresented by the faction that one -- Georghe-Dej's faction. Much of what was laid at her feet, baggage that her name is still burdened with in modern day Romania, rightfully belongs to him. This is less a rehabilitation than an adjustment of the warped historical record -- although in the end one is left with the impression that if Romania had to have Communism, Pauker's more sensible, cosmopolitan, gradual, Tito-esque version of it probably would have been better than Georghe-Dej's, especially in light of what was to come e.g. the Ceaucescu regime.
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It's a little dense and keeping track of all the names and factions and issues takes a bit of work, but the payoff is pretty decent. At first I was hoping for a little more context and a lot more theory and analysis, but really, what this volume does and, as it turns out, what it needs to do most is show how the major charges against Pauker -- in particular the charges that she was The Big Romanian Stalinist -- were not quite accurate and that, in fact, although she is not without blame and was indeed a supporter of Soviet Communism, she resisted many of the major things that she was then accused of when she was purged. Things like forced collectivization, the purging of the "cosmopolitan" communists who fought in Spain, the bad treatment of the "kulaks" (the more independent, successful peasant farmer class), etc. It also shows that although Pauker considered herself an assimilated Jew, how she helped support Jewish emigration and (somewhat) fought anti-Semitism. What struck me most was how bizarre, brutal and yet bureaucratic the factional machinations of Communism manifested especially in relation to the Soviets. And if I have one criticism of the book is that it doesn't quote more of the minutes and correspondence and interrogations because when that language is presented, it's quite chilling and illuminating in it's doublespeak.
Now this is no hagiography, but it's clear that Levy is somewhat sympathetic towards Pauker, especially since she was so fully misrepresented by the faction that one -- Georghe-Dej's faction. Much of what was laid at her feet, baggage that her name is still burdened with in modern day Romania, rightfully belongs to him. This is less a rehabilitation than an adjustment of the warped historical record -- although in the end one is left with the impression that if Romania had to have Communism, Pauker's more sensible, cosmopolitan, gradual, Tito-esque version of it probably would have been better than Georghe-Dej's, especially in light of what was to come e.g. the Ceaucescu regime.
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