Back to Poul Anderson, "Details":
In the spring of 1917, a Galactic playing the role of a German captain waits with his men to travel in a sealed train into Russia. Another Galactic, playing the role of a nobleman, has persuaded the German General Staff to transport a Russian exile, Ulyanov, into Russia because:
"...a psychotechnic evaluation...gave the little revolutionary a surprising probability of success." (p. 130)
Right at the end of section 2, the omniscient narrator informs us, the readers, that Ulyanov's:
"...Party name was Lenin." (p. 131)
How many readers did need to be told that?
Time Patrol agents know the importance of every detail including individuals as varied as a Pope, an Emperor, Hitler and Lenin. See:
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I only wish that vile creature Lenin had botched his negotiations with the Germans and missed the opportunity to slither back into Russia like the venomous snake he was!
It was more artistic or dramatic of Anderson to begin with Vladimir's real name "Ulyanov" before revealing his Party name, "Lenin."
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I agree about starting with Ulyanov's real name.
Can we drop "vile creature," "slither," "venomous snake" etc? Surely it is demoralizing to use such language? Think of a figure that we agree in condemning. The most obvious example need not even be named. I would still not agree with continually applying such language. It is sufficient to agree that atrocities have been and are being committed and that it is our responsibility to prevent such crimes now and from now on. ("our" has to apply to the majority of the human race mobilized against the organizers and perpetrators of massacres, hate crimes etc.)
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It's no use, I will never have anything but anger and fury for Lenin. And the regime he founded was arguably even worse than that of Hitler, because the Third Reich had a far shorter existence than the USSR. Which gave Lenin and his successors more time for perpetrating their atrocities.
Nor do I agree with you about "mobilizing" the human race "against the organizers and perpetrators of massacres, hate crimes etc." Because it's not going to happen that easily or simply when the natural inclination of human beings is to be tribalist. At best one fairly benign tribe or alliance of tribes will unify/conquer the world.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It's no use. There are many people towards whom we can, if we are so inclined, feel anger and fury and this is a waste of energy. Meanwhile, we should be able to quote Lenin's STATE AND REVOLUTION when discussing alternative ways to organize society.
Mobilizing a majority anti-racist movement does NOT happen easily or simply. Many of us can tell you that from our own experience! But, in this country, we have confronted and driven back the British Union of Fascists, the National Front, the British National Party and the English Defense League and their several off-shoots and are still currently organizing against Tommy Robinson. The natural inclination of human beings, when our common interests as members of a single species and of one society is pointed out to them, is to reject the hate that inspires violence against anyone who is different or in a minority.
Conquering or forcibly unifying the world would be a good thing? Many of us transcend tribalism now. Lancaster is full of secular and religiously based groups that welcome and work with immigrants and refugees. Christian and Muslim women share cultures and recipes. You do not know what is going on. I am preaching a more universal morality than you are.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm never going to have anything but revulsion for Lenin. Nor do I care about the propaganda he wrote to gin up support for his seizure of power in Russia. What matters is how Lenin actually ruled: as a tyrant and cynical opportunist.
The real hero of early 20th century Russia was not Lenin, that was Peter Stolypin. The political and economic reforms he implemented as PM (1906-11) were so successfully transforming for the better by 1914 that, given a few more years of peace with no Sarajevo, revolution would have become almost inconceivable. Lenin himself thought so and was driven to frustrated despair at thinking he was unlikely to grab power in Russia. Stolypin's assassination in 1911 was a tragedy for Russia!
Yes, conquest, because that is exactly how human beings behave, both now and as far back in the past as we can go. I see no reason to expect that to change in the future. Competition, struggle, rivalry in the future is the way to bet, because IWHBD.
I have zero sympathy for mass immigration of unassimilated foreigners in the teeth of protests from citizens of the UK or US who rightly demand that only immigrants be allowed in who come legally and abandon barbaric beliefs, laws, and customs alien and repugnant to the best and basic values of the West.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
This is a set of hostile assumptions about Lenin's intentions. His STATE AND REVOLUTION is an in depth analysis of economic and political class relationships based on the works of Marx and Engels.
I see every reason why people, continuing to change their environments and to develop advanced technology, will organize society differently in future just as we have already progressed from hunting and gathering to the present high tech global competitive economy which will either destroy itself or advance to something new.
Many citizens of the UK rightly demand that refugees from wars caused by the Great Powers are granted asylum and that the distinction between legal and illegal immigration is abolished. It is the latter that causes dangerous crossings of the Mediterranean and the Channel and deaths at sea. This talk of barbaric, repugnant customs is a farrago of prejudice. The West is responsible for much injustice.
Quite obviously, the whole human race needs a new start.
Paul.
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