The book titled “Yes, But Stalin...”, written by Nikos Mottas, was successfully presented on Sunday 7 May in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city.
In the fully-packed "Dialogos" hall, at the premises of the 19th International Book Fair, the presentation attracted the interest of dozens of people who attended the event.
The speakers included Giorgos Margaritis, Professor of Contemporary History and Communist Party (KKE) candidate MP in Crete; Giorgos Leontiadis, Historian; and Nikos Mottas, the book's author, who is also founder and editor in chief of “In Defense of Communism”. The event, which was moderated by journalist Alekos Chatzikostas, was broadcasted on live streaming, with simultaneous English translation.
Among others, Nikos Mottas underlined that anti-communism is “a characteristic feature of the official historiography”, as well as a dominant feature in politics, society, education and mass media worldwide. He said that the “predominant view through which history is presented is the view of the bourgeois class” and, therefore, “anti-communism consists an official policy in every capitalist country”.
“It is not a coincidence that the European Union has adopted anti-communism as an official ideology, thus promoting the unhistorical and unacceptable theory of the two extremes, that is the equation of communism with nazism and fascism”, Mottas stressed out, adding that in some EU member-states, such as Poland and the Baltic countries, the activity of the Communist Parties has been criminalized, the communist symbols have been outlawed and communists are being prosecuted”.
Nikos Mottas provided two examples of how anti-communist propaganda works, refering to the Berlin Wall and the much celebrated in the capitalist world, anti-soviet, anti-stalinist works of Aleksander Solzenitsyn and George Orwell.
“It's okay if someone isn't a communist; but to be an anti-communist, that is inhumane”, Mottas concluded.
“History, they say, is written by the victors, even the temporary ones. The prevalence of counter-revolution and the overthrow socialism in the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries in the early 1990s was the trigger for the escalation of anti-communism at all levels. Through bourgeois historiography and the mainstream media, a series of “theories” aimed at slandering the 20th century socialism and demonizing Marxist-Leninist ideology have been developed.
The new edition aspires to open a confrontation with anti-communism, having clear that the defense of the international communist movement's history and the importance of historical socialism isn't merely a struggle of academic and philological interest, but an integral part of the class struggle, for the present and the future, for the realization of the necessity and timeliness of socialism”.
According to Atechnos Publishing House, there are plans for foreign editions of the book, including English and Italian.