The IMF, the Pope and FIFA: 'Stalin's Physics' Still Hold (Izvestia, Russia)
"'Do you
know how much our government weighs, with all of its factories, machinery, and its
army, with all of its weapons and fleets?' Stalin asked. … The chief investigator
replied hesitantly, 'No one can say, Joseph Vissarionovich
[Stalin]. It is an astronomical figure.' Comrade Stalin went on to ask, 'Well,
and can one person stand against such an astronomical weight?' After receiving the
answer he anticipated, 'no,' the leader concluded, 'Then don't
report back to me again until you have Kamenev’s confession.' … Against the
astronomical weight of the American state, with its banks, gadgets, armies,
weapons and fleets, Blatter could not resist, quickly
falling to his knees. In 1936, Kamenev, first head of the Soviet state, held
out for longer."
Journalist Maxim Sokolov on how certain independent organizations have
suddenly become disagreeable to the prince of the world.
In 1936 there was a hitch during preparations for the first
of the Moscow Trials (from
August 19-24, 1936). One of the main witnesses, L.V. Kamenev [member of the original 1917 Soviet Politburo],
was putting up resistance and refused to offer the required testimony. When
Chief NKVD Investigator Mironov
informed Stalin about it, the leader showed a sudden desire to speak in parables.
"Do you know how much our government weighs, with all of its factories, machinery,
and its army, with all of its weapons and fleets?" he said. "I ask
you - how much does it weigh?"
The chief investigator replied hesitantly, "No one can
say, Joseph Vissarionovich [Stalin]. It is an
astronomical figure." Comrade Stalin went on to ask, "Well, and can
one person stand against such an astronomical weight?" Stalin continued.
After receiving the answer he anticipated, "no," the leader concluded,
"Then don’t tell me again that Kamenev or any other prisoner is capable of
withstanding the pressure. Don’t report back to me again until you have
Kamenev’s confession."
As we all know today, Kamenev failed to "withstand the weight"
of the Soviet Union and the trial proceeded without a hitch and in full accord
with the leader's plans.
Earlier this month, it turned out that Stalin’s laws of
physics continues to hold true, after officials of international football and
FIFA President SeppBlatter,
in their attempt to withstand the financial and law enforcement authorities of
the United States, had a similar experience.
Against the astronomical weight of the American state, with
its banks, gadgets, armies, weapons and fleets, Blatter
could not resist, quickly falling to his knees. In 1936, Kamenev, first head of
the Soviet state, held out for longer. [Technically, Kamenev was the first "chairman
of the Central Executive Committee of the All Russian Congress of Soviets."]
Needless to say, the demonization of FIFA has a lot in
common with crushing the double-dealers Trotsky
and Zinoviev (and Bukharinskiyist) in the late 1920s. There was the same "stab-in-the-back"
style involving sudden arrests, denunciations and vivid confessions, etc. For
two decades - precisely as long as Zinoviev and Kamenev lasted (and Bukharin, Rykov, Tukhachevskiy, Uborevich and the rest of the monsters) - Blatter’s double-dealers frantically stole and caused damage,
all as the watchful organs of power failed to notice a thing. Then, suddenly,
like a lightning bolt illuminating the plains, the actions of the enemies of
the people became apparent to all and underwent immediate eradication.
In keeping with the magnificent words of the British national hymn,
"Britons will never be slaves!," UEFA was quick to welcome the just punishments doled out to
the double-dealers, and English sport officials were quick to take advantage. People
talk about the decaying soul of the Soviet Union of the 1930s – and indeed, the
rot was malignant. But if Stalin had dealt with human rubbish like these
European football officials, imposing on them even a third of the pressure he put
on the terrified inhabitants of the USSR, we would see who the real heroes and
demigods of today's mighty Europeans are.
So the question arises as to what these passions and theatrics
are aimed at. Blatter is hardly likely to have clean
hands. As they say "he who is near the well will drink from it."
First, there may have been a wee bit of stealing - but who doesn’t steal? Second,
the United States, who has turned out to be the chief prosecutor of the
entrenched villains of FIFA, is in no way a footballing
power. It’s as if Russia were to act out of righteous indignation over abuses at
the International Cricket Board. One assumes all the ruckus was kicked up by
the Americans to placate their English clients, who took offense as having been
denied the 2018 World Cup - although it seems like burning down the house down
to boil the kettle.
The principle "there cannot be two suns
in the heavens or two Genghis Khans upon the earth" seems to broadly apply
here. Just as Genghis Khan would reach for his cross-bow when a competitor appeared,
the leading powers are becoming increasingly impatient with strong and more or
less independent global organizations – whether they are religious, sporting or
anything else. In the Soviet Union, too, there were theoretically independent public
organizations, but forgetting the leading and guiding role of the party was not
recommended.
FIFA became intolerable, not because it stole so much or
passed bribe money through American banks, but because on the one hand, football
is popular around the world and has billions of fans, which in itself is no
joke, and on the other, because Blatter behaved as if
he was above the law and didn’t feel obliged to toe the line of that great democratic
luminary and anticipate its desires.
"The comrade was behind the wheel," to use old
Soviet nomenclature - and he paid for it.
This is precisely how former IMF Chief Dominique
Strauss-Khan paid for his sins in 2011. He acted as though he was his own
boss and began chasing around mulatto housemaids in his declining years - and directly
from his aircraft he was taken into custody and into an American jail. Then,
realizing what was happening, he prostrated himself before
the "party," not as head of the IMF but as a
private citizen, and was released.
Pope Benedict XVI is unlikely to have taken bribes or be
accused of chasing mulatto housemaids (or any other servants), but the
circumstances of his 2013 resignation - a resignation entirely unprecedented in
the 2,000 year history of the Roman papacy - remains unknown to this day; just
as the services rendered by the current Pope Francis, a man known mainly for
his idiocies, remains unclear. It may be that Pope Benedict toyed too much with
the global balance of power (the number of Catholics is not insignificant) and proved
too independent (failing to sufficiently prostrate himself before the "god"
of the times).
