A fable about Stalin and Darwin? (was Nancy's source)

James Mahaffy wrote:

>I don't recall that anyone (myself included) asked James if Pearcy
>footnoted her reference. I don't
>recall that James gave a reference from Pearcy's account. Did she
>provide a written source for her
>assertion that Stalin read Darwin in seminary and afterwards became an
>atheist? If she gave a
>reference, then one could check it out and assess the soundness of the
>source. If she did not, then
>I wonder about the quality of her scholarship. How about it, James?
>
>In response to George I said:
>
>[snip] Nancy's footnote says the story was originally told in E.
>Yaroslavsky Landmarks in the Life of stalin, 8-9."
>
>However, i don't know this source.
>
>
I have just been to our library.
Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, by E. Yaroslavsy, 1st English ed. 1942,
Lawrence & Wishhart, London, reads: pp. 8-9. (Stalin was born 21
Dec.1979) " From 1888 to 1894 he attended the eccelesiastical school in
Gori ... While still a schoolboy, Stalin would often talk to workers and
peasants and explain to them the causes of their poverty. G.
Elisabedashvili, a schoolfellow of Stalin's tells how once, while
walking in the country they came upon a group of ploughmen resting in a
field; " ... Comrade Stalin explained step by step why the peasants
lived so poorly, who exploited them, who were their friends and who
their enemies. he spoke so simply and interestingly that the peasants
begged him to come and talk to them."
At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiatical school, he
developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments; he began to read
Darwin and became an atheist.
G. Glurdjidze, a boyhood friend of Stalin's, relates:
" I began to speak of God. Joseph heard me out, and after a moment's
silence said:
" ' You know, they are fooling us, there is no God.....
I'll lend you a book to read; it will show you that the world and all
living things are quite different from what you imagine, and all this
talk about God is sheer nonsense,' Joseph said.
" ' What book is that?" I enquired.
' ' Darwin. You must read it,' Joseph impressed on me."

Judging by the number of copies in our library, the standard biography
of Stalin is
Stalin: A Political Biography, by I. Deutscher, Oxford U.P., New York,
1949. Page 8 reads.
"Official Soviet biographers and memoirists claim that already at Gori
their hero had read Darwin and become an atheist. One may doubt whether
he could have read Darwin at so early an age. But he may have acquired a
vague notion of the theory from popular summaries, and his mind may have
turned against religion.

Joseph Stalin: Man and Legend, by Ronald Hingley, McGraw-Hill, New York,
1974, page 7, wrote:
"Turning from such frivolities to the sensitive topic of politics, we
find one gospeller of the developed Cult period-- Yaroslavsky--
antedating the boy's active interest in this key theme. He has the child
Joseph haranguing the worker and peasants of Gori on the causes of their
poverty ... Yet Stalin himself had virtually disclaimed such political
precociousness when he stated that he had not joined the revolutionary
movement until his sixteenth year. Yaroslavsky may also be improving on
Stalin's own version of the Gospel when he reports G. Glurdzhidze's tale
of the boy Comrade converting his friend to atheism at Gori ... '
...I'll lend you a book to read ..."

Draw your own conclusions about Nancy's scholarship!
Don
Received on Wed Jul 27 00:36:46 2005