How to create a synthesis of all the Best traditions of our beloved Motherland and the best achievements of International Proletarian Movement? Here is how. Nehru shows the way.
(SELECT CHAPTERS FROM 'GLIMPSES OF WORLD HISTORY')
9) STALIN AND RUSSIA’S FIVE YEAR PLANS
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Death of Marshal Stalin
March 5, 1953
By Jawaharlal Nehru
The Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs (Shri Jawaharlal Nehru):
When we think of Marshal Stalin, all kinds of thoughts come to our minds, at least to my mind, and the panorama of history for the last 35 years passes before our eyes. All of us here are children of this age and have been affected by it in many ways. We have grown up not only participating in our struggles in this country but participating in another way with the mighty struggles that have taken place in this world, and been affected by them.
And so looking back at these 35 years or so, many figures stand out, but perhaps no single figure has moulded and affected and influenced the history of these years more than Marshal Stalin. He became gradually almost a legendary figure, sometimes a man of mystery, at other times a person who had an intimate bond not with a few but with vast numbers of persons. He proved himself great in peace and in war. He showed an indomitable will and courage which few possess, but perhaps when history comes to be written many things will be said about him and I do not know what opinions, what varying opinions, subsequent generations may record, but every one will agree that here was a man of giant stature, a man such as few who had molded the destinies of his age, a man – although he succeeded greatly in war – who ultimately would be remembered by the way he built up his great country.
I do not know what the future will hold, but undoubtedly even though Marshal Stalin has passed away, because of the great hold he had on peoples’ minds and even hearts, his influence and memory will continue to exercise peoples’ minds and inspire them.
Marshal Stalin was something much more than the head of a State. He was great in his own right way, whether he occupied the office or not. I believe that his influence was exercised generally in favour of peace. When war came he proved himself a very great warrior, but from all the information that we have had ,his influence had been in favour of peace.
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"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
( a poem by Howard Fast....jotted down in Nehru's diary)
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