Ewan MacColl on Stalin and the Ballad of Joe Stalin (Interview)

A different kind of video from usual, but I came upon an interesting clip from an old interview with British communist and popular folk singer, Ewan MacColl, well-known as the writer of the famous Ballad of Ho Chi Minh, where he talks about a song he wrote for the birthday of Stalin for the Communist Party and expresses his own thoughts on Stalin.
A lot of people seem to forget MacColl was an outspoken communist in his day and a supporter of Stalin. In fact, MacColl resigned from the CPGB in protest of de-Stalinisation, later associating with one of the first anti-revisionist magazines in Britain, and in his final years criticising Soviet and Khrushehv-inspired revisionism.

[@McHobotheBobo]

It takes bravery, courage, and a commitment to truth uphold Stalin in the face of the deluge of trash heaped upon Stalin's grave. My love and respect for Ewan MacColl is deepened to know he never broke to anti-Stalin pressure. Funny how anti-communists will make up lies such as MacColl later denouncing Stalin. The nerve. Also glad to have recently seen someone uploaded his original version of the ballad as it had not been available for a very long time!

[@caleblebaron1179]

truth? genocide is truth? tell that to the Jews, "Kulaks", Uyghurs, Tutsi, Roma, Chinese, Russian, Polish or Bosnian people who were victims of crimes against humanity.

[@user-ke7px1oy1c]

@@caleblebaron1179 Are u talking about Nazis? I mean yeah, they were really horrible.

[@zigongosaurus5274]

​@user-ke7px1oy1c No he's talking about the Soviets don't be a smartass

[@crazymangoz9583]

@@caleblebaron1179 love how Kaiser Wilhelm is giving a lecture on genocide. Namibia...?

[@ianbeddowes5362]

We used to sing this in the Marxist-Leninist wing of the British Young Communist League in the 1970s. Recent deep research by Grover Furr and others has shown Stalin to have been right on so much of what happened in the USSR after the death of Lenin and that Krushchev lied on eveey issue that he brought up in his 1956 speech condemning Stalin. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Russian people have rehabilitated Joseph Stalin as have the majority of Communist Parties. Stalin was a remarkable leader who led the modernisation of his country and who, more that any other individual, was responsible for the defeat of Nazi Germany.

[@zheleznodoskyy]

well said!

[@carteriffic1681]

Grover is not a reliable source. He has openly stated against the mass majority of qualified historians that the people tried in the Moscow show trials were all guilty and that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was to preserve poland (???) and that the Katyn massacre was actually mostly carried out by the SS(???). Even fellow marxists like Gregory Elich said that his dislike for Khrushchev “often interferes with his analysis” meaning he’s a heavily biased source. If any of this was true by his part, there would be other historians to collaborate it (none of them did).

[@ianbeddowes5362]

@@carteriffic1681 Qualified historians? You mean those that toe the line rather than rely on evidence? And how about Russian historians -- or do onlu US historians count? As for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, it is pretty clear that without it, the German Army would have penetrated deeper than it did scoring more victories.

[@arbendit4348]

​​@@carteriffic1681The Molotov Ribbentrop pact, was in the words of Stalin in order to preserve peace in Europe. And Stalin did indeed create a Polish state instead of annexing it which he easily could have also done. The rest of the things you claim that he has said I would need a citation for, since it seems like a misrepresentation of Grover's beliefs.

[@arbendit4348]

​@@carteriffic1681Also, just because an opinion is minority doesn't mean it's wrong. That's a falacy

[@simonriley4131]

Fucking based

[@caleblebaron1179]

bootlicking is based?

[@vaibhavsajith4267]

Based

[@caleblebaron1179]

a boot licker

[@blueduncan9522]

Happy to call Ewan a comrade ✊🚩

[@impCaesarAug]

The first time ever I saw Stalin's face, I thought the sun rose in his eyes, and the moon and the stars were the gifts he gave to the dark and the endless skies, comrade.

[@tonysmith4602]

I've uploaded a recording of the original 10inch record: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaS8m3-jgraBfsk

[@georgepittas7680]

just found it thanks to you. I had no idea about Ewan MacColl. I first discovered him some days ago while looking for contemporary recordings of early English or Scottish poetry so at first i heard him on the old ballad "Sir Patrick Spens". Thanks a lot for this treasure.

[@comradecommunicator5159]

Well, no one's perfect.

[@tempejkl]

trotskyism? aint no way

[@qh5163]

especially you

[@Sparkl1ngwater989]

Hell nah, a posadist hippie

[@hughhanson9919]

Oh dear. Poor Ewan.

[@bluecanary1note]

Stalin may have done some modernising things. But if Ewan MacColl seriously wanted the rest of the world to be like Stalinist Russia, that's a scary thought.

[@PabloPopova]

to twoja opinia