The following is a conversation between the author, Robert Kaplan, and Sylviu Brucan, adviser to Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and ghostwriter for Nicolae Ceaușescu (2 dictators of Romania),
""Why did you becomes a Communist?"
"I was not a Communist - I was a Stalinist. Stalin was a highly repressive, intolerant individual, one of the great killers of history. I was attracted to him. Stalin was my only hope against Hitler and the Gestapo torturers: Stalinism was the national opposition in Romania to dominance from Germany. You were nowhere, " referring to United States, which, Brucan noted, did not enter the war until the Nazis were at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad, and then only after Hitler had declared war on America..." I would listen to Stalin over the radio from prison," Brucan continued. "My admiration for him was total, organic. Even when I first began to become aware of his crimes, I still admired him. He was efficient. In this part of the world, you admire someone who is able to get things done. That's why at the beginning of my career I thought communism could do things. if it was cruel, I did not object, because I was one of the beneficiaries. It was convenient for me personally. I had all sorts of perks - villas on the Black Sea and in the Carpathians. Such benefits diminish critical thinking. Until the Khrushchev report [of Stalin's crimes in 1956], I was prepared to forgive Stalin anything. Because it offers freedom of thought, democracy with all its weaknesses, I now realize, prevents the abuse of power."
Reference: Kaplan, Robert D. 2000. Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. New York: Random House. Pages 40-41.
""Why did you becomes a Communist?"
"I was not a Communist - I was a Stalinist. Stalin was a highly repressive, intolerant individual, one of the great killers of history. I was attracted to him. Stalin was my only hope against Hitler and the Gestapo torturers: Stalinism was the national opposition in Romania to dominance from Germany. You were nowhere, " referring to United States, which, Brucan noted, did not enter the war until the Nazis were at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad, and then only after Hitler had declared war on America..." I would listen to Stalin over the radio from prison," Brucan continued. "My admiration for him was total, organic. Even when I first began to become aware of his crimes, I still admired him. He was efficient. In this part of the world, you admire someone who is able to get things done. That's why at the beginning of my career I thought communism could do things. if it was cruel, I did not object, because I was one of the beneficiaries. It was convenient for me personally. I had all sorts of perks - villas on the Black Sea and in the Carpathians. Such benefits diminish critical thinking. Until the Khrushchev report [of Stalin's crimes in 1956], I was prepared to forgive Stalin anything. Because it offers freedom of thought, democracy with all its weaknesses, I now realize, prevents the abuse of power."
Reference: Kaplan, Robert D. 2000. Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. New York: Random House. Pages 40-41.