Alan Knight, Chris Hardman and Milan Svanderlik respond to plans for a ‘museum of communist terror’
You might think that the “fervent Brexiters” who are now busy creating a “museum of communist terror” might better spend their time addressing the fine mess that their last cause has got us into before they move on to their next brand of snake oil (Brexiters buy KGB artefacts for ‘museum of communist terror’, 28 February).
Judging by the list of exhibits, their notional museum is in fact one of Soviet/Stalinist terror; and, like most cock-eyed cold warriors, they forget that communism was a multifaceted global phenomenon that, beyond the Gulag, inspired not only writers (Neruda, Brecht, Césaire), painters (Picasso, Rivera, Siqueiros), historians (Hill, Thompson, CLR James) and social theorists (Gramsci, Luxemburg, Mariátegui), but also resolute anti-colonial and anti-fascist movements (including a large chunk of the French resistance). Critically commemorate communism by all means, but don’t cherry-pick the nasty bits.
Alan Knight
Emeritus professor, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford
