If You're Smart, Go Die Now

Dear Comrade Elizabeth,

Intellectuals have an odd habit of stating their opinion. (Trotsky is a good example of such brazen behavior. I doubt he ever imagined his outspokenness would merit an ice pick in his cranium.) The intellectuals who supported the USSR may have been highly influential, but they also lived the most dangerous lives of any of the comrades. When the Bolsheviks first identified the educated, wealthy class as a threat, they began to mobilize against them immediately. There were only two courses of action: either openly support communism or get the hell out of the country, and fast. (Fortunately, an escaping intellectual could use their incredible mental faculties to evade the policemen at the border.) Great-great grandfather on my mother's side was a professor at the University of St. Petersburg and the owner of the Ural Gold Mining Company in Tsarist Russia. Once the Bolsheviks began a series of non-proletariat killings, he realized the urgent need for smart people to flee the country. He split his family in two; my great-great grandmother escaped through Europe with her two eldest children, and he escaped through China with all the young ones, eventually making his way to the United States. Right after they left, there was an attack on St. Petersburg elite. Few survived to see the USSR, although those that did played a huge role in shaping it; in order to enforce the success of the communist state, there couldn't be enough intellectuals to constitute a dissenting class. (God forbid that there would be communist leaders other than Stalin gathering support in the USSR. *cough*Trotsky*cough*)

PS: Our family still doesn't know what came of the people that escaped into Europe. it is possible that we have relatives in France descended from the eldest son, the only member of the family to survive the ordeal.

Lenin's Legacy Continued, or Killing People

Dear Esteemed Partner in Crime AKA Elizabeth,

It's true that the kulaks and Russian intellectuals were not treated as the same kind of population. Stalin would eventually put Kulaks into concentration camps, a measure that was never taken for the educated, noble elite. The elite were still dealt with harshly, in fact, the Bolsheviks adhered to a strict policy of quick arrest and quiet execution. However, both groups proved to be opposition for the new communist regime. This opposition meant that in true communist style, little distinction was made between them. Intellectualism and resources often generate the same sort of power for the lucky holders, so the government's violent course of action seemed quite straightforward. The groups had to be removed. Out of this apparent need came organizations such as the Checka and KGB; such organizations would be most effective after the Kulaks and intellectuals were disposed of because they specialized in picking off dissenting individuals/budding groups. Thus, the communist regime annihilated entire classes without giving the least thought to what distinguished them--in this they accomplished their goals.