000			01305nam a22001457a 4500
999			_c518934 _d518934
008			211227b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aPalat, Madhavan K. _932411
245			_aOf unpersons and persons
260			_aSeminar
300			_a743, Jul, 2021: p.76-80
520			_aStalin was not being original when he chose to make an unperson of Trotsky. It has been common practice since the most ancient times. Victors have attempted to erase the memory of an opponent if the contest has been a zero-sum game culminating in total victory rather than compromise. It seemed possible to do so in the days when record keeping was not reliable or lasting in the manner it has become in modern times. If eradicating all traces of the enemy was not practical, the next best was, and still is, to disfigure their memory and image to the point of denying it any hope of a resurrection, as with Durga plunging the trident into Mahisha’s decapitated torso or St George spearing the squirming dragon. Along with such enduring works of art, the record of any event in the past is eternally disputed as inadequate, distorted, or shamelessly mendacious, and not all the research we do seems to settle a single question. – Reproduced
650			_aStalin, _932412
773			_aSeminar
942			_cAR