Mikhail Baitalsky’s ‘Notebooks for the Grandchildren’

Translator Marilyn Vogt-Downey presents a poignant memoir by Mikhail Baitalsky, a Ukrainian survivor of the 1930s purges in Soviet Union. Notebooks for the Grandchildren: Recollections of a Supporter of the Marxist Opposition to Stalin Who Survived the Stalin Terror is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking to understand what went wrong after the great Russian Revolution of 1917. Through the eyes of young Ukrainians like himself, who came of age fighting for the Revolution but were murdered in the late 1930s, Baitalsky recounts the Revolution’s hopes—and its tragic unraveling under Stalin. He narrates how Stalin rose to power and carried out the “political counterrevolution” that silenced so many. Arrested three times by the Stalin regime, Baitalsky survived to tell this story.

Marilyn Vogt-Downey translated for the Writings of Leon Trotsky series (1970s) for Pathfinder Press and Samizdat: Voices of the Soviet Opposition (1974) and was a contributor to the Bulletin in Defense of Marxism (1990s) as well as to Truthout and Counterpunch. She taught high school economics and foreign policy in NYC for 26 years and is currently a delegate to the United Federation of Teachers Retiree Chapter.