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'''Grover Carr Furr III''' (born April 3, 1944) is an American professor of [[Medieval English literature]] at [[Montclair State University]] |
'''Grover Carr Furr III''' (born April 3, 1944) is an American professor of [[Medieval English literature]] at [[Montclair State University]].<ref name="Montclair">{{cite web|title=Grover Furr|url=https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=furrg|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702050119/https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=furrg|archive-date=July 2, 2020|access-date=July 31, 2020|publisher=Montclair State University}}</ref> He was criticized for [[historical denialism|denial]] of [[Stalinism|Stalinist crimes]]<ref>''Anamnesis of Poland's Mnemonic Determinism: Are Historic Narratives Misused to Support Conservative Political Agenda'', Darja Babovic </ref><ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003">{{cite book|last1=Haynes|first1=John Earl|title=In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage|last2=Klehr|first2=Harvey|publisher=Encounter Books|year=2003|isbn=9781893554726|location=San Francisco|pages=26–27}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> He claimed that [[Holodomor]] was a Nazi hoax, that [[Katyn massacre]] was not committed by the Soviet [[NKVD]], that all defendants of [[Moscow Trials]] were guilty as charged, that [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushev]] lied in [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|his speech on the consequences of Stalinist repression]], that [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] was to preserve, rather than attack Poland, and that [[Soviet Union]] did not [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invade Second Polish Republic]]. Furr was accused of academic malpractice for misinforming students. |
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== Beliefs == |
== Beliefs == |
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Born in [[Washington, D.C.]], Furr graduated in 1965 from [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal|Montreal, Quebec]], Canada, with a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in English. He later obtained an [[Master of Arts|MA]] and a [[PhD]] from [[Princeton University]].<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=January 1979|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/diss/disstoc.html|title=The Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose and Fourteenth Century Humanism|type=PhD|publisher=Princeton University|access-date=August 20, 2020|archive-date=August 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820092417/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/diss/disstoc.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Since February 1970, he has been on the faculty at [[Montclair State University]] in New Jersey, where he specializes in medieval English literature.<ref name="Montclair" /> Furr has been described by historians [[John Earl Haynes]] and [[Harvey Klehr]] as a [[historical revisionist]] who "lauded the creation of Communist regimes" in Europe and Asia because "billions of workers all over the world are exploited, murdered, tortured, oppressed by capitalism.<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003" /> |
Born in [[Washington, D.C.]], Furr graduated in 1965 from [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal|Montreal, Quebec]], Canada, with a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in English. He later obtained an [[Master of Arts|MA]] and a [[PhD]] from [[Princeton University]].<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=January 1979|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/diss/disstoc.html|title=The Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose and Fourteenth Century Humanism|type=PhD|publisher=Princeton University|access-date=August 20, 2020|archive-date=August 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820092417/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/diss/disstoc.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Since February 1970, he has been on the faculty at [[Montclair State University]] in New Jersey, where he specializes in medieval English literature.<ref name="Montclair" /> Furr has been described by historians [[John Earl Haynes]] and [[Harvey Klehr]] as a [[historical revisionist]] who "lauded the creation of Communist regimes" in Europe and Asia because "billions of workers all over the world are exploited, murdered, tortured, oppressed by capitalism.<ref name="Haynes & Klehr 2003" /> Furr's books, especially on the Katyn massacre, have been cited in Russia as confirmation that the revisionist views are also "supported by foreign historians."<ref name="Ivanov 2017"/> Historian [[Jarosław Szarek]], president of the Polish [[Institute of National Remembrance]], condemned Furr's work as denying Soviet war crimes, comparing it to "the scandalous manifestations of Holocaust denial".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Remembrance|first=Institute of National|title=Open letter of the President of the Institute of National Remembrance to prof. Grover Furr and Montclair State University Autohorities|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/1138,Open-letter-of-the-President-of-the-Institute-of-National-Remembrance-to-prof-Gr.html|access-date=2021-04-28|website=Institute of National Remembrance|language=pl}}</ref> |
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=== Holodomor === |
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⚫ | In a ''[[CounterPunch]]'' article published in March 2017, Furr argued that "[t]here was a very serious [[Soviet famine of 1932–33|famine in the USSR]], including (but not limited to) the Ukrainian SSR, in 1932-33. But there has never been any evidence of a '[[Holodomor]]' or '[[Holodomor genocide question|deliberate famine]],' and there is none today. The 'Holodomor' fiction was invented by [[Collaboration in German-occupied Ukraine|Ukrainian Nazi collaborators]] who found havens in Western Europe, Canada, and the USA after the war."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=March 3, 2017|title=The 'Holodomor' and the Film 'Bitter Harvest' are Fascist Lies|url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/the-holodomor-and-the-film-bitter-harvest-are-fascist-lies/|url-status=live|magazine=CounterPunch|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814030840/https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/the-holodomor-and-the-film-bitter-harvest-are-fascist-lies/|archive-date=August 14, 2020|access-date=July 31, 2020}}</ref> The portrayal of the Holodomor as a Nazi hoax was used in Soviet propaganda of the late 1980s, abandoned when state archives were opened up under [[glasnost]], but revived in Russian media after the [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexation of Crimea]].<ref>{{Cite Q|Q105099873|pages=338–39, 343}}</ref> |
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Furr has argued that the [[Katyn massacre]] was committed by the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] rather than by the Soviet [[NKVD]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2013|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf|title=The 'Official' Version of the Katyn Massacre Disproven?|journal=Socialism and Democracy|volume=27|issue=2|pages=96–129|doi=10.1080/08854300.2013.795268|s2cid=141695301|access-date=August 4, 2020|archive-date=August 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818072528/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ivanov 2017">{{cite news|last=Ivanov|first=Valery|date=April 2, 2017|url=http://newsbalt.ru/analytics/2017/04/katynskiy-rasstrel-prodolzhateli-dela-gebbelsa/|title=Катынский расстрел: продолжатели дела Геббельса|script-title=ru:Katynskiy rasstrel: prodolzhateli dela Gebbel'sa|trans-title=Katyn Execution: The Successors of the Goebbels Case|website=NewsBalt|language=ru|access-date=April 18, 2017|archive-date=April 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418162023/http://newsbalt.ru/analytics/2017/04/katynskiy-rasstrel-prodolzhateli-dela-gebbelsa/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Furr, some Poles were likely killed by the Soviets in retaliation for their treatment of Russian prisoners of war and other civilians which is part of [[controversies of the Polish–Soviet War]] while the Nazis shot the others later.<ref>{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=August 6, 2013|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/truthaboutkatyn.html|title=The Katyn Forest Whodunnit|publisher=Montclair State University|access-date=August 3, 2020|archive-date=September 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922015607/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/truthaboutkatyn.html|url-status=live}}</ref> For Furr, all defendants of the [[Moscow Trials]] were at least guilty of what they were charged of.<ref>{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=July 31, 2010|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/trials_ezhovshchina_update0710.html|title=The Moscow Trials and the 'Great Terror' of 1937–1938: What the Evidence Shows|publisher=Montclair State University|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701094904/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/%7Efurrg/research/trials_ezhovshchina_update0710.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=September 2017|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/yvs_jls2017.pdf|title=Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937-1938 in the USSR|journal=Labor and Society|volume=20|issue=3|pages=325–347|doi=10.1111/wusa.12297|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909013450/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/yvs_jls2017.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Furr's books, especially on the Katyn massacre, have been cited in Russia as confirmation that the revisionist views are also "supported by foreign historians."<ref name="Ivanov 2017"/> Historian [[Jarosław Szarek]], president of the Polish [[Institute of National Remembrance]], condemned Furr's work as denying Soviet war crimes, comparing it to "the scandalous manifestations of Holocaust denial".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Remembrance|first=Institute of National|title=Open letter of the President of the Institute of National Remembrance to prof. Grover Furr and Montclair State University Autohorities|url=https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/1138,Open-letter-of-the-President-of-the-Institute-of-National-Remembrance-to-prof-Gr.html|access-date=2021-04-28|website=Institute of National Remembrance|language=pl}}</ref> |
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===Stalinist trials=== |
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=== Soviet invasion of Poland === |
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According to Furr, all old Bolshevik defendants of the [[Moscow Trials]] were guilty of espionage and treason, exactly as they were charged of.<ref>{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=July 31, 2010|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/trials_ezhovshchina_update0710.html|title=The Moscow Trials and the 'Great Terror' of 1937–1938: What the Evidence Shows|publisher=Montclair State University|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=July 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701094904/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/%7Efurrg/research/trials_ezhovshchina_update0710.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=September 2017|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/yvs_jls2017.pdf|title=Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937-1938 in the USSR|journal=Labor and Society|volume=20|issue=3|pages=325–347|doi=10.1111/wusa.12297|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date=September 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909013450/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/yvs_jls2017.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Regarding the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] in September 1939, Furr states that the [[Soviet Union]] did not actually |
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=== Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact === |
=== Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Soviet invasion of Poland === |
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Furr states that |
Furr states that the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] was signed by the sides to preserve an independent Poland rather than planning a partition of Poland as has been in fact stipulated in the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop_Pact#Secret_protocol|secret protocols to the Soviet-Nazi agreement]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/no_partition.html|title=The Secret Protocols to the M-R Pact Did Not Plan Any Partition of Poland|publisher=Montclair State University|date=2012|access-date=August 20, 2020|archive-date=January 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117161940/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/no_partition.html|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Regarding the [[Soviet invasion of Poland]] in September 1939, Furr states that the [[Soviet Union]] did not actually [[Soviet invasion of Poland|invade Second Polish Republic]] because it no longer had a government and was not a state according to [[international law]], further arguing that "at the time it was widely acknowledged that no such invasion occurred". Furr believes Poland no longer existed because the Polish government was interned in Romania, making Poland not a state. According to Furr, the Polish government did not declare war on the Soviet Union and only declared war on [[Nazi Germany]] as did Britain and France. Britain did not demand the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops and France had a mutual defense treaty with Poland. Secondly, the Polish [[General Inspector of the Armed Forces]] [[Edward Rydz-Śmigły]] ordered Polish soldiers not to fight the Soviets and instead to continue fighting the Germans while the Polish president [[Ignacy Mościcki]], who was interned in Romania since September 17, 1939, tacitly admitted that Poland no longer had a government and maintained its stance of neutrality. Finally, Furr writes that the [[League of Nations]] did not determine the Soviet Union had invaded a member state and accepted the Soviet declaration of neutrality while it voted to expel the Soviets when the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the [[Winter War]].<ref name="Furr 2009">{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=2009|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/did_ussr_invade_poland.html|title=Did the Soviet Union Invade Poland in September 1939?|publisher=Montclair State University|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=August 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200823104600/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/mlg09/did_ussr_invade_poland.html|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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=== Holodomor === |
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⚫ | In a ''[[CounterPunch]]'' article published in March 2017, Furr argued that "[t]here was a very serious [[Soviet famine of 1932–33|famine in the USSR]], including (but not limited to) the Ukrainian SSR, in 1932-33. But there has never been any evidence of a '[[Holodomor]]' or '[[Holodomor genocide question|deliberate famine]],' and there is none today. The 'Holodomor' fiction was invented by [[Collaboration in German-occupied Ukraine|Ukrainian Nazi collaborators]] who found havens in Western Europe, Canada, and the USA after the war."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=March 3, 2017|title=The 'Holodomor' and the Film 'Bitter Harvest' are Fascist Lies|url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/the-holodomor-and-the-film-bitter-harvest-are-fascist-lies/|url-status=live|magazine=CounterPunch|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814030840/https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/03/the-holodomor-and-the-film-bitter-harvest-are-fascist-lies/|archive-date=August 14, 2020|access-date=July 31, 2020}}</ref> The portrayal of the Holodomor as a Nazi hoax was used in Soviet propaganda of the late 1980s, abandoned when state archives were opened up under [[glasnost]], but revived in Russian media after the [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexation of Crimea]].<ref>{{Cite Q|Q105099873|pages=338–39, 343}}</ref> |
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=== |
=== Katyn massacre === |
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Furr has |
Furr has argued that the [[Katyn massacre]] was committed by the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] rather than by the Soviet [[NKVD]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2013|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf|title=The 'Official' Version of the Katyn Massacre Disproven?|journal=Socialism and Democracy|volume=27|issue=2|pages=96–129|doi=10.1080/08854300.2013.795268|s2cid=141695301|access-date=August 4, 2020|archive-date=August 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818072528/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/furr_katyn_preprint_0813.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ivanov 2017">{{cite news|last=Ivanov|first=Valery|date=April 2, 2017|url=http://newsbalt.ru/analytics/2017/04/katynskiy-rasstrel-prodolzhateli-dela-gebbelsa/|title=Катынский расстрел: продолжатели дела Геббельса|script-title=ru:Katynskiy rasstrel: prodolzhateli dela Gebbel'sa|trans-title=Katyn Execution: The Successors of the Goebbels Case|website=NewsBalt|language=ru|access-date=April 18, 2017|archive-date=April 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170418162023/http://newsbalt.ru/analytics/2017/04/katynskiy-rasstrel-prodolzhateli-dela-gebbelsa/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Furr, some Poles were likely killed by the Soviets in retaliation for their treatment of Russian prisoners of war and other civilians which is part of [[controversies of the Polish–Soviet War]] while the Nazis shot the others later.<ref>{{cite web|last=Furr|first=Grover|date=August 6, 2013|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/truthaboutkatyn.html|title=The Katyn Forest Whodunnit|publisher=Montclair State University|access-date=August 3, 2020|archive-date=September 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922015607/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/truthaboutkatyn.html|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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== Reception == |
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=== Khrushchev Lied === |
=== Khrushchev Lied === |
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Furr's book ''Khrushchev Lied'' attacked the speech given by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] called "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences]]", more commonly referred to in the West as the "Secret Speech". According to a review of the book by Sven-Eric Holmstrom in the ''Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy'', "Furr identifies 61 allegations in Khrushchev's speech. He concludes that, with only one minor exception, every one of them is demonstrably false. In essence, Furr claims to have proven that this 'speech of the century' is a fraud from beginning to end." While noting that "the book has some formal weaknesses", Holmstrom declared it to be a valuable contribution to the "historical revisionist" school of [[Soviet and Communist studies]] and that "Furr is formally proclaiming a 'paradigm shift' for which evidence has been accumulating over many years. Furr's (and Bobrov's) work may be seen as building on that of the 'revisionists' (called 'Young Turks' when they first appeared in the mid-80s)."<ref>{{cite web|last=Holmstrom|first=Sven-Eric|date=August 2, 2013|title=Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied (Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press & Media LLC, 2011|url=http://sdonline.org/59/grover-furr-khrushchev-lied-kettering-ohio-erythros-press-media-llc-2011/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216101215/http://sdonline.org/59/grover-furr-khrushchev-lied-kettering-ohio-erythros-press-media-llc-2011/|archive-date=December 16, 2018|access-date=July 31, 2020|website=Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy}}</ref> |
Furr's book ''Khrushchev Lied'' attacked the speech given by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] called "[[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences]]", more commonly referred to in the West as the "Secret Speech". According to a review of the book by Sven-Eric Holmstrom in the ''Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy'', "Furr identifies 61 allegations in Khrushchev's speech. He concludes that, with only one minor exception, every one of them is demonstrably false. In essence, Furr claims to have proven that this 'speech of the century' is a fraud from beginning to end." While noting that "the book has some formal weaknesses", Holmstrom declared it to be a valuable contribution to the "historical revisionist" school of [[Soviet and Communist studies]] and that "Furr is formally proclaiming a 'paradigm shift' for which evidence has been accumulating over many years. Furr's (and Bobrov's) work may be seen as building on that of the 'revisionists' (called 'Young Turks' when they first appeared in the mid-80s)."<ref>{{cite web|last=Holmstrom|first=Sven-Eric|date=August 2, 2013|title=Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied (Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press & Media LLC, 2011|url=http://sdonline.org/59/grover-furr-khrushchev-lied-kettering-ohio-erythros-press-media-llc-2011/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216101215/http://sdonline.org/59/grover-furr-khrushchev-lied-kettering-ohio-erythros-press-media-llc-2011/|archive-date=December 16, 2018|access-date=July 31, 2020|website=Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy}}</ref> According to reviewer Gregory Elich, "More often than not, he fails in the logic of his arguments", but the book unearths new documents and makes them available in translation which does a service to history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Elich |first1=Gregory |title=Review of Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence that Every "Revelation" of Stalin's (and Beria's) "Crimes" in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Probably False |journal=Science & Society |date=2014 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=398–401 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583594?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents |issn=0036-8237}}</ref> |
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=== Accusations of academic malpractice === |
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According to reviewer Gregory Elich, "More often than not, he fails in the logic of his arguments", but the book unearths new documents and makes them available in translation which does a service to history.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Elich |first1=Gregory |title=Review of Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence that Every "Revelation" of Stalin's (and Beria's) "Crimes" in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Probably False |journal=Science & Society |date=2014 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=398–401 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24583594?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents |issn=0036-8237}}</ref> |
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Furr has been accused of academic malpractice by historian [[Ronald Radosh]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Radosh|first=Ronald|date=November 13, 2012|url=https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/11/13/academic-malpractice-the-case-of-grover-furr-n184232|title=Academic Malpractice: The Case of Grover Furr|website=PJ Media|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=June 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611162006/https://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/11/13/academic-malpractice-the-case-of-grover-furr-n184232|url-status=live}}</ref> During a public debate in a university campus, Furr said that "I have yet to find one crime — yet to find one crime — that Stalin committed. […] I know they all say he killed 20, 30, 40 million people — it is bullshit. […] Goebbels said that the [[Big Lie]] is successful and this is the Big Lie: that the Communists — that Stalin killed millions of people and that socialism is no good." Furr referred to [[Nazi propaganda]] because a mediator of the discussion suggested that Furr was using tactics invented by [[Joseph Goebbels]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Gehrke|first=Joel|date=November 13, 2012|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/your-tax-dollars-at-work-prof-says-stalin-did-not-kill-millions-of-people-thats-the-big-lie|title=Your tax dollars at work: Prof says Stalin did not kill millions of people — that's 'the Big Lie'|newspaper=Washington Examiner|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=June 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611162034/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/your-tax-dollars-at-work-prof-says-stalin-did-not-kill-millions-of-people-thats-the-big-lie|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Dreher|first=Rod|date=November 26, 2012|url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/they-lied-nobody-died/|title='They Lied, Nobody Died'|newspaper=The American Conservative|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=June 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611172345/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/they-lied-nobody-died/|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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== His books == |
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=== English === |
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* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2011|title=Khrushchev Lied. The Evidence that Every Revelation of Stalin's (and Beria's) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous Secret Speech to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Provably False|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780615441054}} |
* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2011|title=Khrushchev Lied. The Evidence that Every Revelation of Stalin's (and Beria's) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous Secret Speech to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Provably False|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780615441054}} |
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* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2013|title=The Murder of Sergei Kirov: History, Scholarship and the Anti-Stalin Paradigm|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780615802015}} |
* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2013|title=The Murder of Sergei Kirov: History, Scholarship and the Anti-Stalin Paradigm|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780615802015}} |
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* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2020|title=New Evidence of Trotsky's Conspiracy|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780578649764}} |
* {{cite book|last=Furr|first=Grover|year=2020|title=New Evidence of Trotsky's Conspiracy|location=Kettering, Ohio|publisher=Erythros Press and Media|isbn=9780578649764}} |
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== See also == |
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*[[Ludo Martens]] |
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== References == |
== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
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Revision as of 15:19, 17 May 2021
Grover Carr Furr III (born April 3, 1944) is an American professor of Medieval English literature at Montclair State University.[1] He was criticized for denial of Stalinist crimes[2][3][4] He claimed that Holodomor was a Nazi hoax, that Katyn massacre was not committed by the Soviet NKVD, that all defendants of Moscow Trials were guilty as charged, that Khrushev lied in his speech on the consequences of Stalinist repression, that Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was to preserve, rather than attack Poland, and that Soviet Union did not invade Second Polish Republic. Furr was accused of academic malpractice for misinforming students.
Beliefs
Born in Washington, D.C., Furr graduated in 1965 from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with a BA in English. He later obtained an MA and a PhD from Princeton University.[5] Since February 1970, he has been on the faculty at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where he specializes in medieval English literature.[1] Furr has been described by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr as a historical revisionist who "lauded the creation of Communist regimes" in Europe and Asia because "billions of workers all over the world are exploited, murdered, tortured, oppressed by capitalism.[3] Furr's books, especially on the Katyn massacre, have been cited in Russia as confirmation that the revisionist views are also "supported by foreign historians."[6] Historian Jarosław Szarek, president of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, condemned Furr's work as denying Soviet war crimes, comparing it to "the scandalous manifestations of Holocaust denial".[4]
Holodomor
In a CounterPunch article published in March 2017, Furr argued that "[t]here was a very serious famine in the USSR, including (but not limited to) the Ukrainian SSR, in 1932-33. But there has never been any evidence of a 'Holodomor' or 'deliberate famine,' and there is none today. The 'Holodomor' fiction was invented by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators who found havens in Western Europe, Canada, and the USA after the war."[7] The portrayal of the Holodomor as a Nazi hoax was used in Soviet propaganda of the late 1980s, abandoned when state archives were opened up under glasnost, but revived in Russian media after the annexation of Crimea.[8]
Stalinist trials
According to Furr, all old Bolshevik defendants of the Moscow Trials were guilty of espionage and treason, exactly as they were charged of.[9][10]
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and Soviet invasion of Poland
Furr states that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed by the sides to preserve an independent Poland rather than planning a partition of Poland as has been in fact stipulated in the secret protocols to the Soviet-Nazi agreement.[11]
Regarding the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, Furr states that the Soviet Union did not actually invade Second Polish Republic because it no longer had a government and was not a state according to international law, further arguing that "at the time it was widely acknowledged that no such invasion occurred". Furr believes Poland no longer existed because the Polish government was interned in Romania, making Poland not a state. According to Furr, the Polish government did not declare war on the Soviet Union and only declared war on Nazi Germany as did Britain and France. Britain did not demand the Soviet Union to withdraw its troops and France had a mutual defense treaty with Poland. Secondly, the Polish General Inspector of the Armed Forces Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered Polish soldiers not to fight the Soviets and instead to continue fighting the Germans while the Polish president Ignacy Mościcki, who was interned in Romania since September 17, 1939, tacitly admitted that Poland no longer had a government and maintained its stance of neutrality. Finally, Furr writes that the League of Nations did not determine the Soviet Union had invaded a member state and accepted the Soviet declaration of neutrality while it voted to expel the Soviets when the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the Winter War.[12]
Katyn massacre
Furr has argued that the Katyn massacre was committed by the Nazis rather than by the Soviet NKVD.[13][6] According to Furr, some Poles were likely killed by the Soviets in retaliation for their treatment of Russian prisoners of war and other civilians which is part of controversies of the Polish–Soviet War while the Nazis shot the others later.[14]
Khrushchev Lied
Furr's book Khrushchev Lied attacked the speech given by Nikita Khrushchev called "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences", more commonly referred to in the West as the "Secret Speech". According to a review of the book by Sven-Eric Holmstrom in the Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy, "Furr identifies 61 allegations in Khrushchev's speech. He concludes that, with only one minor exception, every one of them is demonstrably false. In essence, Furr claims to have proven that this 'speech of the century' is a fraud from beginning to end." While noting that "the book has some formal weaknesses", Holmstrom declared it to be a valuable contribution to the "historical revisionist" school of Soviet and Communist studies and that "Furr is formally proclaiming a 'paradigm shift' for which evidence has been accumulating over many years. Furr's (and Bobrov's) work may be seen as building on that of the 'revisionists' (called 'Young Turks' when they first appeared in the mid-80s)."[15] According to reviewer Gregory Elich, "More often than not, he fails in the logic of his arguments", but the book unearths new documents and makes them available in translation which does a service to history.[16]
Accusations of academic malpractice
Furr has been accused of academic malpractice by historian Ronald Radosh.[17] During a public debate in a university campus, Furr said that "I have yet to find one crime — yet to find one crime — that Stalin committed. […] I know they all say he killed 20, 30, 40 million people — it is bullshit. […] Goebbels said that the Big Lie is successful and this is the Big Lie: that the Communists — that Stalin killed millions of people and that socialism is no good." Furr referred to Nazi propaganda because a mediator of the discussion suggested that Furr was using tactics invented by Joseph Goebbels.[18][19]
His books
- Furr, Grover (2011). Khrushchev Lied. The Evidence that Every Revelation of Stalin's (and Beria's) Crimes in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous Secret Speech to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Provably False. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780615441054.
- Furr, Grover (2013). The Murder of Sergei Kirov: History, Scholarship and the Anti-Stalin Paradigm. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780615802015.
- Furr, Grover (2014). Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands Is False. Plus: What Really Happened in: the Famine of 1932–33; the Polish Operation; the Great Terror; the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; the Soviet Invasion of Poland; the Katyn Massacre; the Warsaw Uprising; and Stalin's Anti-Semitism. New York City, New York: Red Star Publishers. ISBN 9780692200995.
- Furr, Grover (2015). Trotsky's Amalgams. Trotsky's Lies, The Moscow Trials as Evidence, The Dewey Commission. Trotsky's Conspiracies of the 1930s, Volume One. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780692582244.
- Furr, Grover (2016). Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Truth About Mass Repressions and the So-Called Great Terror in the USSR. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780692810507.
- Furr, Grover (2017). Leon Trotsky's Collaboration with Germany and Japan. Trotsky's Conspiracies of the 1930s, Volume Two. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780692945735.
- Furr, Grover (2018). The Fraud of the Dewey Commission. New York City, New York: Red Star Publishers. ISBN 9781722702243.
- Furr, Grover (2018). The Moscow Trials as Evidence. New York City, New York: Red Star Publishers. ISBN 9781722842123.
- Furr, Grover (2018). The Mystery of the Katyn Massacre: The Evidence, The Solution. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780692134252.
- Furr, Grover (2019). Stalin: Waiting for ... the Truth! Exposing the Falsehoods in Stephen Kotkin's Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941. New York City, New York: Red Star Publishers. ISBN 9780578445533.
- Furr, Grover (2019). Trotsky's Lies. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780578521046.
- Furr, Grover (2020). New Evidence of Trotsky's Conspiracy. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. ISBN 9780578649764.
References
- ^ a b "Grover Furr". Montclair State University. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Anamnesis of Poland's Mnemonic Determinism: Are Historic Narratives Misused to Support Conservative Political Agenda, Darja Babovic
- ^ a b Haynes, John Earl; Klehr, Harvey (2003). In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage. San Francisco: Encounter Books. pp. 26–27. ISBN 9781893554726.
- ^ a b Remembrance, Institute of National. "Open letter of the President of the Institute of National Remembrance to prof. Grover Furr and Montclair State University Autohorities". Institute of National Remembrance (in Polish). Retrieved April 28, 2021.
- ^ Furr, Grover (January 1979). The Quarrel of the Roman de la Rose and Fourteenth Century Humanism (PhD). Princeton University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- ^ a b Ivanov, Valery (April 2, 2017). "Катынский расстрел: продолжатели дела Геббельса" Katynskiy rasstrel: prodolzhateli dela Gebbel'sa [Katyn Execution: The Successors of the Goebbels Case]. NewsBalt (in Russian). Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
- ^ Furr, Grover (March 3, 2017). "The 'Holodomor' and the Film 'Bitter Harvest' are Fascist Lies". CounterPunch. Archived from the original on August 14, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Anne Applebaum (2017). Red famine: Stalin’s war on Ukraine. p. 338–39, 343. ISBN 978-0-385-53885-5. LCCN 2017029952. OL 26935259M. Wikidata Q105099873.
- ^ Furr, Grover (July 31, 2010). "The Moscow Trials and the 'Great Terror' of 1937–1938: What the Evidence Shows". Montclair State University. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Furr, Grover (September 2017). "Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937-1938 in the USSR" (PDF). Labor and Society. 20 (3): 325–347. doi:10.1111/wusa.12297. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 9, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
- ^ Furr, Grover (2012). "The Secret Protocols to the M-R Pact Did Not Plan Any Partition of Poland". Montclair State University. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
- ^ Furr, Grover (2009). "Did the Soviet Union Invade Poland in September 1939?". Montclair State University. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Furr, Grover (2013). "The 'Official' Version of the Katyn Massacre Disproven?" (PDF). Socialism and Democracy. 27 (2): 96–129. doi:10.1080/08854300.2013.795268. S2CID 141695301. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
- ^ Furr, Grover (August 6, 2013). "The Katyn Forest Whodunnit". Montclair State University. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
- ^ Holmstrom, Sven-Eric (August 2, 2013). "Grover Furr, Khrushchev Lied (Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press & Media LLC, 2011". Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy. Archived from the original on December 16, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Elich, Gregory (2014). "Review of Khrushchev Lied: The Evidence that Every "Revelation" of Stalin's (and Beria's) "Crimes" in Nikita Khrushchev's Infamous "Secret Speech" to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on February 25, 1956, Is Probably False". Science & Society. 78 (3): 398–401. ISSN 0036-8237.
- ^ Radosh, Ronald (November 13, 2012). "Academic Malpractice: The Case of Grover Furr". PJ Media. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Gehrke, Joel (November 13, 2012). "Your tax dollars at work: Prof says Stalin did not kill millions of people — that's 'the Big Lie'". Washington Examiner. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
- ^ Dreher, Rod (November 26, 2012). "'They Lied, Nobody Died'". The American Conservative. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.