Ludo Martens

In 1994, Martens published Another View of Stalin (Un autre regard sur Staline), a positive biography of Joseph Stalin that challenges in particular the commonly accepted view of collectivisation in the USSR and the Great Purge. He explained his motivation for writing the book in the introduction: "Defending Stalin's work, essentially defending Marxism-Leninism, is an important, urgent task in preparing ourselves for class struggle under the New World Order."[2][3]

Several universities such as the University of East Anglia, Sam Houston State University, Leiden University, St. Lawrence University, Baylor University and Kenyon College, have listed Martens works such as Another View of Stalin in their reading list or useful links. The University of East Anglia summarized it as "Stalin apologist makes his case" and the Sam Houston State called it "An Apology for Stalinism". Holocaust Controversies contributor Sergey Romanov has referred to Martens as one of various "brainwashed neo-Stalinists."[4]

Martens writes primarily in French, but his books, especially Another View of Stalin, have been translated into Dutch, English and numerous other languages. In Another View of Stalin, Martens regards as the main factor behind the Ukrainian famine to be bad conditions and alleged class enemies.[5] With regard to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel Gulag Archipelago, Martens stated: "This man became the official voice for the five per cent of Tsarists, bourgeois, speculators, kulaks, pimps, maffiosi and Vlasovites, all justifiably repressed by the socialist state."[6]

The current leadership of the Workers' Party of Belgium, particularly president Peter Mertens in 2016, clearly distanced himself from Martens' vision on Stalin, whom they call "a dictator."[7]

Within the International Communist Movement, Martens is noted for having proposed the unification of the four main tendencies of the Marxist–Leninist movement. These are the pro-Soviet groups, the pro-Chinese, the pro-Albanian and pro-Cuban. In addition, there are independents. Martens has put forward that while at a certain time these separations were important and based on principle, they can now be overcome and the movement can be united on the basis of Marxism–Leninism. In order to develop this unification process, the Workers Party of Belgium used to host the International Communist Seminar in Brussels which is attended by 150 organizations around the world. Martens wrote:

Today, as a result of the restoration of capitalism under Gorbachov, the "pro-Soviet" tendency crumbled into innumerable tendencies. In the sixties, a "pro-Chinese" tendency emerged but split into various tendencies after Mao's death. There has been a "pro-Albanian" tendency, which also split after the collapse of socialism in Albania, and a so-called "pro-Cuban" tendency, mainly in Latin America. Some parties, finally, maintained an "independent" position vis-a-vis the tendencies mentioned. Whatever one's opinion about the correctness or the necessity of these splits at a certain point in history may be, it is nowadays possible to overcome these divisions and to unite the Marxist-Leninist parties, which are divided in different currents.[8]

• Pierre Mulele, ou, La seconde vie de Patrice Lumumba (Antwerp: Éditions EPO, 1985). OCLC 23219832
• Sankara, Compaoré, et la révolution burkinabé (EPO, 1989). ISBN 2-87262-033-8.
• Abo: une femme du Congo (EPO, 1992). ISBN 2-87262-103-2.
• L'U.R.S.S. et la contre-révolution de velours (USSR: The Velvet Counter Revolution) (EPO, 1991). ISBN 2-87262-057-5.
• Un autre regard sur Staline (Another View of Stalin) (EPO, 1994). ISBN 2-87262-081-8.
• Kabila et la révolution congolaise: panafricanisme ou néocolonialisme? (EPO, 2002). ISBN 2-87262-191-1.

• Grover Furr

• Another View of Stalin. Complete and free PDF-download of the text of the book in English.