- By Jack Smith IV, Staff Writer
A YouTube video of a Montclair professor at a public debate has sparked the attention of national and local news outlets, resulting in both public outcry and marked sensationalism.
In the video, the professor is addressed a question regarding genocides committed by communist regimes in the past hundred years, which grows into a shouting match between the professor and the questioner. “The United States has the lowest standard of living of all of the industrialized countries,” says the professor at the end of the video, “and they all have some form of Socialized healthcare, and you should have it too!”
The professor was Grover Furr, who has been with Montclair State for 43 years, and teaches classes like History of Journalism, World Literature and History of the English Language.
Outside of his capacities as an English professor, his research specialty has been the communist regimes of the 20th century, where he holds a number of controversial positions.
One popular contention is his claim that Stalin, who is historically recognized as a genocidal mass-murderer, never actually perpetrated any of the alleged atrocities. “I have yet to find one crime,” he shouts in the video, “one crime that Stalin committed!”
The video is hosted by ‘YAliberty,’ with a description that reads “Let’s make this video go viral.” It has 37,000+ views to date.
Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) is a national organization for politically libertarian students. A relatively new activist organization, it has grown rapidly in the past four years, expanding to 300 chapters representing 26,000 students across the nation, a testament to the burgeoning American libertarian movement.
After the publishing of the video on their official YouTube channel, Jeff Frazee, the executive director and founder of YAL and the former National Youth Coordinator for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign released a statement claiming Furr was teaching Stalinism to students. When Furr responded to YAL on this statement, Frazee, arguably one of the most important libertarian youth leaders in the country, personally responded with one sentence, “You are a sick man for denying the deaths of millions of innocent people and should be exposed for such.”
During the recent election season, YAL sponsored a series of debates held at seven universities, and it was at this debate that the video of Prof. Furr was taken. “During the first few days, I watched the video rise in popularity, from 7,000 views to 12,000 views to 25,000 views, and so on,” said Anthony Celi, Vice President of the local YAL chapter. “It was very exciting to see our event get national coverage. We worked long and hard to put that debate together.”
This coverage, however, was mostly due to the circulation it was receiving among a variety of conservative-leaning news sources and independent bloggers. The video had indeed gone viral, and with a very particular audience.
The Washington Examiner, a daily paper with a circulation of a few hundred thousand, ran the headline on its site “Your Tax Dollars At Work: prof says Stalin did not kill millions of people – that’s ‘the Big Lie.’” The video itself is called “‘Communist Denier’ teaches students.” The title’s implications, however, are that Grover Furr uses his platform as a professor to teach communism or Stalinism to his students, a possibly spurious allegation.
All of this media attention caught the eye of Arthur V. Belenduik, a lawyer from Washington D.C. Belenduik’s field is communications and he has been practicing law for decades. “If the FCC regulates it, it’s the kind of work I do.” Arthur Belenduik is also a first-generation Ukranian American.
“When Stalin was rolling his tanks into Eastern Europe, my parents were running for their lives,” he said. “My aunt spent five years in a concentration camp under Stalin. I’ve seen what he can do first hand.” It wasn’t long after the video went online that Belenduik was receiving emails from Ukranian friends about Prof. Furr. The prospect that someone making claims that Stalin never committed “one crime” was teaching at a public university was appalling to Belenduik.
Belenduik felt he needed to reach out, and contacted the office of the president, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the English department. The position of the school was that Prof. Furr was entitled to his first amendment rights, both in public forums and on his website hosted through Montclair’s servers.
“The first amendment is not an absolute right,” said Belenduik, speaking on the phone from his office in Washington. “It’s not an issue of teaching the controversial. We demand that students who come to college be taught things that are truthful.” Unsatisfied with the official response from the university, he reached out to the Montclarion. “I am asking that you take steps that will lead to the immediate termination of Grover Furr,” he wrote in an email to our editors.
The portrayal of Prof. Furr by these online news sources is endemic of a popular narrative in modern conservative politics: universities are liberal institutions, subsidized by your tax dollars, where young people go to be indoctrinated into left leaning ideologies. The Washington Examiner and other publications paint Prof. Furr as a typical example of just this. The alleged ethical infringement, however, hinges on whether or not Professor Furr brings his personal politics into the classroom, out of context of the coursework at hand.
Though initially excited by the circulation and publicity, the local leadership of YAL was clear that they didn’t support the outcry against Prof. Furr which called for his removal from his teaching position. “We invited the man to debate his position, and he did just that,” said Celi. “The debate existed independently of his teaching.”
Ultimately, it’s Professor Furr’s behavior in class which informs the legitimacy of his professional performance. The College for Humanities and Social Sciences was reluctant to comment on whether or not there had been a history of formalized complaints against Prof. Furr, or whether administrators had sat in on or observed any classes.
“I can tell you this,” said Dr. Emily Isaacs, chair of the English department, “I have not received a complaint from an undergraduate student regarding any English class this semester.”
“None of these bloggers, or anyone saying these things, has ever been in one of my classes,” said Furr, who’s no stranger to the regular criticism he receives, mostly online, and none of whom have reached out to him for comment on the debate clip. “Have they ever sat in on one of my classes? Or spoken to my students? They certainly could have. And those are the only opinions that matter.”
“I’d heard that his political views had influenced his classes,” said one student who has taken Prof. Furr’s class in Middle English Literature. “But in my class, he never really made any references to communism or Stalinism or anything.” Most students have the same reaction.
Prof. Furr, though notorious for his political positions, can’t recall an incident where Prof. Furr brought those positions into an irrelevant classroom context.
Professor Furr keeps a website where all of his course materials are available for anyone to view, hosted on Montclair’s servers, as well as information on his political views, his publications and articles he authors or curates. “I’ve taken a look at the syllabus for his History of Journalism class, at least,” said an associate professor who teaches journalism here at Montclair, “and I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t really par-for-the-course.”
Though there is debate about his writings on the subject of communist regimes of the 20th century, they’ve never been a part of his assigned readings or materials for classes he’s taught, and Prof. Furr often has to defend himself from outright slander on the subject.
Ratemyprofessors.com, a site owned by MTV-U that hosts millions of ratings and comments, is a site where you can post reviews of your professors much like you would movies or restaraunts. The site has pages of comments about Prof. Furr, many of which range from the misleading to the obviously fraudulent. Prof. Furr writes a letter nearly annually requesting the removal of dozens of these posts, going one by one through each review pointing out clear inaccuracies, such as comments on Furr’s performance teaching classes that don’t even exist.
“As I recall, in every case they removed the posts I identified,” said Furr. “[They’ve] handled this matter well.” Soon after they’re removed, the comments begin to stack up again, and are often taken as legitimate and used to levy criticism in right-wing blogs.
Public and private universities have historically been a safe haven for the exchange of controversial ideas, the institution itself representing the value of multi-disciplinary practices and views informs the growth of an informed member of society.
“Students attending Montclair State University are aware, intelligent and discerning,” said Suzanne Bronski, Montclair’s Director of Media Relations. “At the heart of the university experience is the valuable process of helping students to arrive at their own informed and considered opinions. As much as people may vehemently disagree with Professor Furr, we deeply believe that students are capable of separating out historical truth from personal political viewpoints.”
As for Furr himself, the defense against the defamation of his character marches onward. He thinks it’s time for another letter to Ratemyprofessors.com. “I’ll probably write to them again as soon as classes are over.”
There were no concentration camps in the USSR. The gulags were prison labor camps. No gas chambers. Stalins tanks saved the world from Fascism. The reason right wing Ukrainians feared them is because many were Nazi collaborators. In Ukraine’s last election over 28% voted Communist. U.S. Ukrainians do not represent them. Stalin did economic miracles in the USSR. This attack on Dr. Furr is motivated by anticommunism. Nazis like Pat Buchanan, and Joe Arpao speak on campuses all the time, yet Furr is persecuted for saying what many historians in Russia have already said. Stop This McCarthyism.
Professor Furr is a warrior and an example of fighting against the information monopolies which dominates capitalist world. The History of the USSR is one of the most mythological constructions of today’s “science”, it’s based on hagiography and demonology, not on historiography nor investigation.
Ideological propagandism is the law in 90% of academic productions on USSR and there is a lot of CIA money on it and even secret agents playing as “historians”such as Robert Conquest, which as The Guardian pointed out was an agent of british secret service.
Belenduik’s parents were probably Natzi collaborators.
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My father was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis. It is tempting to boil down a complex historical period into simple and one dimensional explanation, as Grover Furr does by claiming that Stalin committed no crimes, but it is not a scholarly approach and makes for bad history. I do not wish to deny Grover Furr or anyone else their right to speak. This is one of the key distinctions between the United States and the Soviet Union. In this country, we are free to speak our minds and to hold different and unpopular opinions. Nor do I seek to change Grover Furr’s mind, the weight of history is against him and his views have received no recognition from accredited historians. I seek and will continue to seek that first, in his capacity as a professor at Montclair State, Grove Furr stick to teaching what he is trained to teach, which is English. Even if everything he says about Stalin were absolutely true, it has no place in the curriculum of Montclair State’s English Department. Imagine a calculus professor spending class time discussing English literature. Second, Grover Furr’s political views and writing have no place on an official Montclair State web page. This is a place for him and his students to interact about English literature. No one is stopping him from creating his own web page and posting any information he likes on it. Finally, in his historical and political writings he should stop trading on his status as a professor at Montclair State. As I have repeated pointed out, Grover Furr holds no degrees in history or political science. His position as a professor is in English. When he writes and speaks on the subject of English literature, he is using his title of professor properly. When Grover Furr claims that he is a professor at Montclair State, in the course of writing about Stalinism he is seeking to gain credibility he does not deserve and has not earned.
Grover is a great guy. I read his book, Khrushchev Lied, and it was extremely interesting. This article makes no mention of his actual research, which is extensive. Good article over all though
The United States government has authorised and set aside a plot of land in Washington, DC for a monument dedicated “To the Victims of Communism”. This authorisation was issued in the early 90s. Funding for this monument is from the private and not public sector. In the late 80s the US Congress proclaimed that “The Holodomor” (aka death by starvation) in Ukraine was a genocide perpetrated by Stalin and his henchmen! The Canadian Government has also funded the construction of The Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This museum honours and recognises all the victims of communism and other despots in modern times!!!
So how can one be a communist denier!?!?!?!?!The authors of the first 3 posts are definitely off kilter and deniers themselves!
Robert Conquest is a non academic & part of the intel world – that is one of the most absurd assertions I’ve heard in a very long time!!!! Belendiuk’s parents were Nazi collaborators – check your facts before making such bizarre off the wall comments!
fc
So, Arthur Belendiuk, from where do you get your information that Grover Furr is teaching about “Stalinism” during his English classes? Apparently it is something you made up to bolster your anti-communist crusade. Moreover, your argument that university faculty should not use their titles when they write outside their specialty is completely non-sensical and is definitely not practiced by the swarm of anti-communist zealots that have flooded the academic world.
And one more thing…each and every Ukrainian Nazi collaborator claimed that they were “arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis”.
Fred Carson, your “proofs” about the “atrocities” of Stalin (declaration of the US and Canadian governments, and of the Congress) are laughable. It is as if you expected the Pope to pass a judgment against God. Regarding Robert Conquest, you must be one of the last remaining individuals on earth not to have learned about his service in the Foreign Office and in the intelligence agencies.
My grandfather, Andronik Petrov, was a NKVD officer, who died in 1941 defending Leningrad against nazi invasion. For more, than 40 years he was considered “missing in combat”.
And I, his grandson, want to say, that I can’t understand why Dr. Grover Furr decide to abuse American right of free speech to indoctrinate young American students in pro-Stalin propaganda. Of course, free speech is a cornerstone of American democracy, but is not clear for me, why Montclair University close its eyes, to glorification of a dictator, that have killed more people than any other dictator in a modern history. I can’t say what Montclair University must or could do in this situation, but is entirely clear for me, that communist indoctrination must stop immediately.
Best regards,
Fred, just read Conquest page on wikipedia or somewhere else. It’s public knowledge that he was from the IRD and was involved in anti-communist propaganda.
So what that the US and Canadian governments made monuments to the “victims of communism”?
Nobody says that there was no repression – Grover never said that. If you ever read anything about it you would know. What he claims is that the numbers are misleading and propagandistic and that the repressions were reflex of the violent attacks of imperialism against the USSR – which resulted in more than 30 millions soviet citizens killed by two wars and thousands of cases of sabotage, assassination and other terrorist plots that were very common in the 30′s in the USSR.
Actually, this also the argument of Joseph Davies, an american lawyer that was an agent of the US State Department in the USSR during Stalin’s period. Without the repressions, the Soviet Union would have been destroyed by the Nazis, because the country was full with agents that plotted against the communist government.
An interesting white wash article about Grover Furr. It was interesting to dissect the comment by Chairman Isaacs about not getting any complaints “this” semester, yet the Dept was reluctant to comment on whether or not there had been a history of formalized complaints against Prof. Furr. So he hasn’t had any complaints so far this semester, but its obvious that Furr has been a problem.
The fact remains that he is a Professor of Medieval Literature, posing as a historian at MSU. Based on student comments going back MANY years, he has used his position to force his views upon others, and his extremist views are hosted on his MSU webpage.
http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/politics.html
His positions that neither the Ukrainian Holodomor, nor the Katyn Massacre were Stalin’s doing is madness. In fact , his positions on Stalin’s guilt are outrageous and the moral equivalent of being a Holocaust Denier.
The bottom line is whether someone like him should be allowed to “teach” students and promote his perverted view of history on a NJ state web page??? Would we allow a Holocaust denier, a pedophile or a racist, to continue to hold a teaching position at MSU under similar circumstances??? I don’t think so.
As far as the first few comments made above, they are filled with hate and are analogous to the ethnic hatred that Stalin had for Tatars, Ukrainians, Poles and others. Ethnic cleansing is the mindset of these Stalinists, as taught by their mentor.
Dmytro,
if your grandfather was the person you claim he was, he would be utterly ashamed to hear your comments. In all probability, he would have been ready to unholster his Tokarev.
Fred Perkins, your anti-communist ravings are unworthy of any serious response. If you wish to find tons of ethnic haters, pedophiles or racists, look around you in your favorite US of A.
I’d like to respond briefly to some of those who posted “comments” here.
First: I strive to be objective in my research. I always ask for EVIDENCE.
When you insist on evidence, you discover , as I have, that all the stories of “Stalinist atrocities”, etc., are fabrications, falsehoods, lies – at least, all of those I have investigated so far.
A few examples:
* The “Holodomor” is a Nazi-inspired myth. There was no “Holodomor” – meaning, deliberate famine to starve Ukrainians (or anybody else). There has never been a shred of evidence of any such thing.
The “Holodomor” is a falsification, an invention by pro-Nazi Ukrainian Nationalists. The notion of “deliberate famine” does not appear before 1953, when it is used by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators who fled to Canada and the USA.
There was a serious famine in 1932-33. There had been famines every 2-4 years in Russia for at least a thousand years. There was a serious famine in 1921-2, another in 1924, and another in 1928.
The famine of 1932-33 was not caused by the Soviet leadership in any way: not by collectivization, nor by the exporting of grain, and certainly not deliberately.
Collectivization of agriculture solved the perennial problem of periodic famines! After 1933 there were no more, except for one serious famine in 1946-1947, again not the fault of the Soviet government.
The Soviet collectivization of agriculture was one of the greatest triumphs of social engineering of the 20th century. If capitalists gave prizes to communists – which, of course, they do not – the benefits of collectivization would have won Stalin and the Soviet government. It unquestionably saved the lives of tens of millions of people who would have died in succeeding famines.
It also permitted the industrialization of the USSR and the defeat of the Nazis, thus saving Europe and all of us from Nazi genocide.
* There is a major controversy over the “Katyn massacre” issue. It is very far from clear that the Soviets shot all the Poles, however many there might have been. There’s plenty of contradictory evidence.
This very interesting (and complicated!) controversy is simply not taught! In fact, it is “taboo” among anticommunists even to mention that it exists! You can find out more about it at my “Katyn Forest Whodunnit” page – http://www.tinyurl.com/katyn-the-truth The problem is ANTI-communist propaganda!
* As for “Holocaust denier”: the sober facts are the following:
+ There were no “mass murders” by the Stalin regime – none that I have ever found, and I have investigated all the allegations — so there’s no evidence of any (for the “Katyn” case, see above);
However, the Western imperialist states – the USA, the U.K., Belgium, France, for example – were guilty of many mass murders in their colonial possessions. These mass murders are seldom discussed in history courses.
+ The Soviet Union, and the worldwide communist movement which it inspired and supported, were by far the biggest factor in fighting the imperialism of Western capitalist countries. By so doing the Soviet Union played the leading role in the liberation of hundreds of millions of people from colonial oppression and exploitation by the Western capitalist countries, and the Japanese.
+ Therefore, if you want to look for politicians to compare with Hitler, it is much more accurate to pick someone like Winston Churchill, a fervent racist and imperialist. The “Hitler-Stalin” comparison simply does not fit the facts.
* The “Victims of Communism” memorial was sponsored by Nazi collaborators. It’s an unintended compliment, therefore, since it was indeed the communists who defeated the Nazis and their collaborators, like these people, who have every reason to hate the communist movement.
* Mr Yatsyuk is completely wrong. Not only did Stalin NOT “kill more people than any other dictator” — I have yet to discover a single “crime”, a single “mass murders”, that Stalin committed. Many are claimed, but all such claims are fraudulent – anticommunist fabrications.
Soviet history has indeed been heavily falsified. I am constantly surprised when I investigate allegation after allegation of “crimes”, “mass murders”, etc., only to discover that all are false, that the evidence does not support them.
Perhaps it is naïve of me to be surprised. After all, a friend of mine told me, “Why shouldn’t the anticommunists lie about communism?” That is a good point – but I am still surprised every time I do serious research on yet another so-called “crime of Stalinism” and find that it is yet another fraud.
Later today I will put these words on my Home Page so it will be easier for others to find and read them.
Prof. Grover -
So, based on your response, I surmise that you consider the Soviet archives from the Stalin era as fiction and not factual! All academic and nonacademic historians/ researchers would provide ample evidence that your views of Stalin, the Holodomor, the Katyn massacre, etc are extremely warped!
Were there and are there Nazi collaborators in China. Was Mao collaborating with the Nazis???? Please reference your statement: The “Victims of Communism” memorial was sponsored by Nazi collaborators.
I believe you’re an ill man!
No, Carson. The ill man is you! You are deliberate lying here. First of all, the Soviet archives complete destroys your post. First of all they confirm that this so-called “holodomor” was no deliberate famine, which has been established a long time ago. Even your idol Conquest has restracted on that one. The archives regarding Katyn are closed and the Russian government refuses to release the originals. Not surprising since it is an established fact that these documents claiming to prove Soviet guilt are forgeries.
If you are going to post lies here, Carson, a good advice is to not use facts that can be checked. Otherwise it will be rather embarassing for you.
I watched a video of the meeting. In it someone said that Stalin said: “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic”
This observation is widely attributed to Stalin. The fullest account of this quote a context is given by Soviet dissident Antonov-Ovseyenko in a book published in America in 1980. This alleges that Stalin made the remark made to Churchill at Tehran in 1943 during a discussion on the opening of a second front. However, the earliest attribution of this quotation was in the New York Review of Books in 1958, that is, five years after Stalin’s death. Since there are no known primary sources for this attribution it seems reasonable to reject it.
There is no problem in finding alternative authors; there are two primary sources both German, namely Kurt Tucholsky (“The death of one man: that is a disaster. A hundred thousand dead: that is a statistic!” 1932) and Erich Maria Remarque (The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic 1956).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/released-at-last-the-katyn-execution-order-signed-by-stalin-1957315.html
Grover was, is, & will be, a fool.
Archives from Stalin’s era are not fictional and Prof. Furr’s defense of Stalin is actually based on the same archival records. Prof. Furr has mentioned above, something a lot of people do not know or wish to acknowledge and that is the role of imperial powers of the 19th and 20th century in subjugating and exploiting the colonial possessions around the world. Churchill was responsible for Bengal famine of the 1940s, which killed an estimated 3-4 million people. Before that in the 1700′s artificially induced famine (by the East India Company) killed an estimated 10 million people. All these deaths were direct result of imperialism. I am sure these anti-communists have no idea of atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by the capitalists/imperialists. Same was the case with Sino-British “Opium Wars”, first make someone an addict by supplying him free opium, then make money once he gets into the habit. I am sure there are many such crimes committed on the people around the world, but I see no “Monuments for the victims of Imperialism” anywhere.
To those gentlemen commentators asking Prof. Furr to quit talking about History, and stick to “teaching English” should remember that it took a patent office clerk to come up with the theories of “Special and General Relativity”. Your profession does not define what you can speak on and what you cannot.
Thank you
No one is doubting Furr’s right to deny crimes, we’re just wondering what sense Montclair has keeping such a man around. They obviously can keep him if they don’t mind his presence severely discrediting their institution.
We give people the right to be morons in this country, should they so choose, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t allowed to call them out on it.
The problem with this article is it assumes there should be legal action. No one is doubting Furr’s rights to say such nonsense, people are questioning why Montclair State University would keep someone who denies history around. Its Montclair’s invitation for people to question their credibility that is perplexing, certainly they don’t have to fire the fraud, its just the fact that they haven’t leaves a bit of a black mark on the institution.
Fred Carson-
Have you read the Soviet archives? It is clear you have not. They show the following statistics from 1926 to 1953:
642.980 people executed for anti-state crimes
2.369.220 people sentenced to prison or GULAG for anti-state crimes
765.180 people deported for anti-state crimes
The lies about “tens of millions” of people “butchered” by Stalin are complete fabrications based on nothing whatsoever. They are contradicted by archival and demographic data, showing a rise in population during the Stalin period.
Unlike the traitor mentioned in the article, the vast majority of former Soviet people consider Stalin a brilliant man whose policies massively improved living standards, healthcare, and education in the Soviet Union.
Grover Furr said:
“First: I strive to be objective in my research. I always ask for EVIDENCE.”
Yes, and cherry pick that which suits you while ignoring everything else. I’ve read the rubbish on your website about the Katyn Massacre, in which you plainly attempt to cast doubt on the documentary evidence based on the online ramblings and cries of ‘forgery’ of a group of obscure Russian nationalists.
I’ve also read your ‘review’ (or, rather, utterly unprofessional and anti-scholarly hatchet job) on Ron Radosh’s ‘Spain Betrayed’, in which half of your critiques could be debunked by a second year undergraduate’s body of knowledge. Of course, not having a history degree, of any description, I suppose you are at a disadvantage there. Go back to English literature, and leave the history of the Soviet Union to the professionals.