The UN's Leninist legacy.Speaking in 1970, former UN Secretary-General U Thant U Thant See U Thant. praised founding Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin and pointedly claimed that Lenin's ruling philosophy was "in line with the aims of the UN Charter." One of Lenin's most important concepts was "democratic centralism Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ," that is, the notion that the ruling Soviet elite embodied the democratic will of its subject population, and thus whatever it did was legitimate. In his Foreign Affairs foreign affairs pl.n. Affairs concerning international relations and national interests in foreign countries. essay (see story above), Tharoor unconsciously acknowledges the UN's Leninist legacy. "As the world's preeminent international organization, the UN embodies world opinion, or at least the world's legally constituted states," asserts Tharoor. "When the UN Security Council passes a resolution, it is seen as speaking for (and in the interests of) humanity as a whole, and in so doing it confers a legitimacy that is respected by the world's governments, and usually by their publics. When the resolution in question is passed under Chapter VII of the [UN] charter--that document's enforcement provisions--it becomes legally binding on all member stales." "The UN guards the vital principles entrenched en·trench also in·trench v. en·trenched, en·trench·ing, en·trench·es v.tr. 1. To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending. 2. in its charter, notably the sovereign equality of states and the inadmissibility in·ad·mis·si·ble adj. Not admissible: inadmissible evidence. in of interference in their internal affairs," continues Tharoor. Similar claims were made regarding the sovereignty of the so-called Soviet republics ruled by Moscow, as well as the "allies" that composed the Warsaw Pact. And just as in the Soviet Union, the UN assigns to itself the power of deciding when it can intervene in the "sovereign" affairs of any nation. "It is precisely because the UN is the chief guardian of both these sacrosanct sac·ro·sanct adj. Regarded as sacred and inviolable. [Latin sacr  s principles that it alone is allowed to approve
derogations from them," pontificates Tharoor in an Orwellian mode.
"Thus when the UN, in particular the Security Council, legislates
an intervention in a sovereign state SOVEREIGN STATE. One which governs itself independently of any foreign power. , it is still seen as upholding the
basic principles even while approving a departure from them. When an
individual state acts in defiance of the UN, on the other hand, it
merely violates these principles."
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