Once again, this is an actual question; and I’m hoping to broaden my horizons and have a good conversation or two. I’m relatively new to commie subs, still trying to read political theory to figure out which one I like the most, so this might come off as uneducated. But why am I seeing so many positive posts about Stalin, followed by some comments that boil down to “Stalin was good, if you think he wasn’t, that’s just western propaganda” I’m thinking of the post that mentioned the 1921 Soviet Famine as a specific example. I know that Stalin didn’t create the famine, it was a byproduct of almost a decade of war, unrest, and a ton of other factors. But Stalin did do some bad shit. Things like sending 14 million people to gulags to work as slave labor, and killing millions more in his purges. I would argue that he used communism to become an authoritarian. Similar to how Putin is ruling now, stuffing ballot boxes, starting wars, and pushing propaganda. (I realize that we get pushed propaganda, too in the form of faux news, MSNBC, and most media outlets. I don’t wish to have a discussion that boils down to “we do it too, you just don’t see it”)
I’m just going to leave these here: https://www.idcommunism.com/2016/08/solzhenitsyn-rotten-legacy-of-fascist.html?m=1
Related, but does anyone know how much truth their is to the idea that Vavilov was sent to the gulags because of his opposition to Lashekoism?
It’s worse than you think… As a result of Stalin’s purges and famine, only communists remained in Russia. As soon as he finished killing everyone, he started running super fast and kicked a baby in the face like a football for no apparent reason…I don’t understand…Like he shouldn’t have done this.
It’s also worth noting that we don’t support everything Stalin and the soviets did, necessarily.
To my understanding, the point is to acknowledge the reasoning behind the actions and understand the errors.
This is a video from yesterday about this very topic: https://youtu.be/pDSZRkhynXU
I’m also not the most knowledgeable person here, so take my understanding with a few grains of salt.
I get that, but this was also meant as an actual question, it’s nice to see some of these posts direct me to better information while explaining what’s wrong with the information and sources I have. I live in the US, so it’s hard to not only find some neutral sources, but also figure out which ones are propaganda for either side, and which ones aren’t without knowing where to start. Some of the replies on this have been extremely informative and a great eye opening experience, while others (I’m guessing) assume that I’m just another liberal trying to attack communism. Which is wrong, I’m just a new tankie with outdated and wrong information trying to understand this community a bit more.
… other [replies] (I’m guessing) assume that I’m just another liberal trying to attack communism. Which is wrong, I’m just a new tankie with outdated and wrong information trying to understand this community a bit more.
Your post coincided with a large influx of libs fleeing reddit. People here are a bit more on edge than usual.
14 million gulags 💀 was there anyone left in the USSR after Stalin imprisoned them all???
Do you know how absurd the logistics would be for the imprisonment of 14 million people???
Exactly, how could the Nazis have killed off 12+ million people systematically while also losing troops in a war and still have people left?
By exterminating them you Nazi piece of shit. They didn’t care if they starved, got sick and died, had adequate housing, died from exposure, were infested with parasites, had adequate clothing, had enough water, or so on.
That’s why they massacred them right off of the trains and left the rest to work to death.
Eat shit you Nazi. Take your Holocaust denial and get lost.
To put this into context, the United States imprisons about 4.3% of it’s population and represents 20% of the global prison population… It’s like 2ish million people in American prisons.
