Joseph Stalin was a communist leader inspired by Leon Trotsky

Trotsky was a communist revolutionary and intellectual. He once wrote “In politics, obtaining power and maintaining power justifies anything” in his book “Leur morale et la nôtre”*

In this book, Trotsky justifies the use of lies, infiltration of other political parties, smearing, even hostage taking. He says absolute ruthlesness is necessary to overthrow a hostile system and wield power. He concludes "We are acting for the greater good. We can’t be restrained by normal morality".

Joseph Stalin took Trotsky’s advice literally. So he murdered Trotsky because he saw him as rival. Stalin also started killing people because he believed they could be sympathetic to capitalism or opponents to his power.

Matvei Bronstein: Theorical physicist. Pioneer of quantum gravity. Arrested, accused of fictional “terroristic” activity and shot in 1938

Lev Shubnikov: Experimental physicist. Accused on false charges. Executed

Adrian Piotrovsky: Russian dramaturge. Accused on false charges of treason. Executed.

Nikolai Bukharin: Leader of the Communist revolution. Member of the Politburo. Falsely accused of treason. Executed.

General Alexander Egorov: Marshal of the Soviet Union. Commander of the Red Army Southern Front. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Arrested, accused on false charges, executed.

General Mikhail Tukhachevsky: Supreme Marshal of the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the Red Napoleon. Arrested, accused on fake charges. Executed.

Grigory Zinoviev:: Communist intellectual. Chairman of the Communist International Movement. Member of the Soviet Politburo. Accused of treason and executed.

Even the secret police themselves were not safe:

Genrikh Yagoda : Right-hand of Joseph Stalin. Head of the NKD Secret Police. He spied on everyone and jailed thousands of innocents. Arrested and executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda

Nikolai Yezhov : Appointed head of the NKD Secret Police after the killing of Yagoda. Arrested on fake charges. Also executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov

Everybody was absolutely terrified during this period. At least 500 000 people were murdered. Over 1 million people were deported to Gulags, secret prisons in Siberia, where they worked 12 hours a day.

Joseph Stalin decided to crush Ukraine for resisting communism and supporting independance. In 1933, he seized all Ukraine’s food. In the next months, 5 million Ukrainians were starved to death. The situation was so bad that thousands of Ukrainians turned to cannibalism. When Nazis invaded Ukraine, some Ukrainians thought they were saviors

https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor

https://www.history.com/articles/ukrainian-famine-stalin

Hitler was a monster, but we really don’t talk enough about how bad Stalin was.

    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
      8·
      23 hours ago

      Not necssesarily defend, but they shift blame away from Stalin. Essentially, “He was bad, but not THAT bad, that’s just western propaganda”

      You’ll see commonly that .ml excuses the famines (yes, plural) created by Stalin by shifting the blame towards environmental factors like “oh but there was a bit of a drought” or “they actually did it all themselves by burning their grain”, “it was to stop the Nazis from siezing the grain themselves”, the list of excuses goes on.

      • John@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Essentially, “He was bad, but not THAT bad, that’s just western propaganda”

        https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00810A006000360009-0.pdf

        “Even in Stalin’s time, there was collective leadership. The Western idea of a dictator within the communist setup is exaggerated.”.

        “tankies” though, amirite?

        the list of excuses goes on.

        A much more convenient excuse is that the USA is telling the truth about USSR while simultaneously executing millions of communists in South America, Africa, and Asia and lying about pretty much everything regarding anti-capitalism over the past century.

        • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          2 hours ago

          LMAO. How to summon the .ml warrior with this one simple step. Thank you for proving my point.

          The US is not the only source of information regarding USSR, you’re acting like we in Europe don’t know what happened right next to us.

          Plenty of us millenials are old enough to have spoken to our late great grandparents. Who saw what happened with their own eyes. Or did you forget that one little detail? It’s not very convenient for you is it. That we’ve actually still have accounts of those who witnessed and experienced it first hand.

          Fuck the USSR, fuck the apologists, fuck Russia, and fuck the US.

          • Ferrous@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            2 hours ago

            A 2013 Gallup survey showed that 66% of Armenians thought the dissolution of the USSR was harmful

            In a 2016 survey, 69% of Azerbaijanis believed life was better under the USSR.

            In a 2016 survey, it increased to 53% of Belarusians saying life was better under the USSR

            Another Pew survey, also in 2017, showed that 43% of Georgians thought the dissolution was a good thing, compared to 42% who thought it was a bad thing.

            In a 2016 survey, around 60% of Kazakhs above the age of 35 believed life was better under the USSR.

            A 2013 Gallup survey showed that 61% of Kyrgyz thought the dissolution of the USSR was harmful, compared to 16% who thought it was beneficial.

            A 2013 Gallup survey showed that 42% of Moldovans thought the dissolution of the USSR was harmful, compared to 26% who thought it was beneficial.[7] Regret about dissolution later increased to 70% according to a 2017 Pew survey, with only 18% saying the dissolution was a good thing.

            Levada polling since the mid-1990s on the preferred political and economic system of Russians also shows nostalgia for the Soviet Union, with the most recent polling in 2021 showing 49% preferring the Soviet political system, compared to 18% preferring the current system, and 16% preferring Western democracy, as well as 62% saying they preferred a system of economic planning compared to 24% preferring a market capitalist economy.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia_for_the_Soviet_Union

            Further, let’s look at the actual referendum:

            Do you consider it necessary to preserve the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?

            Yes - 77.8%

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_Union_referendum

    • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
      7·
      24 hours ago

      It’s more that some people don’t actively condemn him to the satisfaction of others.

      The USSR under Stalin defeated Nazi Germany. Idle denunciation of Stalin in 2026 is the classic and most trusted pivot for (crypto)fascists to focus on when cornered or feeling insecure.

      That’s the primary scenario that people are accused of ‘defending Stalin’. There’s always a nazi all too willing to spearhead this conversation, 70 years on after his death. Usually can’t even bring up Khrushchev and De-Stalinization usually since it’s not focusing on Stalin enough.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Usually can’t even bring up Khrushchev and De-Stalinization usually since it’s not focusing on Stalin enough.

        They usually can’t bring this stuff up because they have no idea about any of it

      • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        3·
        5 hours ago

        I’ve spent time with a Marxist-Leninist who worshiped Stalin, thought Stalin was a great Marxist theorist, and he also was very fond of North Korea. While I’m not saying you’re wrong, I do wonder what you make of someone in a leftist space who was so enthusiastic about Stalin without being prompted to defend him by fascists?

        • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          14 hours ago

          I wouldn’t really be able to know what they’re on about without interacting with them, quite frankly. But I can’t say I really approve of the worship of political figures, historical or not.

          I try to approach historical figures as a part of the context in which they existed. It does sound like this person was into theory, so I’d wager their interest in Stalin was more academic than a celebration of the ills that occurred in 20th century Eurasia. But if this person was advocating for Lysenkoism or someshit then you’ve got a grade A idiot.

          Like, I find Stalin to be fascinating and the balance of power that he operated both inside and outside the USSR to be remarkable. He can be a very symbolic figure for a kind of struggle against overwhelming odds, which resonates at least on some level with a lot of people, Marxist or not. People get really into things like mob bosses and Scarface so I would try to slate someone’s fandom of Stalin against that, too.

          Also, if American, we go over eight decades of rabid anti-communism so sometimes people throw up things like hammers and sickles just as a fuck-you to (Neo)McCarthyism.

      • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        23 hours ago

        The younger generation doesn’t remember it in the first place, due to not being alive. And that is used against them.

        It’s why it’s important to teach students to be critical of their sources. And try to find multiple reputable sources that corroborate the same information.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      13·
      1 day ago

      Just this morning, I was looking at a tv screen when it was announced a new study had concluded nearly 68% of russians still lament the disband of the soviet union.

      Propaganda as it is, even if we cut those numbers by two thirds, it’s still too many people longing by one of the most brutal totalitarian regimes that has ever existed.

      As a side note: I worked for some time with a company that imported machinery from Ukraine and Belarus, in the 2000’s, and I saw the amount of graffiti with USSR simbology that was plastered on the crates. Some people don’t allow it to just shrivel and die silently.

      This isn’t to say the USSR did not created good things.

      I worked with a fellow from Romania and he was appalled with how bad by comparison my country’s public health care system was.

      But the numbers tally a grimm story of the USSR and the wrongs vastly outnumber the rights.