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.

  • John@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    6 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·
      4 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·
        3 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

        • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
          1·
          42 minutes ago

          Your survey there seems to include most ex Soviet states. But it would seem you forgot atleast 3. I don’t see Lithuania, Estonia or Latvia there. I wonder why you chose to not include them.

          Oh, was it because in Estonia 75% said the dissolution was good (15% bad)

          Latvia because 53% said it was good (35% bad)

          Or Lithuani where 62% said it was good (23% bad), whom in 1991 according to pew, showed that 13% of them rated their lives as “good”. Where as 44% in 2019.

          I have no doubt, that those living in the smaller ex Soviet states were favorable. Their gdppc and ppp are significantly lower than Russias. And they probably think being part of a much larger nation will give them the benefit of a larger economy. That is, until they saw what happened to Ukraine. Which is why almost all of them, except Belarus. Have sought influence elsewhere, mainly China and Turkey.

          Though I’d do like to add one final note. Those who disliked Stalin either fled, hid, or “dissapeared”. What’s left are those who remained loyal or hid well enough. The love for Stalin was not out of respect, it was out of fear.

          We see all the morons in the US praising Trump. No amount of incompetence will ever make them leave the cult. Reminds me of someone…

          • Ferrous@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            29 minutes ago

            Your original (implicit) point was that people who have lived experienced in the era of the USSR disliked it. That’s just not true. All you have is anecdotes - and anecdotes mostly from USians, at that.