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What's the deal with Stalin? (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In my continued exposure to leftist spaces and a leftist view on history it has become clear that all I understand about Stalin is the reactionary rhetoric I've been fed my whole life. I have only just started on reading theory and exposing myself to a leftist view, so Stalin as a topic isn't something I've reached yet.

But I have to ask, and I think this is the place to ask it, what is the deal with Stalin?

The vibe I get is that people at a minimum don't hate Stalin, but also maybe at most appricate Stalin. I'm aware that the efforts of the USSR during WW2, especially in regards to Nazi aggression are a credit to his administration and leadership, but is that really where the vibe starts and stops?

I'm not looking for a dissertation on the guy, but just the notes or primary points. I'll take reading suggestions too.

Thanks comrades.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then the question comes back to what they were actually charged with.

[+] Stanley_Pain 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hold on, I thought they were forced to do prison labor because they were Jewish, not for “Bourgeois nationalism.” Granted there was no charge for being Jewish in the USSR, then again where does this certainty come from?

[+] Stanley_Pain 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

“Read up on that” like you actually wrote anything worthwhile. I haven’t seen any real evidence that “bourgeois nationalism” is as a rule a cover charge, especially since it is a real thing?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm honestly not trying to be disrespectful to your family members, especially if they managed to miraculously survive Auschwitz, but have you honestly considered and acknowledged to yourself that maybe they were detained for being anti-communist pro-bourgeois ~~capitalists~~ reactionaries?

I'm not saying it's impossible for some forms of antisemitism to exist in USSR, it wasn't perfect nor was it populated by perfect people, but there wasn't an antisemitic genocide there like in Nazi Germany and this kinda sounds like it was actually about something else entirely.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

but have you honestly considered and acknowledged to yourself that maybe they were detained for being anti-communist pro-bourgeois capitalists reactionaries?

Apparently some were sentenced to forced prison labor despite not even being accused of anything specific, much less charged (can't find any cases of this)? The liquidation of Jewish people from positions of authority is one thing to accuse the USSR of (despite numerous examples showing this was not done across the board), but the idea that ordinary people ("poor miners and factory workers") were sent to do compulsory labor for being Jewish/Ukrainian is even more strange considering how poorly this alleged goal was carried out.