Stalin and the Struggle for Democratic Reform

[Odin]

Stalin's Ideology was "Do as I say or you'll end up in Siberia or worse."

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Odin
Stalin's Ideology was "Do as I say or you'll end up in Siberia or worse."

What's worse than gulag?

[Krill]

Not much. I'd prefer death, truth be told...

[Serb]

It was the way how he went to his goal - the state without exploitation. He was a dictator, no doubt, but it wasn't his ideology or official doctrine of the USSR. Soviet ideology didn't proclaim extermination or enslavement of certain nationalities, it proclaimed exactly the opposite - equality of all people and absence of exploitation.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

What's worse than gulag?

Ever heard about Guantanamo Bay or Abu-Grave?

[Krill]

Actions speak louder than words?

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Serb
Ever heard about Guantanamo Bay or Abu-Grave?

Yes, but they don't hold a candle to gulags, and weren't around in Stalin's time, so they can't be the "or worse" to which Odin's Stalin was referering.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Krill
Actions speak louder than words?

That's the problem. Stalin made a super power out of backward rural country defeated by much weaker Germans at WW1. Within a decade Russia made a huge leap from a pathetic land of uneducated peasants, which bought ploughs from Germans prior WW1, into industrial powerhouse which produced world's best tanks. Soviet industrial growth under Stalin was unprecedented.

[Krill]

And you'll get no disagreement from me on that. I think that as cruel and as callous as killing so many people is, it was that that saved the rest of the country...

[Serb]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

Yes, but they don't hold a candle to gulags, and weren't around in Stalin's time, so they can't be the "or worse" to which Odin's Stalin was referering.

I realize it could be a shock for you, but Solzhenitcin's Archipelago GULAG is complete lie.
A horror, fictional story. Sorta like Sthepen King.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

What's worse than gulag?

Bullets in the heads of you and your whole family.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Serb
It was the way how he went to his goal - the state without exploitation. He was a dictator, no doubt, but it wasn't his ideology or official doctrine of the USSR. Soviet ideology didn't proclaim extermination or enslavement of certain nationalities, it proclaimed exactly the opposite - equality of all people and absence of exploitation.

The soviet economy was anathema to true socialists for the same reason capitalism is, both had parasitic ruling classes, which in the USSR were the party bosses.

[Serb]

Not in Stalin's USSR.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Serb

That's the problem. Stalin made a super power out of backward rural country defeated by much weaker Germans at WW1. Within a decade Russia made a huge leap from a pathetic land of uneducated peasants, which bought ploughs from Germans prior WW1, into industrial powerhouse which produced world's best tanks. Soviet industrial growth under Stalin was unprecedented.

A country doesn't need to be ruled by a megalomanic psycopath to indistrialize. The fact Russia had just started industrializing is why socialism in russia was doomed to fail, socialism only works in wealthy developed countries. The Bolsheiviks were trying to go to socialism straight from a mostly feudal, agrarian society, a BIG nono.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Serb


I realize it could be a shock for you, but Solzhenitcin's Archipelago GULAG is complete lie.
A horror, fictional story. Sorta like Sthepen King.

Yep, and the Holocaust was a fictional horror story, oh wait...