http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070926...ev_stalinism_dc

Good to see someone over there reminding people of what life was like when it was a soviet country.

The most important paragraphs in the article are these:

During the Great Terror, 1.7 million Soviet citizens were arrested between August 1937 and November 1938, of whom 818,000 were executed, the human rights group Memorial said.

Historians estimate that up to 13 million people were killed or sent to labor camps in the former Soviet Union between 1921 and 1953, the year Stalin died.

quote:

Despite Stalin's record, recent polls have shown many young Russians have a positive view of the former Soviet leader and there have been attempts this year to play down his excesses, which have found an echo among the country's youth. Fifty-four percent of Russian youth believe that Stalin did more good than bad and half said he was a wise leader, according to a poll conducted in July by the Yuri Levada Centre. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070926...ev_stalinism_dc

wow I wonder what youth brainwashing camps they're getting those crazy ideas at.

I may be nitpicking, but usually the most important paragraphs of an article aren't the ones that are only there to provide context.

The article concedes that Putin's advisors describe Stalin as "brutal." I don't think they're quick to reinstitute Stalinism despite whatever longings they may have for a more powerful state.

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I hope you're right.
The most alarming thing in all of this is, as the other poster noted, the misconceptions that Russian teens have.
When 13 million people of YOUR OWN country are all executed no questions asked just b/c they don't support communism that's a mighty big number to ignore.
They should really lay off that vodka.

quote:

Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov I may be nitpicking, but usually the most important paragraphs of an article aren't the ones that are only there to provide context. The article concedes that Putin's advisors describe Stalin as "brutal." I don't think they're quick to reinstitute Stalinism despite whatever longings they may have for a more powerful state.

Jesus Christ, I agree. There are some misinterpretations and lies in that article, once again another chapter of Russophobia in western media.

I will get into detail in replies to further posts on this thread.

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

For example, here's why the article is misleading:

quote:

However, he stirred controversy at a meeting with teachers when he appeared to play down the Great Terror, saying Russia "must not allow others to impose a feeling of guilt on us" and adding that the country had "not had such bleak pages (in history) as was the case with Nazism."

This was taken out of context. Putin merely was saying that we should not let our former Eastern bloc countries make us guilty for crimes that we didnt do and didnt endorse. Besides, Stalin was not an ethnic Russian. Recently countries like Ukraine and Poland have pressed EU and world community to consider genocides these 2 famous terrible events: 1) 1937 slaughter of several thousand Polish officers by Soviet NKVD after dividing Poland with Nazi Germany, 2) 1920s famine in Ukraine that Ukrainian nationalists said was carried out by Soviet leadership and resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians (AND Russians).

Additionally, Ukraine and Poland want to press cases in international court in huge money digits against Russia for those events. While forgetting that Stalin slaughtered everyone, regardless of culture, colour, race but anyone who threatened or stood up to his brutality and control. Millions of ethnic Russians were slaughtered, too and forcefully repopulated in different regions. Like Cossacks, for example.

Would it make sense for a Russian who lost his grand-grandparents to Stalin to sue Russian government? What will it achieve? The people responsible for those crimes are gone, and sadly some gone unpunished. And the ones who have goals to push political campaigns like this have an agenda in mind, and Russophobia is in style lately.

And he was slightly mistranslated with the Nazis remark, because he has told Russian people on several occassions that Nazis have done massive damage to Russia, unlike anything in history. WW2 alone cost Soviet Union 24-32 million people. By most accounts the purges and Stalin's terror in 1920s-1930s only killed about 20 million Soviet citizens. Stalin's brutality only compounded those horrors.

Russian people have been forever scarred by the Stalin, communism, and we the decent Russian people are asking the world to stop tormenting us and accusing us of mistakes that were not done by us. My own family line has suffered terribly under Stalin.So, rightfully, Russia "must not allow others to impose a feeling of guilt on us" - because its an insult to all Russians, millions of us who have been affected by that Stalinist disease.

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Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

But I bet that the idiots who wrote the article dont know jack shit about [Russian] history. Who the hell is that writer, Dmitry Solovyov think he is? Denifitely with a poor knowledge or comprehension of Russia, and if he's Russian, he is an embarassment. Probably came as a kid to USA, and doesnt know jack shit about Russia but pretends like he does.

The points Gorbachev made were taken out of context. Putin never played down any Stalin's terrors. He knows full well that communism tore down a great country, the Russian empire. When he referred to the end of the Soviet Union as the worst geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, he wasnt referring to the communists - he was referring to an end of Russian influence and control around Russia. He wasnt praising communists, because he surely hates the ******s for tearing down a great country like a stack of cards and since so many Russians have suffered so much.

And the problem with the youth is apparent. The loss of pride, strong state, someone to look up to created a gap in the society that had to be filled with radicalism. Like in Germany after WW1. And just like it happened to Germany back then, Russia is getting badly abused on the political scene. Left and right, there is Russophobia, rising Nazi "liberators" movement in Baltic states, dismanting of monuments dedicated to millions of Soviet soldiers who died defeating the Nazi scum, criticism and blockade of Russian political and economical achievements. So the youth sees it, and obviously they dont feel very good about it. The Russian government is powerless to do much to make the world happy without concessions to give up the ground it established. The youth then thinks of such leaders like Stalin who, though brutal, did make the country very strong, at the cost of many freedoms, rights, and people's lives. Russians are very proud people, just look at me. Some Russian youth, sadly, are willing to retry the dreaded Stalinist times to settle the scores with the West, which will of course fail.

___________________
Whenever you go and buy something, you are affecting someone somewhere, be it environment, a person, or a community - you're making a statement with what you buy. So make it a smart choice ... Its a big picture

Last edited by Magnetonium on Sep-26-2007 at 22:38