• FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Soviet archival evidence shows that the purges were democratically initiated by the party at large and were initially very popular due to the real problem of capitalist sabotage They got worse when the NKVD became overzealous and stepped beyond the bounds that were given them. The evidence shows that Stalin actually spent more time trying to reign in the excesses, but was often unsuccessful largely due to the weakness of the Soviet state that was recovering from a brutal civil war.

    Of course, the purges were very excessive and rightly considered one of the big mistakes of the Stalin era, but the idea that they were his is ahistorical.

    • copingwithelmons@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      No dude, Stalin was a facist at heart and only used communism to further his agenda. He killed anyone who he felt threatened his power and with paranoia. Idk where you get the idea that he was trying to reign in the purges. He wasn’t. Doctor’s Plot, the red purge, holodomor, his hatred of Jews, there’s way too much. Everyone was happy to see him gone, at least secretly (refer to the secret speech). He had terrorised all of USSR.

      While the politburo did sign off on the purges (never said they weren’t complicit) it was NOT a democratic process. You need representation of voters there.

      • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        This is almost entirely anti-communist propaganda. Don’t believe the capitalists when they talk about socialism. They lie, distort and exaggerate.

        • copingwithelmons@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          EVERYONE lies, distorts, exaggerates, especially AUTHORITARIAN LEADERS. (Who’s going to stop them? At least in democracy you can vote them out). If you think the USSR and its leaders didn’t do that you live in a fantasy world.

          And I will put my trust in where experts can speak freely, while recognising their bias. Not a country that silences every dissent because it’s going to disrupt security.

          The secret speech was an indictment by the very same leaders of USSR of the terror and paranoia Stalin created in Soviet Russia. They understood the ramifications of it and hated what he had done to the nation.

          Oh and the facts about the purges and gulags were corroborated by historians who got access to the Soviet archives in the 90s. So unless the soviets were secretly forging millions of documents to further their enemies’ agenda, the call is coming from inside the house.