Joseph Stalin Quotes
During the Cold War, Yugoslavia was a part of the Eastern Communist Bloc, but was very independent. They had a very experienced military and were the one country of the Eastern Bloc who the Russians could not easily militarily dominate. Tito was a great and feared military leader having killed More Germans per soldier with his army than any of the Allies in WWII. He was also very independent of Moscow and would not follow Russia directives. The Russians decided on assassinating Tito but the attempts failed.
Trotsky appeared at the Russian Foreign Ministry shortly after the October Revolution. The staff had served the Czar and the Aristocrats who were in charge of the Czar’s Ministries. To them Trotsky (and the other revolutionary leaders) were nobodies and certainly not fit to lead a Foreign Ministry. They did not quite realize that Russia and the world had changed forever.
Even when Russia was coming to grips with Stalin’s crimes against humanity, Hoxna was still an apologist for the Soviet Dictator, whose “mistakes” cost millions of lives.
Seeger had joined the Young Communist League as a young boy, and was a supporter of Joseph Stalin until all the information about Stalin was made public by Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Seeger, along with other Stalin apologists throughout the world realized that the criticisms of Russian Communism under Stalin were not just right wing propaganda.
The “execution” to which she refers was the famous speech given to communist party leaders by Nikita Khrushchev where he publicly revealed the worst crimes of Stalin and Stalinist Russia. Prior to that, publicly Stalin was godlike in the Soviet Union. Decades of disillusionment with Stalinist Russia set the stage for the fall of the Soviet Union which was also accompanied by massive corruption, economic chaos and a diminution of the standard of living of most Russians. Some, including many of the younger people who had not lived through the Stalinist horrors, were resentful that the great era of Soviet military, scientific, and political greatness and dominance was completely overshadowed by the revelation of the purges, gulags, terror and murder. Prudnikova represents that school of thought.
Sailer’s point is well taken though the accuracy of the numbers in his comparison depends on definition. If one assumes that the Hitler murders are confined to the 6 million or so Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals then his numbers are right, But most people include the 22 million Russians killed in WWII and the other WWII deaths civilian and military and then Hitler caused deaths are much greater. However, the numbers are not critical to his point which is that under the guise of promoting equality many dictators have caused many deaths just as have the dictators who were preaching inequality. Extremism is always the problem.
Communists had different reactions to the atrocities committed by Stalin. Many, like Buck condemned it and remained committed to Communism. Others, were so outraged that the left the party and had no more to do with Communism. Others were in denial and did not believe it. Still others acknowledge the crimes but consider Stalin, on balance a positive force. A few concluded that what Stalin did was necessary for Communism and the Soviet Union to develop.
