Ask Lemmygrad

753 readers

56 users here now

A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

How to counter "Stalin bad" arguments? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Me and my girlfriend pretty often have heated but respectful political discussions and recently we were discussing Stalin. She thinks that he was awful, mainly because of repressions, cult of personality etc.

When I say that repressions were actually good and Stalin didn't kill enough fuckers, she gets a little angry, but I can't seem to explain my position in great detail because of lack of knowledge.

In the case of the cult of personality, I say that Stalin WAS loved by the majority of soviet citizens because he did a shit ton of good for them, but she still doesn't quite get it.

What arguments would you suggest to use, or maybe something to read in order to deepen my knowledge on the topic?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Domenico Losurdo "Stalin: History and critique of a black legend" is the best book on the topic.

Early USSR was in a permanent state of emergency due to several factors like the backwardness it was found, devastated by war, foreign powers invaded, counterrevolution threats, and the rise of fascism in the west.

Losurdo builds on this foundation for his defense of Stalin, compares his policies to those of the "free" west (these would be called whataboutism by liberals) and, what makes his book special, it exclusively uses anti-communist sources to contradict these narratives.

In the book you will find even quotes of Hitler struggling to comprehend how these primitive people managed to develop, Goebbels accepting that they underestimated their material development, Goebbels enjoying using trotsky to cause unrest, different western leaders praising Stalin prowess, etc...

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

It's always an uphill battle because people are way too conquered ideologically, but what i always point out is that the USSR under his leadership defeated Nazi Germany and that is something they cannot take away from him.

Would these western leftists have praised Stalin if he didn't push for rapid industrialization and forced collectivization, and ultimately lead to the USSR being enslaved by Nazi Germany?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Would these western leftists...

Yes. The western left loves the communists who were crushed.

You would hear "Stalin would have built a much better nation than Mao did." Just like you hear about Trotsky.

load more comments (1 replies)