lpetrich

Think of Totalitarianist as a religious apologist, with the "religion" being Stalinism.

Totalitarianist

However, unlike those, these are well established facts of history, facts which are accepted by all historians (although downplayed - but nonetheless accepted - by some historians).

Totalitarianist

The so far not refuted facts above in the original post prove that Stalin was not paranoid. If anyone was paranoid, it was Yezhov. No, the man was not paranoid: you are ignoring the huge unground of Tzarist spies, the terrorists, the Fascist and Nazis spies, Hitler's "Fifth Column", the British spies, the Christians -- that huge underground of spies who could easily "pass as a proletarian element and climb the ranks of the Party"; you are ignoring the "overwhelming extent of Japanese and German sabotage and espionage"; you are ignoring the British spies who were bribing bodyguards to arrest Bolshevik leaders; you are ignoring the assassinations; you are ignoring the "Old Bolsheviks [who] had become high-ranking Soviet officials"; you are ignoring the Zinoviev letter; you are ignoring the conspiracy of ambassadors; you are ignoring the Trotskyites who were cooperating with the Japanese, Germans, and Americans, who were calling for civil war, who were cooperating with terrorists to crush Stalin, who were plotting, with Lev Kamenev and Gregory Zinoviev, to murder Stalin; you are ignoring the state of the Cheka; you are ignoring the Christian terrorists, the Tzarists -- all facts which are agreed upon by, again, even the most fanatically anti-Stalinist historians. Yezhov was aware of all of this: Stalin - and this is another undeniable fact of history - refused to believe it! Stalin said that it is "just not possible". This is another reason why the Party chose to execute Yezhov -- they believed, erroneously, that he went "too far".

hezekiah jones

Originally posted by Totalitarianist
"... I predict that the subject of discussion shall once again be me ..."

Because you're cooler than Stalin.

lpetrich

Our resident Stalin-lover has claimed that the Soviet Union had been under siege by hordes and hordes of evil plotters. But is there any evidence for the existence of the large majority of those plots?

He reminds me of the more fundie type of Xtian, the sort who quotes the Bible absolutely uncritically. Only in his case, he uncritically quotes the statements of Stalin and his underlings.

Totalitarianist

You remind me of that same "Fundie" who, instead of refuting the well established facts of history to which I have made mention above, simply attacks the arguer and can only say of these well established facts that they are "wrong": you remind me of the "Fundies" who refused to look through Galileo's telescope. The facts are there, but you refuse to acknowledge them, you ignore them: you are no better than the Holocaust deniers.

No, I am not quoting Stalin. I am stating that which I have read in books of history by famous non-Marxist Western historians, the same people that you would be inclined to quote. I am, it is true, quoting historians such as Conquest. What I have said is agreed upon non-Marxist Western historians.

seebs

Hang on, how does the existance of enemies disprove claims of paranoia?

Anyway, it seems to me that the primary victims of Stalin's purges were not his enemies, even if he had enemies. That sounds like paranoia.

Misso

Like seebs said: "how does the existance of enemies disprove claims of paranoia?"
You seem to have a warped idea of what proof is. Proving he was right some of the time (such as these facts you posted do) does not, in any way, prove he was right all of the time. You have, so far, not proven that Stalin was always right in his suspicions. Untill you do, Stalin remains paranoid.

Godot

Looks like this one is boiling down to "it's not paranoia if it's true".

Totalitarianist

History proves that he was, in fact, surrounded by enemies within the Party. Yezhov knew this! If anyone was paranoid, it was Yezhov, who conducted the purges, who hid the number of people he killed from Stalin. But Yezhov was not paranoid -- he was right! If the Party chose to let Yezhov live, the traitors within the Party might not have taken over after Stalin's death, those same counterrevolutionaries that not only denounced Lenin and Stalin, but reinstated capitalism.