Evangelion

:notworthy

Evangelion

No harm done. My guess is that he goes for anything with a pulse, so...

However did you guess?!

Demigawd

Could we get some book titles, web links, credentials, full names, etc., concerning Lockhart and Panaggio? Proper scholarship requires these things be provided for your readers.

Godot

T:
why don't you provide some context for us to understand in which direction you want the discussion to proceed? As it stands, you've enumerated a number of unsubstantiated claims (references are useful) and compiled a selective list of supportive quotes.
To finish of with a statement to the effect of "thereofre I am correct" is poor scholarship as it does not truly allow your own thoughts to come through. It is quite apparent that you put some work into this one, but since you have not provided any direction for discussion, the general concensus will be to shrug with indifference, and potentially bait you for your outright silliness.

If you are truly interested in debate and/or discussion, why not provide us wth your personal opinion on the matter and then provide some justification in support of your position? You obviously want to be taken seriously. Why not revamp your OP in such a way that people might treat it as a legitimate discussion?

Corona688

I think the problem is that arguing about if Stalin was
-paranoid
-insane
-a true marxist
-etc.

is TOTALLY irrelevant to the fact that he was a monster that had a boatload of people killed during his time in power.

You might say, "But that's not what I asked!" but when people see you recitying hymns for Stalin and singing his praises, people get the pretty clear idea that your motivation is to show that Stalin's really not such a bad guy. And even with all this dressing up of Stalin in evidence of questionable merit, you haven't been able to show that he is not a horrible monster and didn't have all those people killed. THAT is why people are ignoring you.

Totalitarianist

Opinions cannot be verified. I would much prefer to state a set of related facts, and have my conclusion, namely that Stalin was not paranoid, flow from the facts, as they have. What I stated in my original post is that on which even the most anti-Stalinist 'historians' agree, including such fanatically anti-Communist and frequently cited 'historians' as Conquest; these facts, however, are overlooked when the same 'historians' adduce to explain Stalin's 'brutality' in terms of his 'paranoia', a claim which is gradually being discredited by the new generation of historians in light of the Soviet archives. These facts, among many others, make it manifest that Stalin and particularly Yezhov's suspicion was justified, regardless of whether the resulting purges and so forth were brutal or not. The suspicion itself was justified, was reasonable, was sensible, and hence there was no genuine 'paranoia'. At any rate this is gradually that upon which the new generation of historians agree, that which hitherto unavailable archival evidence tends to indicate.

It is worth noting, also, that the man who conducted the purges, Yezhov, was executed for going 'too far', for hiding the actual amount of executions from Stalin (which is probable). But did he really go to far? It would seem so if we ignore or downplay the facts, as many people do with regard to Stalin. Executing the loyal and faithful Yezhov was one of Stalin's greatest mistakes in my opinion, for that prodigious underground of spies and anti-Stalinist counter revolutionaries eventually took over -- that is a well established fact of history. (Some historians say that the execution of Yezhov is evidence of Stalin's paranoia, ignoring the fact that, by Western standards at least, Yezhov did in fact go 'to far', ignoring the fact that his execution was a majority decision -- Stalin insisted that he simply 'apologise' -- ignoring the fact that Yezhov was openly threatening to purge high ranking members of the Party for simply disagreeing with him. Of course, that last one might be justified if only we could read Yezhov's monograph, "From Factionalism to Open Counterrevolution", which is said to show how factionalism leads to counterrevolution -- didn't it?)

As Yezhov once said, "[M]y great fault was that I did not purge enough of them". History shows this to be the case, with the anti-Leninist pseudo-Socialists eventually taking over.

Totalitarianist

It is not my job to prove that Stalin was not a monster. It is your job to prove that he was a monster, for making making the positive assertion.

lpetrich

Totalitarianist's defense of Joseph Stalin is nothing more than bull excrement. It's the old excuse of "enemies are everywhere!"

I'm reminded of how someone from Khomeini's then-new regime had defended that regime's persecutions by stating that the old Shah's secret police, the SAVAK, was still a big troublemaker. Which is absurd, since there was no more Shah regime to employ it. Which suggests that its agents have either been executed or gone into hiding or fled the country -- or changed sides.

And defenses of McCarthyism -- how many Soviet agents did that infamous finger-pointing senator ever find?

And how the Nazi leaders portrayed the 1933 Reichstag fire as proof that the Commies were on the march and had to be forcibly suppressed before they do anything worse.

And those who defend the Crusades and the Inquisition and assorted persecutions of witches and heretics.

Misso

Of course Stalin was right a couple of times. A man in his position has enemies. But just because Stalin was right about a few things doesn't mean he wasn't paranoid. If one suspects everyone, logically one also suspect people that are actually malevolant towards him. This being right a few times doesn't erase the fact that one's wrong about all the rest.
If one's right, he's suspicious with a reason; if one's wrong, he's paranoid. It's a thin line, but Stalin was still paranoid.

Harumi

Oh really?

Ever wondered that perhaps because the reason your "readers" are acting like this is because they find your theories ludicrous and a good source for jokes?

I come to your threads just to see what others have responded. It surely makes my day.