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CCIP · 06-21-11, 01:29 PM

I actually have no sympathy for Stalin whatsoever and I don't think he needs to be defended.

My problem is that the war and its decisions weren't just Stalin (or just Hitler or just Churchill etc. etc.). You can't personalize history this way and you can't merely focus the characterization of a nation to one person, or even one quality, and then spread it to everyone else. The order aside, what troubles me about these discussions is "Stalin/communism was evil, therefore..." - wait, therefore what? What would you have liked to see? Denying assistance? "Hitler" beating the "Russians"?

Again, I have no issue with giving Stalin his due condemnation, and individual decisions like this - and many others - deserve criticism for their inhumanity. But to suggest that this requires a revision to what the Soviet effort in WWII really meant - and doing that on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the German invasion - is gross and frankly just a cover for Russophobia/McCarthyism/Orientalism. That's frankly my names for that.

06-21-11, 01:29 PM	#12
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	I actually have no sympathy for Stalin whatsoever and I don't think he needs to be defended. My problem is that the war and its decisions weren't just Stalin (or just Hitler or just Churchill etc. etc.). You can't personalize history this way and you can't merely focus the characterization of a nation to one person, or even one quality, and then spread it to everyone else. The order aside, what troubles me about these discussions is "Stalin/communism was evil, therefore..." - wait, therefore what? What would you have liked to see? Denying assistance? "Hitler" beating the "Russians"? Again, I have no issue with giving Stalin his due condemnation, and individual decisions like this - and many others - deserve criticism for their inhumanity. But to suggest that this requires a revision to what the Soviet effort in WWII really meant - and doing that on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the German invasion - is gross and frankly just a cover for Russophobia/McCarthyism/Orientalism. That's frankly my names for that. __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)