How do you convince people that Stalin wasn't a mass murdering psychopath? Simple question, I know. And I've been dealing with it for a while. But sometimes I do feel discouraged. Most people compare us to Hitler sympathizers and Holocaust deniers, and it's very discouraging to be automatically dismissed like that. It wouldn't bother me as badly if people were willing to listen, but they aren't. They just automatically mock you for not following the historical canon, and they compare you to scum like Neo-Nazis. I know Marxist-Leninists have much more historical evidence on their hands to prove their point than Hitlerites, but what good is that if people don't listen? I recently tried showing Grover Furr to a person in an online debate, but they immediately dismissed him because he's a Literature professor, not a History one. If someone has legitimate questions or criticisms of Stalin, I can handle them. But closed-mindedness, I cannot. It just makes me feel very discouraged. To most people, Stalin is the Russian Hitler, and when we try to defend him, we look as ridiculous as those people. So how do we handle it? How do we prevent ourselves from looking crazy to the ordinary person? Or should we just accept that there will always be detractors, and push onwards?
Well, I usually start out, if the conversation turns to Stalin (which it surprisingly often does once people know I'm a commie), by agreeing that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of millions. Many great men in history were. Take Abraham Lincoln who fought against Slavery: he sent millions of young men to their death. Likewise, Stalin sent tens of millions of soviet men and women into battle against Fascism and kept sending them after millions had been sent to their deaths. The question is not whether someone "kills" or not. History is one big bloody mess; the question is what the hell they are fighting for. Is it to eradicate slavery as Lincoln wagered? Or is it to enslave whole peoples like Hitler projected? Both can be decried as horrible mass murderers, as they each were responsible for the deaths of millions of humans, but one has to see what one kills for. If the person clings dogmatically to their anticommunist propaganda, then I have a line I like to throw at them: 'How many Billion of innocent human beings have been sent to their death by the Class Enemies in the Crusades, Slave trade, Colonial Conquests, World Wars, and Imperialist interventions?! Countless more will be sacrificed in front of the Altar of Property and Empire if true direct democratic rule of the working class is not reached.'
Overwhelm them with credible historical information (Deutscher, Losurdo biographies - not Ludo Martens) which places Stalin in the right context. People see Stalin as part of the "totalitarian" tradition, in one line with Mussolini, Hitler, Pol Pot and so on. If the person is a marxist sympathiser, place Stalin in the leninist, anti-imperialist tradition and place Hitler in the european imperialist tradition (where he belongs). If the person is not communist at all, only stick to the latter part and emphasize that fascism is a profoundly reactionary ideology. Demonstrate scientifically that the exaggerated death counts are wrong, ridicule them as cold war propaganda. Argue that Hitler's victims were killed mostly because of irrational, right wing ideas (social-darwinism, "race war" etc.) while there was some cold rationality and "end justifies the means" motivation for the victim's of "stalinism". Mention the execution of Yezhov as example for Stalin's justice. Prove that Stalin wasn't in love with his personality cult like Ceausescu, show them his real personality through the various sources posted by Ismail. Many people also don't know that he was a theorist of marxism-leninism, they picture him as mere brute. Inform them about the large collected works, especially interesting and relatable stuff like the H.G. Wells interview. Show them his epic speach after nazi invasion. Dismantle the myths about his supposed terrible leadership in World War 2, emphasize his merits during Great Patriotic War. Mention his popularity in Russia (the country where he supposedly killed 60 million innocents...). All these steps take a lot of time but it works out occasionally
Also remember that capitalism kills 15 million a year
Capitalism kills arround 25k people a day, so he who is free from sin cast the first stone...
Also remember that capitalism kills 15 million a year Whenever I use this as an argument, I usually get confronted with the challenge that deaths under capitalism are "indirect," whereas the deaths under socialism were planned and pre-meditated by the Soviet government.
Whenever I use this as an argument, I usually get confronted with the challenge that deaths under capitalism are "indirect," whereas the deaths under socialism were planned and pre-meditated by the Soviet government. So Stalin is going to purposely kill those who are feeding the country?
If Stalin killed so many people and only ruled through fear, how was the USSR able to survive the war? Did zombies of dead Stalin victims fight the nazis? Stalin united all the different people and cultures of the Soviet Union behind one purpose - the construction of socialism, a better future. The nazi invaders would have easily defeated the USSR if that wasn't the case.
[QUOTEDid zombies of dead Stalin victims fight the nazis? ][/QUOTE] Yes, actually
Trotsky, since when are you concerned with convincing people the truth about Stalin?
