So, over the past year I have learnt so much about the amazing achievements these men (and the party they were the leaders of) did that I was never taught. I’ve ‘semi-intentionally’ deprogrammed myself of so much anti-communism bullshit while having to live with that most still in the West, based upon misinformation, view them as ‘evil, 100 quintillion deaths, dictator, psychopath where muh freedoms’.
The reason I am focusing on Stalin and Mao in particular in this post is, to be very open, due to a truth-seeking hyperfixation that I must satisfy so I can move on to the next topic of intense, dopamine chasing, obsession. Yeah I love being me. Anyway, propaganda, mythologising, exaggerating and misattributed blame brushed aside, what is left?
I am quite knowledgeable of, thanks to some high quality M-L documentaries, educational videos and podcast episodes, the more obvious wrongdoings such as the Great Leap Forward killing of pests worsening the famine, purges of comrades who were legitimately innocent, re-criminalising homosexuality, support of Khmer Rouge and ethnic deportations to name a few.
I wouldn’t mind hearing more obscure examples, or a deeper analysis of the mistakes and unjustifiable actions I am already aware of. And as much as a few good book recommendations probably would give me the answers I crave, I am lowkey illiterate with long-form reading thanks to my ADHD (still waiting on meds after being diagnosed 8 months ago).
I’ll go ahead and save this, as I am also interested in this topic.
What I can say even before reading any answers is that all decisions, “good” or “bad”, must be viewed through the context of time and place. I’ve read some amount on the deportation of ethnic Koreans from eastern Siberia to Uzbekistan (I think? my geography might fail here now though) by the USSR and was clarified on the issue when it was viewed through the lense of looming Japanese invasion on the Korean peninsula.
100%. It’s really easy to condemn restrictive policies by moral ideals & modern social standards. Yet when the political sitaution, the culture, the technology, the material conditions (he said the thing!) are understood, it may not make that decision the ideal decision but it often makes it clearer it was better to do it than do nothing or why the party thought it was necessary.