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).
Wrt the ethnic deportations of Tartars, Chechens, and I’m sure others that I cannot think the names of rn, I’m of the opinion that it was a policy failure on Stalin’s/Politburo’s part. Like, I hear what you’re saying that it’s not dissimilar to USian detainment of Japanese Americans, but I think most people here will agree thay was pure racism from FDR and his administration. To the OP, a bit of a problem is that the best scholarship engages with the primary sources (as in most historical study), all of which are in Russian and/or the languages of the various SSRs. So if you’re looking for English-language books, you’re already kinda hamstrung.
Probably unpopular opinion to plug a lib source, but Sean’s Russia Blog (having trouble getting a link to work, here’s a UPitt link. I include cause I think it’s important to note he’s an academic: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/schoolsandcommunity/resources/seans-russia-blog-and-podcast) is a good place to start. I took his class years ago, he’s a good dude (I think, I ain’t his biographer). I specifically took a course on Stalinism with him, so he’s got lots of sources on that.
Good luck in your journey, the study of history is always worthwhile!
I think there was some level of racism involved in the USSR deportations, but also resentment from Nazi collaborators increased that racism factor. So it was like collective punishment for the crime of some collaborators, or for the possible existence of collaborators among their ranks.
I have yet to read any source for racism playing any part in those deportations. It also was not thought of as punishment for colllaborating, but rather a very pragmatic decision that does the least harm and reduces the potential danger of further collaboration as far as i know.
I don’t know if they ever wrote down their thought process for these decisions, but mine would be “these collaborators are dangerous to the socialist project and need to be removed. Can we kill them? No, we do not know exactly who it is and how widespread the problem already is. Can we kill all of them? No, that would be unquestionably evil and reactionary. Can we move all of them?..Maybe”
I do think racism played a part because during a long time Russian ethnic superiority was part of the major consciousness of the population. During tsarist rule ethnical minorities were mistreated, and many times forbidden to have their cultural practices.
While we saw during Stalin’s period many steps to overcome these prejudices, such as restoration of many of these many nations languages, this prejudiced past don’t disappear overnight. So, while I do think there was some pragmatism involved, I don’t discard the idea of collective punishment. Not to mention these deportations didn’t occur in the best conditions, people had to walk for long distances with their families (which could have children, elderly and sickly people) and not everyone made it to the end. I also think there was resistance in the process as well.
For the people that downvoted me, I’m not trying to demonize the Soviets like the average liberal. If any people have more skeletons in the closet than anyone, these are the Western liberals and Westerns in general. But what I mean is that the USSR wasn’t perfect, there was a historical precedent, and it wasn’t like the existence of socialism made disappear all prejudices overnight.