[lbo-talk] Gulag query

[Chris Doss]

>I do remember being struck that *both* of Gorbachev's grandparents were
>arrested during the 1930s (although both survived): his paternal 
>grandfather
>for failing to meet production targets, and his maternal grandfather for
>being a right-wing Trotskyist. Stalin was much harder on Communists than on
>peasants and workers, and the closer you got to Stalin, the lower your
>chances of surviving became...
>
>Brad DeLong

The recently deceased grandfather of a friend was a Red Army officer in WWII 
(he was in his 90s -- remembered seeing both the tsar and Lenin!). After the 
war they shipped him to the Gulag for two years; he then became a chauffeur 
for the Kremlin. They were the perfect employees because they would never, 
ever screw up.

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