[lbo-talk] Stalin Again (Was Re: OFFLIST: )

Chris Doss itschris13 at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 24 07:04:13 PDT 2003


OK, this is pissing me off.


>
>No, I'm hostile to these ugly apologetics for Joseph Stalin.

I have never issued an "apologetic" for Joseph Stalin. I am not a Stalinist. However, I am interested in reality, which you apparently are not. I have pointed out that he was a) probably not insane and b) that he was a complicated historical figure.


>A desire for freedom and an open society is just a matter of "taste?"

A) The post-Stalin USSR was a lot less repressive than you seem to think it was. B) I know lots and lots and lots of people who say life in the Soviet Union was enjoyable. C) Yes, it is a matter of taste. It is a value judgement that says I prefer liberal freedom to economic freedom. BTW Russians tend to prefer the latter.


>The Soviet Union "did not ban books?"

No, it did not. As Wojtek, who lived in Communist Poland, has pointed out, the CP simply did not import or print books it deemped ideologically inappropriate. However, there were private imports that were perfectly legal, including of Solzhenitsyn by the way.


>This argument is over.

Thank God

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