A system that kills people because it believes them as a class, without evidence, or indeed with it, to oppose it ideologically, is vile and unworthy of defense. That's not hard.
Of course we know apart from the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" that murdering "enemies of the people," their wives and children, was considered a normal part of socialist legality -- see Art. 58 of the Soviet Criminal Code, proscribing "Anti-Soviet Activities."
Old Soviet joke: One zek asks a newbie,
What did you get? 25 years. What for? Absolutule nothing. Liar! For absolutely nothing they give you only 10 years!
There is no other sane answer. This ain't rocket science. It's elementary human decency and first principles of political philosophy:
1) You don't kill or jail or fine people because of what they do tink;
2) Much less for what they might think or who they are related to;
3) You don't apply state sacnctions of any sort without meeting minimal standards of due process and individualized determinations.
Otherwise, you're an enemy of the human race. And an apologist for such conduct deserves no respect or consideration.
That's the conclusion decent people draw. Hope you do too.
jks
--- martin <mschiller at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Jan 12, 2005, at 10:15 AM, andie nachgeborenen
> wrote:
>
> > I
> > say that it is essential to a proper appraisal of
> the
> > Stalinist system, which is no longer really an
> object
> > to be defended, but merely assessed. I don't
> dismiss
> > the positive aspects of the Soviet experience. But
> > apart from insisting on the negative lessons of
> total
> > planning, I see no point in apologizing for the
> > intentional evils and cruelty of the Stalinist
> > dictatorship. Note that I reject the high body
> counts
> > of the likes of Conquest and Solzhentisn -- I go
> with
> > Getty's and Davies' much lower figures. But the
> lowest
> > of those figures give us 8 million dead in the
> planned
> > famine in the Ukraine.
> >
>
> It seems that what you describe as kulaks might be
> anti-communist,
> being ambitious and focused on self. Then they died
> because state power
> decided that communism's survival was threatened.
>
> What assessment do you draw from that observation?
>
> Martin
>
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>
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