Dear Leftcoms, if you were Stalin in 1924, what would have you done different? I'm genuinely curious, because every historical analysis of the situation would imply that Stalin literally made the best out to the situation he was facing.
No, this is a cheap cop-out. When you are given such responsibility, you have to do it justice. This is how the real world works.
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I wouldn't have killed off my generals.
Spend more time robbing banks and fucking Russian qts and less time ruining socialism.
Robbing banks is literally the most opportunist shit though.
Stalin offered his resignation four times, each time it was denied.
Reestablish collective leadership after WW2 was over.
Not murder half of the old guard.
That's about it. Everything else was 10/10 realpolitik.
thats a start. im not even necessarily against marxism-leninism, i think a lot of the shit cuba and vietnam have done to protect their gains was justified and that its impossible to be ideologically pure in real world governance so hard decisions need to be made. but come on stalin was shit
No doubt Stalinism was historically necessary given their conditions, but to claim that it was socialism is absurd. Russia needed to go through capitalist industrialism and Stalin did that. The issue was that the bureaucracy that he built to opportunistically seize power ended up destroying any hope the USSR had of building socialism.
It wasn't an alliance but whatever, why? Molotov-Ribbentrop was a reasonable deal.
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Genuinely curious, what indigenous people he purged? Are you referring to he Khazak and Chechens? They don't really count as indigenous people to me, as they have clearly taken on the civilizational nation-form at this point.
To my knowledge, unlike in every Anglo or Spanish country, the Siberian natives never got genocided or deported in Russia, neither under the Tsar, nor under the Soviets, nor under Putin.
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Never forget that the Molotov-Ribbentrop deal only happened after the every other power in the west gave the Soviets the middle finger, who were clearly threatened by Hitlerism.
So, Stalin decided to give the west the finger.
Obviously I'm not a leftcom but close enough to comment I suppose. I definitely see the argument that material conditions made authoritarianism necessary in the Soviet Union, but it is authoritarianism nonetheless. The USSR proved Marx's original thesis that socialism could only arise out of capitalist countries with fully developed industrial economies. The main take away from this is that third world revolutions must rely on authoritarianism to avoid being overthrown by the dominant capitalist forces surrounding them. This does not make the Soviet Union justified, however - it only further illustrates the importance of a succesful first world revolution.
Not a leftcom but Listen To Bukharin, Don't Purge My Own Military
Cop-out. If you were given the responsibility, you had to do something.
Also, history has shown revolution happens where material conditions are the worst, and the west has access to fascism, imperialism and social democracy, none of it was foreseen by Marx.
This thread is decent proof that leftcoms are one of the most reasonable factions on the board imo. Sure they can be overly negative about stuff they perceive to be opportunistic, but isn't being careful a good thing? Being inactive is often better than doing pointless, counterproductive shit. And with how interpassivity saps the energy from movements today maybe a few more contrarian leftcoms is exactly what we need.
Not a leftcom, but probably supported till the end the Greek revolution.
Pushed towards a more collective goverment, (wich probably would have saved the country from revisionism)
After WW2 push towards more worker democratic policies.
Supported international revolutionary movements rather than siding with the bourgeoisie.
collectivism as pursued by Stalin was crude and sloppily executed.
not purged the old bolsheviks, the military etc.
not be a philistine
Look, Stalin may done somethings wrong but holy fuck, can the whole Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact meme just fucking die? Stalin wasn't allying with the Axis, he was buying time and land. At least he saved the Baltic and eastern Poland from fascist occupation.
I agree that they should have done something but I think by justifying their authoritarianism you are missing the point. The Soviet Union would never have a chance at ushering in international socialism without a truly industrialized economy to back it, therefore the need for a first world revolution is present regardless of how they organize their society. I'm not saying the Russian Revolution itself wasn't justified, but the authoritarian aspects of the Soviet Union were unnecessary and based on unrealistic expectations for the role it would play in establishing international socialism.
Revolutions have historically only happened where material conditions are worst because of the inherent instability of these places, not because revolution in other parts of the world is impossible. For example, in France, over 50% of the population would support a revolution against the government despite strong socdem policies (to compare, support for the American Revolution at its start was something like 30%). To write off the idea of first world revolution is to write off the idea of socialism altogether, as one cannot exist without the other.
Yeah rounding up and deporting 4000 exiled German communists back to the Reich was really reasonable.
What do you mean?
From the economic perspective? If empty platitudes are allowed, then I say I'd try to make the move from the extensive domination of capital to the intensive one "less bloody". It's not like we could've achieved anything but some variation of capitalism since Russia was destined to undergo the agrarian revolution at that point, even Marx foresaw that
And I don't feel like talking about sending boypussy lovers to gulags and tatars to kazakhstan because everyone has covered that ITT
neck yourself faggot
Purge Lysenko and Berea, not purge generals, more funding for the air force and for projects that with my future knowledge I knew would pan out (IE, swept-wing jet fighters, sloped tank armor instead of land battleships, ejection seats, bazookas, molotovs, AK knockoffs, the Bomb, transistors). Not ban selective breeding research because >muh porky pseudoscience and try to de-politicise science in general. Hotpocket less stuff with the ability to use modern mass media techniques to neutralize dissent. Remove asbestos from shit. Send agents to kill Shickelgruber, Moose, Wanko and the rest of the fashy leasership before they take power. Fund more European gommies and maybe also try to court some of the pro-home rule groups in colonial areas, especially SE Asia with the Maotists and Uncle Ho. Encourage criticism, make nice with Lenin and Trotsky.
Import Bordiga, then step down
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Yes, we must support Operation Barbarossa against Sovet imperialism
lel, implying stalin wasn't an imperialist
It's only imperialism when the US does it though
He was such an imperialist that he didn't attack anybody for 15+ years until Russia was near the threat of a major war and he was the only one who sent aid to the Spanish civil war
truly an idol of anti-imperialism
There was no resignation system, you had to propose a vote to remove someone from power, which could happen to anyone at anytime, if a majority voted for it, the person is removed from office.
I forgot to take a shitpost flag off.
don't kill trotsky
don't kill bukharin
don't kill all the other bolshevik guys
don't kill my generals
don't make my whole country depend on the ukraine for food
don't invade poland
don't ban factions
don't call social democrats "social fascists"
don't poison lenin
what did he mean by this?
leftgommunism BTFO
Imperialist spotted. MODS
Why '24 and then mention Dauvé? He is much less generous than that. For Dauvé and most of the communist left things were already going sour mid-'21 (if not completely dead already) when the Comintern had taken its "pragmatic" swing to the right. The defeat of the European communists by social democracy and fascism just put the lid on the coffin at that point.
this is the only correct answer but also
realistically this is the best you could hope for in Stalin's position
en.wikipedia.org
really fires up those neurons
poles deserved it
and then invaded for countries that had nothing to do with Hitler.
objectively false
edgy
Why do retards get triggered by the Nazi-Soviet alliance?
because allying with your mortal enemy, and ideological opposite (you know, Hitler) doesn't really look like you're keeping up with those communist principles.
Fucking kill yourself
Stalinism was not the result of the actions of one deluded, evil, or misguided individual, it was the material expression of the counter-revolution. The Russian proletariat was isolated, they were fighting a brutal Civil War, and they gave away a third of their industrial capability to Germany in order to stop slaughtering other proletarians in the World War. The revolution had to degenerate from within. There was nothing possible left but the construction of an extremely brutal state capitalism, or the complete collapse of Russian civilization.
You want a "Great Man Theory" explanation, and there isn't one.
Get over it.
newfag here
who's the one of the pic
Top: Trotsky
Middle: Stalin
Bottom: Amadeo Bordiga (important [although overemphasized] figure in Left Communism)
