Educate me Holla Forums, why did the Russians under Stalin obey all his commands...

Educate me Holla Forums, why did the Russians under Stalin obey all his commands? How is it possible for a single man to control that many people without any resistance? Why was there no mass defection by his armies if they were treated so horrifically (e.g. shot if retreat). Is fear truly that effective?

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Movement
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Army
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Look at the west. “Hate speech” laws. Imprisonment for questioning the hollow hoax. Jail, execution, unemployability.

Yes. The vast majority of people are weak. I’m still coming to terms with this, because I can’t comprehend such base nonsense. It’s not possible for me to understand because I’m not like that. Just as it’s difficult for me to understand, by default, that the mindset of non-whites is wholly different from that of whites.

Demoralized populace. Secret police keeping on top of naysayers. Smart leader types given cushy jobs. Everyone ratting on each other. Watch the lives of others, it's a good film at explaining what your asking.

he had to purge people, nigger
read a book

If you didn't obey your leader, the secret police would come to your house and send to to rehabilitation camp death camp.
I live in Romania and during our communistic dictatorship, there could have been a member of the secret police in every neighborhood and their children would go to the same school as the other people's children. If they heard little John saying what his father believed about communism and it was against what the party deemed acceptable, he would report it to his father and John's family is sent to reeducation camp prison.

I think in the mid-20th century there was still a sense of awe for the "Great Leader" who can do no wrong. The cult of personality was especially strong in semi-backwards places like Russia (Stalin) and China (Mao), where only a generation before, the Tsar or Emperor was seen as something somehow different from an ordinary man…some sort of intermediary between Heaven and Earth, infused with divine rights and mandates.

It wasn't too hard to get a bunch of peasants to transfer the same type of awe to a Stalin or a Mao or a Pol Pot. You would have had a harder go of it in a Western Euro nation or the US, where the "divine right of kings" had not been a living concept for centuries. But 70 years ago it was still powerful in the east…don't forget Shinto-Extremist Emperor Worship in Japan…

We are now used to seeing our leaders "warts and all" picked at by the media constantly. Even in the East I think you would have a hard time reassurecting those attitudes. (North Korea may be the last holdout in this regard).

The excesses of the supreme leaders themselves are much to blame, of course. Its just not a way of thinking that lends itself to the world as it is now.

After looking at the other responses in this thread again I will agree that most people are weak and easy to intimidate…but it seems to be a process that takes on a life of its own, flowing in a decentralized manner from bureaucratic institutions, universities, the media, etc. rather than a single individual at the top of the pyramid, which is a more archaic type of social control.

Its like you can't into social science

Loads of Soviets switched sides, non-Russian and Russians too.

A lot of Russians defected but the USSR used their propaganda to make it look like they were fighting for Russia and not for Communism.

Once they were in they had no other choice than to charge at the Germans and maybe get shot or try to retreat and get shot by the commissar in charge.

Every seems to forget that Germany or Prussia fought against them in the First Word War, so fighting against them in the Second (a continuation of the First, only 30 years prior) was the natural thing. It's a shame that more people couldn't have figured out the enemy that godless Communism was, but that's war…

Basically, you work or they kill you. If you question they kill you. If you're unlucky they kill you. It's no much wonder there wasn't particular desent.

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
TL;DR "Russians are fucking pussies" - Russian combat vet and gulag survivor

There was a resistance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Movement
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Liberation_Army
There was mass defection, especially in 1941.

Good interesting stuff lads, thanks for the replies.

why did the Russians under Stalin obey all his commands?

Because they wanted to live and Stalin is a extremely brutal man whom purged so many people along with the jews. When he passed away, everything is destalinizated and people are happy that he is gone forever.

How is it possible for a single man to control that many people without any resistance?

There is a large secret police and they spied on everything. That is why the former USSR parents are strict on the children to ensure that they don't get deported or executed.

Why was there no mass defection by his armies if they were treated so horrifically (e.g. shot if retreat).

This isn't true. There are many defectors to leave USSR for the better life.

Is fear truly that effective?

Yes what else can he manipulate people to do what he wanted at all cost. He is a total control freak with no regards of what the people thought of him.

Power resides where men believe it resides. And the russians have a predisposition to being enslaved.

Slavs are a race of slaves.

...

Sheep culture. The worship of power. I don't know.

Why I never understood is why didn't they just shoot the commisars? It's not like the fuckers were walking around in sci-fi power armor, they were just a target easy to overpower by any trained soldier

With what?

With whatever they fucking had, and not even that, I just don't get how a pack of terrified men being forced to charge into walls of bullets couldn't just charge the commisar barehanded instead and kick him to death

Ever been in a room with a fuck huge retard that could be set off at the drop of a pin?
That's what living under Stalin would have been like.

Many probably did

secret police everywhere, loose talk could very easily get you v& and you would never be seen again

People, especially in villages were mixed in communes so to say, settlements housing many people in the same room, casually with strangers. There was virtually never (especially after it gained traction) confidence in your comrade, or any planning.

GPU was supposedly extremely feared. Just the other day, I have read the following remarks:

"The same Cheka officer says that one of his superiors, known as a massive drunkard said: "In Permo I have shot so many people, that they, if I am not drunk, gather around me begging me to spare their lives". -He follows: "In those days in Ekaterinburg basements and chekas were crowded with arrested people. Here there were officers, villagers and priests. Villagers were under accusation of hiding wheat. Every night a number of these "parasites" (as they called them) was "liquidated"… and "liquidation" (execution) was by shooting, was not individual but en masse. There are designated "commissars" for shooting, but officers themselves were performing executions for entertainment. After that "job", that often lasted entire night, Starcev and Ivanov (chief), would get dead drunk, and would not come to office for several days".''

So overall, you get the climate. I recommend checking documentary related.

NKVD purges after Cheka purges plus Comissars.

Add to that even so many russians defected to german side