this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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YSK that Joseph Stalin created the Great Terror. He started killing people randomly including artists, generals, doctors, scientists, government officials. Everyone was terrified. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Valnao@sh.itjust.works to c/youshouldknow@lemmy.world
279 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Joseph Stalin was a communist leader friend with Leon Trotsky

Trotsky was a communist revolutionary and intellectual. He once wrote "In politics, obtaining power and maintaining power justifies anything" in his book "Leur morale et la nôtre"*

In this book, Trotsky justifies the use of lies, manipulation, bribery, spying, infiltration of other political parties, even hostage taking. He says absolute ruthlesness is necessary to wield political power. He concludes "We are acting for the greater good. We can't be restrained by normal morality"

Joseph Stalin took Trotsky's advice literally. So he murdered Trotsky because he saw him as rival. Stalin also started killing people because he believed they could be sympathetic to capitalism or opponents to his personal power.

Matvei Bronstein: Theorical physicist. Pioneer of quantum gravity. Arrested, accused of fictional “terroristic” activity and shot in 1938

Lev Shubnikov: Experimental physicist. Accused on false charges. Executed

Adrian Piotrovsky: Russian dramaturge. Accused on false charges of treason. Executed.

Nikolai Bukharin: Leader of the Communist revolution. Member of the Politburo. Falsely accused of treason. Executed.

General Alexander Egorov: Marshal of the Soviet Union. Commander of the Red Army Southern Front. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Arrested, accused on false charges, executed.

General Mikhail Tukhachevsky: Supreme Marshal of the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the Red Napoleon. Arrested, accused on fake charges. Executed.

Grigory Zinoviev:: Communist intellectual. Chairman of the Communist International Movement. Member of the Soviet Politburo. Accused of treason and executed.

Even the secret police themselves were not safe:

Genrikh Yagoda : Right-hand of Joseph Stalin. Head of the NKD Secret Police. He spied on everyone and jailed thousands of innocents. Arrested and executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda

Nikolai Yezhov : Appointed head of the NKD Secret Police after the killing of Yagoda. Arrested on fake charges. Also executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov

Everybody was absolutely terrified during this period. At least 500 000 people were murdered. Over 1 million people were deported to Gulags, secret prisons in Siberia, where they worked 12 hours a day.

Joseph Stalin decided to crush Ukraine for resisting communism and supporting independance. In 1933, he seized all Ukraine's food. In the next months, 5 million Ukrainians were starved to death. The situation was so bad that thousands of Ukrainians turned to cannibalism. When Nazis invaded Ukraine, some Ukrainians thought they were saviors

https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor

https://www.history.com/articles/ukrainian-famine-stalin

Hitler was a monster, but we really don't talk enough about how bad Stalin was.

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[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 157 points 1 month ago (16 children)

All my life I’ve seen Stalin listed with people like Hitler and Pol Pot as murderous despots. How the hell are we “not talking enough about how bad he was?”

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 113 points 1 month ago (7 children)

We're on Lemmy. A not insignificant percentage of the crowd are tankies.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 31 points 1 month ago (8 children)

It doesn't have anything to do with Lemmy. American education has always given a pass to Stalin, probably because he was an extremely helpful ally in WW2. We are taught in America that WE saved the world when we entered WW2, but the reality is that the Soviet Union lost many, many more lives at the hand of the Nazis than the other allies, including America. The Soviet Union's contribution was easily as significant as America's. When the Soviets finally defeated the Nazis in Russia, and started marching toward Germany, one Nazi general said "If they treat us half as bad as we treated them, were in big trouble."

So coming out of the war, school curriculums taught about the current cold war propaganda, but Hitler was the bad guy they focused on, not the guy that helped us beat him.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 month ago (4 children)

American education has always given a pass to Stalin

Really? Stalin's Soviet Union is why Americans have such a knee-jerk reaction to the concept of communism. We had entire moral panics that people might be brushing their teeth in a particularly Soviet way. The Soviets have been rivals or enemies a lot longer than they were allies. You find me an American that doesn't agree with the statement "World War 2 was won with British intelligence, American steel and Soviet blood."

My American Education included...what Americans know as the Berlin Airlift, I'd be curious to learn what the Germans and ex-Soviets call this incident. That Germany as a whole was divided East/West, with the Western half being controlled by the capitalist allies, and the East being controlled by the communist Soviets. Berlin was too, despite the city being located well into the Eastern half. So there was this little enclave of capitalism in communist East Germany, some barbecue in the borscht.

Boiling this down a bit (there was some nonsense about Russia resisting the west introducing the deutchemark) Stalin blockaded the city with the ultimatum "become communist or starve." The West responded by flying in supplies by air, using the rationing expertise the British had developed during the war along with USAF and RAF airlift power. One pilot started dropping little parachute bundles of candy to the children who would hang out near the airport watching the planes, and when President Truman heard of this he ordered the candy drops increased.

It was that easy to come off looking like the Big Damn Heroes in this situation; they come bearing cold and starvation, we answer bearing fuel and food.

If anything, it's the Japanese our schools go easy on; Imperial Japan were easily peers of the Nazis in the atrocity department, yet more American textbooks contain the word Auschwitz than the word Nanking.

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As Eddie Izzard joked about mass murderers like Stalin: "The reason we let them get away with it is because they killed their own people, and we're sort of fine with that. Oh help yourself! We've been trying to kill you for ages!"

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Her^[For anyone that doesn't know, Eddie Izzard is now Suzy Izzard] bit on Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk_pHZmn5QM

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[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 1 month ago (6 children)

the thing I love about tankies is they hate the US as much as I do 🥰

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[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I live in Canada, the general vibe we get through our culture and education is that Hitler was #1 worst guy in history, everyone else was a close second.

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[–] VinegarChunks@lemmus.org 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I had probably 10 times as many educational hours dedicated to Hitler and the Holocaust as I did learning about Stalin.

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[–] OilyArena@lemmy.ml 81 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Is this post satire?

"Stalin was a communist leader inspired by Leon Trotsky"??? The two were massive rivals with completely different ideologies.

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I can hear the Hexbear slop community furiously masturbating at thought of ripping this post to shreds.

As they should, with factual errors this fucking baby-brained

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[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 79 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Honestly, the guy was a real jerk.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 33 points 1 month ago (3 children)

the more I read about this Hitler guy the more I don't like him

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Adolf Hitler? The art student?

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[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 51 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Hitler was a monster, but we really don't talk enough about how bad Stalin was

Not only is The Double Genocide Theory a form of soft Holocaust denial, it's deeply comical to claim "we don't talk enough about how bad Stalin was". Yes we fucking do??? American popular code culture has been built on anti-Communism for decades!

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago

You don't have to be a psychopath to obtain power, but it makes it easier. You do have to be a psychopath to want the power to murder indiscriminately.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 41 points 1 month ago (10 children)

Joseph Stalin was a communist leader inspired by Leon Trotsky

Obvious factual error in the first sentence. Sigh. They don't make nazis like they used to.

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[–] lemonhat75@lemmy.today 35 points 1 month ago (7 children)

That's why I'm a capitalist, who famously have never killed anyone for being a communist

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[–] BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Yet people still don't know the difference that he was an authoritarian that forced a grinding, socialist state on his people over what actual socialism/communism is.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago (39 children)

Could it be because "actual socialism/communism" has never existed in reality and every time it was attempted, it turned out to be a "grinding, socialist state"?

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That presumes they were trying socialism/communism and not just using it as a cover for their authoritarian ideology.

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Also crazy that he just died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 74. If it weren’t for that, he’d probably have another 20 years in him.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's possible he was assassinated.

People forget there was around a dozen actual documented assassination attempts, the first in 1931.

That's always the problem with being in power, there's almost certainly someone who wants to get rid of you, but the more paranoid you behave about it the number of people who want you gone increases.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say that an alcoholic in his 70s who died from cerebral hemorrhaging was assassinated.

Stalin spent the last 15-20 years of his life getting blackout drunk every single night. He also forced all of his top ministers and generals to join him in this drunkenness.

The full story is wild.

Then when Stalin died, everyone sort of knew that he was having a medical emergency, and they left him laying on the carpet to die for hours.

Which is also a wild story.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 10 points 1 month ago

He was slowly poisoned over years by this arch rival, Stalin.

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[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I swear this exact post was made a while ago here

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[–] Allero@lemmy.today 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Everybody was terrified

Not really. Many thought the charges are real, and that Stalin led them to a great future with an iron fist, that's all. The problem was, there really was no due process involved, so many of those thinking it won't affect them were indeed affected. My great grandfather has made some enemies at work, so they reported him on false accusations. The "investigation" was brief, he was arrested, never to be seen again. This was a shock to the family, who never expected to get into this, being law-abiding citizens.

Stalin decided to crush Ukraine

Also known as Holodomor, this topic is highly contentious among historians. There is no definitive proof that this was intentional and not a massive failure on the side of early Soviet logistics, which was a mess at the time, plagued with dishonest reporting, high latency, and other systemic issues. Still, this did lead to a massive famine killing millions, so it's not to be taken lightly.

Stalin is indeed a highly contentious figure, and a lot of what he did has led to grave consequences. But it makes sense to set the record straight. Besides, history should serve us as an advisor, and not as an ideological battlefield.

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[–] Dojan@pawb.social 16 points 1 month ago (8 children)

"In politics, obtaining power and maintaining power justifies anything"

I mean if that doesn't sum up most big name politicians I don't know what does.

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[–] Sgt_choke_n_stroke@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Guys DAE umm...... Stalin killed a gorrillion people I know this because my 5th grade teacher told me in history class. And that's why communism is really bad

THE END /s

Did we finish animal farm today and the teacher told you the Pig = Stalin?

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[–] dellish@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (6 children)

And now for those who haven't seen it, or haven't seen it for a while, go and watch The Death Of Stalin. Brilliant relatively truthful satire of the events preceding and after the event.

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[–] PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Truly a paragon. Transcending above racism, classism, or religion, he believed in and fought for equal opportunity murder.

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[–] chloroken@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Fascist slop. Disregarded.

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Whenever someone says we have to take control no matter the price and ignore all our previous values and laws you know what is coming next.

I also like murdering every capitalists so you can be the only one. Very Highlander.

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[–] Gork@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 month ago (23 children)

Do people actually defend Stalin still?

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