Exposing the Ruling Class’s Cartoonish History of Socialism, Stalin and WW2
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- Опубликовано: 2 апр 2024
- Watch the full interview here: / full-video-of-101592291
Pro-capitalist ideologues in politics, media and academia have been hard at work slandering the left in an effort to subvert any true understanding of socialist history. They do this by constructing narratives around socialism, communism and leaders of socialist states to lead people to dismiss the idea that there can ever be an alternative to capitalism.
To discuss this and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Henry Hakamaki and Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, co-translators and editors of Domenico Losurdo’s “Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend.”
Henry Hakamaki is an educator, activist and co-host of the Guerrilla History Podcast. Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, is a professor in the Geography Department and Environmental Studies at SUNY-New Paltz.
This is just part of this episode. The full interview is available for Breakthrough News Members only. Become a member at / breakthroughnews to access the full episode and other exclusive content.
#BreakThroughNews
Seeing Lenin himself join the discussion does give it credibility
🤣👍
Right, I was surprised to see him so resembling Lenin-almost a copy of it.
Reddit lied. They told me Lenin spoke English in an Irish accent
I was about to say the same😂
Not just Lenin, we got Beria too 🤣
I recently saw a video of a British historian condemning the Bolshevik revolution because it led to "Gulags and the Holodomor", seemingly unaware of all the famines, executions, and concentration camps that were a mainstay of British imperialism.
Also the bolsheviks didn't create the gulags it was a carryover from the tsars and temporary prison system that was abolished in the 50s
Exactly
andolodomor is not real
@@nicholascharles9625 if westerners called them prisons instead of gulags, it loses the wow factor, can't be critical of it when every system has em
There only ever was one gulag. The term gulag refers to the specific prison system using prison labour in the USSR. Anyone, especially historians, who use the term gulags in plural just do not know what they are talking about and are simply parroting talking points
Parenti has a measured take on this issue in his classic book Blackshirts and Reds. The lies in real time we are witnessing today regarding pretty much every issue should inspire any serious intellectual or historian to revisit and question the western narratives surrounding anti-imperialist revolutionaries.
Good point!
Reading parenti now ❤
@@sejaleeuwen Great 👍🏽
We Stan our Italian man
B&R exposes the West entirely, the ouster of the duly-elected communists in post-war France and Italy are appalling and barbaric. Years of Lead
"When war, poverty, incarceration, deprivation are gone… That will be the Beginning… Of the Civilized World" - Jaque Fresco
Great quote by a great man.
I'm inspired by him and many other great humanitarian thinkers, like R. Buckminster Fuller who said: "It is now highly feasible to take care of everybody on Earth at a higher standard of living than any have ever known. It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete. It is a matter of converting our high technology from WEAPONRY to LIVINGRY."
Only thing Fresco lacks, and it is a crucial ingridient, is class conscience. And the little lie in that dubious claim that "al isms use money" - communism is a socioeconomic system without money.
You should ask yourself - why do you admire those system approved thinkers, and not those who were and are able to bring revolutionary changes, such as Marx, Lenin, Stalin...
@@losmilosmi1917 Because good and bad is a matter of where you are born...
Interpretation of good and bad can be related to where you were born but there are some absolutes: tiny minority having most money and power vs overwhelming majority with almost no power and insufficient money is definitely bad. When anyone gets in the way of a wondering man seeking information and historical context by offering system-approved revelations, that dude is effectively bad.
Marx had the idea that workers should not be slaves, but that that they should own the places where they work. That's why the greedy billionaires who own everything and thinks they own the workers who slave for them, fear his teachings.
"When our turn comes (the proletariat) we will not apologise for the terror".
@@nicholascharles9625There should be no terror. There's no need to stoop to the level of the ruling class. Let's recall that every ruling class was (up to the Marxist concept of the DOTP) and is the minority of society which exploited the majority. During the DOTP the ruling class will be the majority. From that, there is no reason to terrorize a minority as they will be irrelevant.
@@nicholascharles9625 the terror of justice
My question is if the workers on everything how will money continue to be made? Will everyone still remain poor? Would rich even Be a thing? You will have a underclass regardless
@@nicholascharles9625this is why things like this fail. Unstable people in control of movements
The word “Gulag” is an acronym for the Russian phrase Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration.
Thanks to comrades Rania, Henry, and Salvatore for this excellent conversation
The boys were a little too wordy, their points could have been significantly condensed
Looks like this one snagged some right-wingers based on the comments so far. Welcome. As you can see, we have plenty of books available on the topic for those of you interested in engaging in good faith. I found Losurdo to be quite harsh on Stalin, moreso than I expected.
The problem that only some of get, is that left wing movements inevitably become right wing once they get their hands the levers of power. Power corrupts, and the same people will rise to the top.
Intellectualism is a simple and often abused method of hand-waiving away the red left on Stalin’s white gloves.
What does Losurdo say that is harsh about Stalin? The discussion in the video has nothing harsh to say and everything is "contextualized".
From the discussion I take it that Stalin can't be held responsible for anything that happened because he couldn't be since the "Great Man Theory of History" is wrong. Is that right? Does Losurdo deal with the promotion within the USSR of the "Great Stalin Theory of History"?
The tacit argument of the discussion is that because Stalin is still demonized by capitalism and that Stalin was on the right side of the civil war in the Bolshevik party. i.e. my enemies' enemy is my friend. But this isn't said clearly and we are not told about any of the differences between the sides in the civil war. Did Lenin ever use this method? I've never seen it. In "What Is To Be Done?" (1902) Lenin called for "political exposures". All the discussion in the video of "narratives" indicates the adoption of liberal view that politics is just a struggle of ideas. It is not surprising that Marx is quoted from 1842, when he was still a radical democrat.
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I thought the following was interesting
30:52 "Something that's talked about within society all the time well why did Stalin sign this pact with Hitler again decontextualizing it from history not looking at the pressures that were on the Soviet Union the fact that they were facing invasion and also not looking at the fact that the other Western Powers were doing the exact same thing. In 1933 the UK, France and Italy signed the Four-Powers pact with Nazi Germany, in 1934 Poland signed the Hitler-Pilsudski Pact. In 1935 the UK signed the Anglo-German naval agreement. In 1938 in September the UK signed the German-British non-aggression pact. December '38 France signed the German-French non-aggression pact, etc etc. I have many more examples why was it only the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 that's focused on in terms of this so-called alliance with Hitler"
- He left out the fact that after Hitler's appointment as chancellor on 30 Jan 1933, the first inquiry from Moscow as whether the new government would honor the 1926 "Treaty of Berlin (German-Soviet Neutrality and Nonaggression Pact)"
- Given Hitler had made public the Nazi plans to destroy the Soviet Union shouldn't everything possible have been done to prevent his government from either coming to or staying in power? (After 30 January 1933 the new regime gradually escalated repression but it was aided by the passive capitulation of the leaderships of the German Communist Party, German Social Democrats and the German Trade Unions to their own destruction. There was a massive march for May Day 1933 in Berlin, with the approval of the fascist government. The following day the leadership of the trade unions was arrested. Almost no one discusses this so I wouldn't expect that to be raised by Losurdo.)
- Aside from this, why should we judge the signing of the M-R Pact by the standards of capitalist governments? What about the working class? On March 1, 1936 Stalin told American journalist Roy Howard that the Soviet Union "never had such plans and intentions" for bringing about world revolution and that it had been a misunderstanding, "a comical one. Or, perhaps, tragicomic". The first Moscow Trial was held 19 to 24 August 1936 based on forced confessions, especially from Zinoviev and Kamenev. (How does Losurdo "contextualize" that?)
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The present breakdown of capitalism with its response of war, austerity and dictatorship is also forcing the revival of all the old anti-communist tropes, myths and stereotypes.
Those who are serious about these questions should watch the above video closely and compare it with the following:
Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Epoch of Imperialist War and Socialist Revolution
ruclips.net/video/FbLoocV4fvE/видео.htmlsi=3avVZ9HvUM1ibAWC
Спасибо вам за попытку рассказать правду о Сталине!
✊
It's hilarious how they still use the mustache twirling villain narrative, to this day, when discussing Putin, Xi and Maduro...
Yes while I don't like putin I do understand why he did invade ukraine and honestly if nato didn't lied about not expanding the war might have not happened
@andrewreynolds912 What makes you dislike Putin? Russians love him, at least 87.5% of the country's population. If we compare the way he took over the country and what is now, there will be no doubt that it has become better. What did he do to you personally?
@@andrewreynolds912 I 100% agree... I'm not a fan of Putin, and I doubt I would vote for him if I was in Russia. I would vote for the KPRF. They wanted to invade in 2014, which would've averted this whole mess 8 years later. But Putin chose to protect the investments of oligarchs, instead of bursting the abscess as it formed, letting N**O and the n**is form bonds. Something the communists have been criticizing him for, ever since.
@@aliona4817 Because a lot of commies still vote for him. I understand why, it's a pragmatic choice. He is HEADS above any oligarchs we have in the West... But still, his colluding with the Church and the ruling class annoys me to no end. And I don't think he'll ever escape that Wagner nonsense. He gave way too much visibility and opportunity to people that have no allegiance but to their own greed. One should never trust mercs...
@@noneyobidness3253 It looks like you've never managed anything more complicated than a coffee maker)) Each person has his own opinion and one law that some people ask for is categorically undesirable for others. The president's job is to coordinate different interests and compromises. Putin is not a $100 bill to please everyone. He is the head of the country, who for the first time in the last 70 years has been leading a reasonable and fair political strategy.
I have the italian original and also the previously available english translation, which was made from the portuguese.
It's an excellent book, typical of Losurdo in that he uses the same sources as Stalin's enemies to demonstrate the flaws in their accounts.
Grover Furr is also very good at this, exposing the bourgeois lies
"Gain media prevalence and diffuse the narratives far and wide.." exactly Salvatore 💯👏🍉♥️
I still think calm, measured discourse on the benefits of free or affordable school, housing, medical care as well as sharing wealth that all generate yields more results than trying to walk back the narrative. When people can quietly imagine how their lives could be lived free of scrambling paycheck to paycheck just to pay the rent, perhaps a glimmer can happen outside of the smothering fog of the narrative.
Both the narrative and the everyday reality must be addressed.
I'll take freedom and struggle over a ghetto and welfare check any day. You will never convince the majority of people of utopia. It's never going to happen, you ignore human nature.
All of these benefits should be labelled and seen as democratic first and foremost. For demos by demos!
For those who want to know what really happened:
Furr, Grover (2016). Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Truth About Mass Repressions and the So-Called Great Terror in the USSR. Kettering, Ohio: Erythros Press and Media. and other books on JS.
(note: this is not a click bait)
Professor Furr wrote a number of books on Soviet History. One can easily find his bibliography on Wikipedia (while it's not removed from there)
What makes his books different - access to original Soviet archives of the JS era
BC CAPITALISM doesn't kill people. Right? RIGHT?
[eyes roll so hard, they bounce to the floor]
Not to extent of what these systems did at times purposefully “for the cause”
@@switzjon8405 In the US alone, 60K people "expire" for lack of healthcare. We currently have 1 million homeless. I will not even fold in the millions we've unalived abroad in furtherance of our hegemony.
If you believe our current system is the best we can do, as a start, I recommend you read/audio 2009's Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher.
Capitalism did a good job of lifting us from the dirt of feudalism. It is now time to move beyond it to meet our current needs, or we will suffer the consequences.
Best to you
@@switzjon8405 Also, if we keep doing what we've already done, we'll never know what we COULD do.
We can use the mistakes of the past to learn.
We do not have to repeat them.
At present, we have a system we KNOW works neither for the vast majority of humanity nor for the planet itself.
We must do better, or be consigned to the fossil record.
Sorry about your eyes. Get well soon! 💐
@@Dorian_sapiens 😂
V I Lenin comes back to defend jis fellow comrade Joesef 😂
(Henry is rocking that lenin look)
I have captured the Marx look , Groucho that is .
Lenin was aligned with Leon Trotsky to a far greater degree than he was with Stalin. Lenin was prepared to break relations with Stalin over his rude treatment to his wife (search: Lenin 813. To Comrade Stalin). In one of his last documents that he produced before his death (search: "Lenin Letter to the Congress"), he also advocated that Stalin be removed from his post as Secretary General-- here is the direct quote:
"Stalin is too rude and this defect, although quite tolerable in our midst and in dealing among us Communists, becomes intolerable in a Secretary-General. That is why I suggest that the comrades think about a way of removing Stalin from that post and appointing another man in his stead who in all other respects differs from Comrade Stalin in having only one advantage, namely, that of being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite and more considerate to the comrades, less capricious, etc."
Here's another one for you , maybe we shouldn't have billiionaires.
الحريه ولخلودلفلسطين
I've been listening to Guerrilla History for years and Henry and I are internet pals but I hasd no idea he was just fully leaning into looking like Lenin lol
Stalin was Georgian
And Hitler was an Austrian immigrant. So?
He was Soviet first, ethnic identity doesn’t matter for big thinkers and doers whatever one thinks of their actions
He wasn't "Soviet first" he was born in the Russian Empire... in Georgia @charlotte1369
@@valentinbarinov in aspirations and beliefs in what’s best he was Soviet, what does the place and time of birth have to do with it
@@charlotte1369 You really don't know anything about the USSR or history!
I love Domenico Losurdo!
Marvelous conversation, and will have to check out the Stalin book. Also looking forward to that other book on ecology of the soviet union and cuba. busting these capitalist narratives is crucial work!
Great discussion. Thank you all.
Thanks for fighting this all-pervasive lies
Glory to the resistance!
No, not resistance my friend, something much greater and dignified and assertive. Resistance implies dragging feet into the ground to futiley stop the inevitable march of a greater will. Resistance is for our wretched rulers, to resist the inevitable will of humanity.
Workers of the world, unite!
Losurdo's work is brilliant and important.
Everything the usa said is absolutely otherwise
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
I mean, not "everything."
Most...
@@SlickSimulacrum like 99.99%
Commendable. America was steady and informed in our convictions against Hitler after which cleverly the anti intellectual fascists made it a talking point that we were always to be praised for and gradually forbidden to understand and examine what all really happened
Well to be fair WW2 was in fact won by Rolls Royce. After all they invented the Spitfire's Merlin engine and rah rah rah.
Americans supported Hitler before the outbreak of war.
@@SofaKingShitww2 was won by the sowjets and no other.
US banks paid to put poor austrian painter in power , no? All those fast vehicles for blitzkrieg were maid by US factories in Germany using captives prisoners slave labour.
Sh*t!!!! I hadn't heard of that CREEPY "resolution" against socialism!!!!! Gawd .... 😂
Stop Netanyahu now, Israel.
Half interesting, half informative, totally great.
Thank you so much for this!
Finally, a great discussion !
A greater discussion would be those for or against it.
Way way way too wordy. These men need to learn to condense their points. Needlessly padded with academic-tinted fluff.
Thank you all for having & sharing this informative discussion/conversation🙏👍🙏
You should do a program on how American democracy is not all it's cracked up to be.. Or what a wanko Thomas Jefferson was..🙃
Jefferson advocated for a 100% inheritance tax to prevent plutocracy, a geometrically progressive land tax to destroy land monopolies, supported the first modern socialist experiment New Harmony, supported profit share businesses and not joint stock businesses (fisheries during Washington presidency), gave away land to poor farmers in Virginia, supported 2 years of free tuition for the talented poor in University of Virginia, wrote the first outlined proposal for a universal public education system, was an abolitionist, supported freedom of religion for all denominations and atheists, supported free speech and press, equality under the law
And this is just the short list. Maybe socialists should own him as a liberal precursor? The fact is they did historically. And the best most developed example of that is John Stuart Mills socialist writing.
“Smash that button!” 😊
How much do Marxists have to say about planned obsolescence?
Karl Marx used the word 'depreciation' 35 times in the first two volumes of his major work. But consumers did not go into debt for cars designed to become obsolete when Marx was alive. There were 200,000,000 motor vehicles in the US in 1994. Where is the data on the depreciation for the last 30 years. Does the Left or the Right know what is going on?
something about the falling rate of profit maybe
@@magnusmauritz8191
I consider 1900 to be a kind of crossover point for economics and technology.
When Henry Ford started selling Mode-Ts his competition wasn't other car makers it was horses. By not changing the design he brought the price down and down. He should have done an upgrade every 5 years. But other manufacturers had to duplicate his methods.
How low would prices be with thin profit margins if we didn't have so many makes and models of EveryThing with high reliability and durability.
But there is more money to be made encouraging consumers to be ridiculous and economists ignoring the depreciation of durable consumer goods.
This was so good! It's so hard to shake these old narratives.
thank you for this useful broadcast, as someone who commits the sin of posting russian music on youtube, i can confirm the suppression is real
congrats for the work and the courage
Interesting: the German Translation of losurdos book is about ten years ago and of course i enjoyed the book. Good ti see an english Translation.
Btw: you have a new subscriber
I've read quite a few books about Stalin. He was a super giant amongst world leaders. Very few leaders have transformed their nation from an agrarian and feudal society to a nuclear power in one administration.
You're a star Rania ❤
Very interesting discussion. Rania seemed a bit nervous at the beginning with the mention of the name Stalin. During Stalin's time tremendous progress was made for the common people and the environment. That's because what they had then was the dictatorship by the proletariat. To get an idea of what that looks like in practice I would recommend the book Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan - great for understanding the class relationship between democracy and dictatorship. There is no such thing as universal democracy or universal dictatorship. It's all about which class has state power. While classes exist (even under socialism) there can be no such thing as a state of the whole people (as that dimwit Khrushchov asserted).
Oh my God! It's Lenin himself! 😂
There were concentration camps in both England and the USA, but for some reason it was the GULAG that was made special... Even about the camps of the Third Reich , so much is not said or written 😱
My dude is so decided that he literally grew Lenin's facial hair
Hey, if you have it - flaunt it! 😂
This is an awesome episode! I think that we could counter anti-socialist propaganda by relating various current and past forms of socialism to the present and the future.
What is the name of the book that they are referring to, where you can download the pdf?
Besides a beautiful mind she also has magnificent smile
Perhaps you are aware that in the fall of 2017 that President Putin dedicated a memorial in Moscow to the victims of Stalin. Before the dedication he suggested, perhaps oversaw, a debate about Stalin throughout the country, with knowledgeable moderators in charge of the various debates/discussions--"so that they wouldn't tear each other apart."
That’s fine. People died in purges and Russians don’t want to forget that lesson. Still. Stalin was at the helm of leading their country to win against the Black Plague of the third reich invading them in operation Barbarossa. What mind and organisational skills were needed to achieve this is beyond admiration.
What Russians have had enough was foreign interference in their historical revisionism such as simple number inflation. How many were purged? How many died, how many imprisoned and how many of the imprisoned were actually innocent? We hear ridiculous unsustainable numbers - millions and millions with claims that “Stalin killed more than the moustached man”. Huh? The Germans created a massive death regime and meat grinder battle tactics for 4 straight years, proofs available all the way. Yet, Stalin “killed more” and we can’t find any evidence for this? Nothing in the environment, no bones in the ground, no “death camps” no extermination sites, no physical proof for any kind. Archives are all open and no one cares - “oh Soviets lied”. And you, living overseas in the mid 20th century with no access to internal sources, have all the numbers. All pulled out of your backside, every time worse than the previous imaginary number - just for the sake of shock value😊
Middle panel member could spit a rap album
Bravo, Gentleman! Great journalism, Rania ❤
Happy to see our Comrade Lenin joining the discussion about Stalin.
Here is my part of the story and I deliver it without judgment in the name of peace. You can not expect people to tune in if you continually put up a paywall. I don't know if you understand how bad the economy is and how many are Fortunate just to have internet access. I stay with my sister and Splurge 12 dollars a month on RUclips just so I can listen to complete thoughts that aren't interrupted with an incessant bombardment of gun ads 3 decibels higher. I have been trying to express that you are also shooting yourself in the foot. Holding a story, perhaps the truth, hostage from many who have not the capability to raise your ransom. You are playing into the caste system and reserving "what you possess" to a select group. You are in a position to do Much ✌️I always hit the like for circulation purpose but Do Not watch your brick wall posts💫 Peace ❣️ Asherah
From my POV and just from what I have read. I see Lenin as having been a voice for the working class and poor. IMHO there were bad actors that infiltrated and took Lenin's party over. He was a staunch proletariat, his last few years in office were done in a state of incapacitation after having been shot 3 times and enduring a series of strokes.
I'll give you a short timeline of events:
In 1917 Pravda, the Bolshevik newspaper, refused to publish Lenin's 'April Theses' on April, 17th, 1917.
Just a year later on March 3rd, 1918 Lenin would sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which effectively withdrew Russia from WWI.
4 months later, on July 16th Yakov Yurovsky on the orders of Yakov Sverdlov executed the Royal family.
2 weeks later on August 30, 1918, Fanny Kaplan, would try to assassinate Lenin after a speech at the Hammer and Sickle factory.
And just 3 days after that, while Lenin was convalescing, Yakov Sverdlov, who ordered the Romanov family executed and who I believe actually controlled the Bolsheviks put his 'Red Terror' plans into motion. Ultimately killing over 26 million Christians.
Lenin would never fully recover, yet remained Head of State until 1922. His dream of a proletariat, worker led government wold never be realized. Having died just 2 years later after suffering several strokes due to the assassination attempt 6 years earlier.
For me a big push to reevaluate and rehabilitate Stalin was when western propaganda started to compare Putin to Stalin.
Two things for me. Vice President Henry Wallace visiting the USSR and reporting favorably and how he was replaced by Truman and smeared after WW2.
And the Holodomar originated as Nazi propaganda. It was completely debunked in the 1930‘s. Hearst kept pushing it even when debunked until the US entered the war.
After WW2 Stalin was painted as a super-villain but interestingly enough no one mentioned the Holodomar, at all til the 1980‘s by Robert Conquest during a time when USSR was opening to the west, interesting that Ukraine declared independence next.
Then after the USSR fell several historians debunk the holodomar again.
Then conveniently Holodomar rises from the ashes regardless of the overwhelming evidence that it was not an intentional famine just in time to coup the Ukrainian government and to villainize Putin constantly.
It’s amazing how people don’t know that the myth of holodomor - not actual famine, but the intentional ethnically based genocide it is represented stemmed from allN@zi propaganda.
Atributing characterístics of a single man to an entire social movement, specially on the context of revolution, is not just miopic, but malicious.
If we look no farther than México's president turned dictator, Porfirio Díaz, we could make the same asumptions about capitalism. But who will accept it as a conclusion?
During Porfirio's 30 year long presidency, México industrialized at an incredible speed, thanks to foreign investment, but Debt and inequality increased even faster.
Workers had basically no rights and protests were shut down with bullets. All this led to the Revolution.
Now, if you ask me, this sounds awfully familiar to what some people has been trying to do in the United States. But it doesn't have to be the only way, even if it's clear that capitalism = segregation and exploitation, it would be of no use calling Porfirio Díaz the embodiment of capitalism.
46:27 Cuba has actually not been affected significantly by the embargo. Only between 1991-1994 when the USSR fell they felt it. They recovered in 1994-2008 where they saw a 5.12% average annual increase in GDP while they received no soviet aid. Their growth was consistent with similar sized countries around the world, and there is no serious evidence the embargo has had a significant impact on Cuba's economy. That is a whole nother narrative created by the ruling class in itself
What I find remarkable is how we need to understand the nuance, the “forces at play”, the “forcing of certain decisions” which make Stalin a figure of greys. I don’t see this same courtesy extended for the purported bourgeois interests.
The “monstrous” decisions which Stalin made were not really his choice! In fact, he had no choice! Through the framework of historical materialism, we can understand that everything we might find reprehensible about Stalin was all forced on him! All the good which came from him was of course his doing and not a function of historical materialism, but all the bad wasn’t really his fault! All the monstrosity…
Boo for cutting it off
I’m waiting for all the Stalin memes!
Everyone wants to demonize Stalin or use him to justify what he stands for. Few want to actually understand him.
Grover Furr has so far been the only historian to completely debunk the Nazi/Capitalist propaganda, and also Krushchev's lies against Stalin.
Do any of those clueless speakers can even imagine how it was like to live under communism as ordinary person? The purges killed hundreds of thousands and most of those were random low level bureaucrats or even ordinary people just because there was a shooting quota or a GULAG quota to be filled like my great-grandfather who was purged in 1938, he was a low level clerk in a town in the middle of nowhere. Or, how another relative was sent to Siberia in the 70ies when someone snitched on him having a samizdat book. The last case was my own mother who was about to get kicked from college for saying something wrong and her prospects were saved by my father's family because they had connections with someone in the Oblast level nomenclatura so they managed to smooth the incident.
Even if the Soviets had managed to create a decent standard of living it wasn't worth living in fear and the actual standard of living was horrid. My parents wasted hours each day to line for crappy food so I won't go hungry.
Thank you, Breakthrough News. Interesting topic. Interesting guests.
There you go 5 euros for you smart comrades
In reality, one form of ideology needs a wall to keep its people in, while the other needs a wall to keep people out.
It really amazes me that adults in 2024 can still believe that socialism is a good thing. "Oh, but that wasn't true socialism". I think you'd have more success marketing it as a religion. And, it is really interesting to me to see A. H.'s (WW2 fame) play book playing out in the US today. A bloodless revolution in the making.
So what should we believe then ?
@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 Have a brain? Use it and educate yourself. Stop listening to dressup clowns on RUclips.
@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 Good question. There is no human answer for it. Humans are subject to corruption. Institutions are subject to decay. Countries are subject to decline. The American revolution succeeded because the idea was strong and there was no negative consequence. Overthrowing the British didn't affect the food supply or change day to day living outside the combat zone. But every human system devolves over time and the top 1% or 10% reap outsized benefits and the bottom 90 or 99% carry the burden. That has been true since forms of organizing society sprung-up to compete with Monarchies. Being a product of a constitutional republic, I like a system that champions the individual. History is filled with systems that championed the collective but I wouldn't have wanted to be one of their faceless drones. A middle class needs to develop for a society to be stable. That doesn't have a chance in some forms.
Communists & democrat, socialist and fascists
I grew up a poor working class girl in southern Virginia, and I worked hard in school and went to college and went to law school as a single mom, and after getting lupus, I was hiding it easily until I got a workers comp injury . My bastard well off the supervising attorneys found out and made my life miserable when I was in pain so I would quit and I only quit because they weren’t Martha torture and I got another job somewhere else. Plus, I made more money.. I’m a Christian and my supervising attorney was Lutheran and her dad was a Lutheran pastor and another attorney. There was Baptist, but they came from the upper echelon of the system for the proletariat and they were leftist.
The people in charge, regardless of ideology, should simply have the people’s best interest at heart. The problem with power is it often attracts the wrong kind of person, so we can talk until we are blue in the face which ideology is correct but the importance of any ruler’s guiding ideology pales into insignificance next to their motivations.
I’m going for the Trotsky goatee but imma try out the Lenin first.
Agreed, most of option 1) the known socialist esp communist movements seen in history were variously flawed. BUT that does not automatically prove that option 2) an oligarchy with absolute rule of the 1% (eg France, England of 18th century monarchs) as many current Conservatives apparently advocate is the ONLY alternative.
If you don't advocate option 2) above, then where DO you stand?
These days, you have to be rich in order to watch leftist/socialist programs. What the hack is going on? More and more channels allow to access their videos only to those who pay. How the working class individuals can afford paying for all of this? This is not what socialists, but opportunists do.....and why starting the video with that clip? Many people watch only first few minutes of the video (it is like reading the title only), and that clip leaves bad impression. The content of this video was very interesting, however. I wish, I could see the rest of it.
Where can you get the pdf for free? I couldn’t understand what he was sayin. Someone halp lol
FYI, that Congressional resolution you refer to was sponsored by Salazar, whose parents parents were exiles to Miami after the Cuban Revolution. Try to contain your shock.
Grover Furr: The Truth About Stalin's Leadership, Trotsky & The Opposition
Grover Furr Dismantles "Stalin's Gulags" & Solzhenitsyn
I'd recommend Furr over Losurdo as Furr debunks Polish and UKR sources and knows 3 languages Russian English and Ukrainian. Possibly Polish. He is a Stalin simp which could be a turnoff but Stalin himself never liked cults of personality and even discouraged them to no avail. But if your anti Stalin I don't trust you. Mistakes or not, He should be held as an overall good for socialism Xi has no issue with it. Seems to be primarily a Western issue.
@@hopedream11 and what makes you think i am anti Stalin?
@@fred6319 I don't think they were saying that you yourself are anti-Stalin. I think they're using "you" in a general way: "If a person is anti-Stalin, I don't trust them."
War is not good guys vs bad guys it's bad guys and worse guys. Worst often wins.
Losurdo for the win
The part of the spectrum no one talks about. Eugenics>German Labor Party>Nationalist Socialism>Hitler>Hindutva+Hajj Amin al-Husayni+Havaarti Agreement
I want that book!!!
Fun fact marxist also liked or if im correct loved democracy. Their can be democracy within a communist or socialist society/country thats a thing in cuba is im correct and their government is pretty popular.
You can also look at anarchist societies and their requirement to have an inclusive voting process as an example. Proudhon, Kropotkin, and many other anarchist philosophers believed in federated communes that had implementations of direct democracy over a representative democracy that we see common in places like the U.S.
Extremely interesting, thank you.
In 1843 Marx directed his followers to implement the "abolition of religion", and the destruction of those civilizations "whose spiritual aroma is religion"...
Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Karl Marx (1843)
"The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion."
...and...
"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions."
...and...
"It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world."
Now you know what Marxists are referring to when they utter the phrase, "The Struggle"...
"The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion."
This is why all Marxist nations immediately wage war on religion, murdering clergy and influential laity, then populating religious seminaries with Marxist operatives.
I supprised when saw Trotsky on interview !
Ty❤
Does the book explore any of the false narratives created by socialists or communists as well? Would make it very interesting
An interesting POV. Thanks
If a narrative is packaged with little details and slanted against a specific idea, it is always good to question. Even something that seems out of place can make sense with more context. Often context is lost or intentionally ommitted. Be wary of those who would do this as it is revisionist and they often have something to hide.
I don't know about everyone else but in my public education, i had next to no information provided about the horrors of socialism and communism. All the materials provided was about the US, our path from England, US history, and capitalist/ inventor stories. All of the progressive pushes made never had any mention of underlying groups involved. All of our wars were often overly simplified. When good societal progress was made it was America did this. Bad events were polished or essentially rewritten into a false events to be celebrated or justified. I only learned the right wing talking points shortly after researching the red scare. The fact that people were so extremely persecuted for dabbling with other ideology shows that the powers that be saw it as a threat.
I enjoyed listening to the guest on the right. Not many people are ready to analyse complex things and try to understand all the whys. Stalin was a major historical figure. He was a tough terrible person, but if not for hi, who knows what could have happened to our country. Russia needed super speed industrialisation to get ready for war. It was like a long-run pre-war mobilisation. The more country is under attack, the more authoritarian the government structures become.
Good observation.
Chairman Mao joins the meeting
As a socialist im aware i dont know everything as for me its hard to find information either that or im just dumb. Some socialists are st'upid but a lot of times its not their fault as they read or can misunderstood certain things about what this or that happened.
However many capitalists and any person who favors certain things or economic models can have some who are stupid so thats something you cant full avoid to happen for any one who favors a model but i know its more complex
"и Ленин такой молодой...!" 🎵🎵 😂
“Gulags were certainly brutal on some occasions..”
А ты лесоповал видел? Рабочее место суровое и травмоопасные. Потому и привлекают туда либо большой зарплатой либо заключённых. А если оно ещё и глухом месте то найти работников - проблема.
What do you guys think about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?
☝️😮
Lenin and a magician join Rania to discuss Stalin!
Good to see Lenin supporting Stalins grab for power
In 1931 Stalin said "We are 50-100 years behind the West. We have 10 years to catch up. Either we do that, or we'll be crushed".
And he was right. Maybe even a bit too optimistic. Sadly, Russia was a backward agrarian country before the revolution and the civil war (supported by the West against the USSR) didn't make things better.
That makes me view the purges of the late thirties in a different light.
It was a moral dilemma for Stalin. Either go hard and let some innocents die, or go soft and risk everything that people sacrificed their lives for be destroyed, communism crushed and millions more of innocents die.
1937 год это наша трагедия, это вышедшая из под контроля операция по чистке в преддверии войны, неизбежность которой стала понятна с подписанием Антикоминтерновского пакта. Операцию запустил Сталин, и в этом его ответственность. А из под контроля её выпустил Ежов, за что и был расстрелян и гореть ему в аду. 800 тысяч смертных приговоров за 37-38 год это ужасная цифра, и 80% из этих людей не заслуживали смерти. Они были либо ложно оговорены, либо вся их "вина" была в недовольстве положением в стране или старыми связями с уже осуждёнными людьми.
Я бы добавила, что именно поэтому отрицать и переписывать историю нельзя - историю нужно понимать, принять и идти вперёд. Поэтому, я только за статуи Ленина, Сталину, императору и всем важным лидерам которые принесли вклад на развитие и защиту России