"Tragedies like this have occurred multiple times in the history of mankind. All this happens when an idea, attractive at first sight, but empty in practice, is put higher than fundamental values - human life and human rights and liberties,"
-- Vladimir Putin visiting the Butovo firing range where some 20 thousand people, including priests and artists were killed in 1937-38 alone.
IMO, Neoliberalism is one of those ideas, "empty in practice ... put higher than fundamental values" that must go the way of the divine right of kings and other similar political manifestations as they are Anti-Human. Here we see why Putin must be suppressed by the West for the truths he articulates, and the same must be said of Xi's many global initiatives.
There are claims (from propagandists of the Empire of Lies, that Stalin killed "millions" in his purges. Yet historians perusing official documents cannot find these "millions.
At worse maybe 1.2 million.
Stalin was demonised by mass hysterical propaganda. Same was done to Putin and Xi.
No masses of dead bodies needed to convict at the Court of Public Opinion.
Yet the same people refused to see real evidences of mass indiscriminate killings of Palestinians amounting to hundreds each day. All with photographic proof.
"An estimated death toll was hard to determine, for in those times people simply disappeared and the NKVD covered their tracks well. The official number stands 1,548,366 detained persons, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day. Various historians claim that the real number of victims could be twice as much."
"At first, it was thought that between 25 % and 50 % of the Red Army officer corps was purged. Recent evaluations suggest that the real number was between 3.7 % and 7.7%"
"Although estimates vary, most experts believe at least 750,000 people were executed during the Great Terror, which started around 1936 and ended in 1938. More than a million survivors were sent to forced labor camps, known as Gulags. "
"Until recently, historians had estimated that the purge claimed as many as 50,000 out of an estimated 100,000 officers. Now, thanks to greater access to Russian archives, we know that far less than 50 percent were lost, and even as officers were purged, new officers were added—almost 14,000 in 1937 and 57,000 in 1938. At its worst, then, no more than 12.5 percent of the officer corps was repressed."
Thankyou for debunking the Western propaganda and Khrushchev's lies, Stalin should be viewed as the hero who saved Russia and drove the developments that freed so many to achieve new dreams. But Putin seems bent on denigrating anything communist, Russia will end up forever underperforming China as long as he does this. Iran also seems to be much closer to a socialist orientation than Putin. Sad.
Roger, if you closely follow what Russia's doing under Putin as I do, you'll see you're perspective is mistaken. Why do you think the West denigrates Putin as another Stalin? because first and foremost his program to rebuild Russia from the destruction of the Yeltsin years has made Russia the massive and extremely formidable power it was under Stalin at the end of WW2.
Russia lost a lot of its technology industries in the 1990s and hasn't really built a lot of them back, it needs more of the developmental state planning that China has so successfully utilized. I see more of a progressive mixed economy social democracy in Russia, somewhat akin to the 1950s US, especially with the new prominence of religion (and the MIC acting as a mini development state). The Ukraine War has helped to get rid of much more of the Western-liberal intelligentsia, Russia needs to move further, and the sanctions helped drive some re-shoring.
Joint Ventures with the Chinese would help build back some of the lost capabilities while better utilizing the well educated population. Proper state-owned industrial banks would also help, the Central Bank is extremely BIS-standard in its policies.
I see the celebrations of the Great Patriotic War, but much less of what Stalin achieved so that the Soviet Union was capable of winning that war. The West will call Putin any propagandist epithet they can, Devil, Hitler, Stalin blah, blah, blah no matter what policies Putin follows, his crime is not being a sober version of Yeltsin.
I really don't see the point of comparison Russia and America. What's most important is what Russia is doing besides token symbolism seen in the west. Russias rebirth and internationally recognized efforts for human rights is its hallmark.
To make the comparison is to also make the contrast. Some are already aware of the differences, but many are not, and it's for them that they must continue to be made.
Thanks for the reply. All of my early research was via local library services. I got hold of what I could but even with access to county library services there was a severe limit to the range of information I could access. Consequently my knowledge of east and south-east Asia as very limited. Although I probably brushed up against some anthropological references to Melanesian culture at university in the '70s. Definitely food for thought though WRT the 'imperial project' aspect of my history hobby project. So thanks for that input.
Finally, I have a relatively simplistic attitude to health and well-being. Assuming your experience of hypertension manifests as headaches and is blood pressure related; if it was me I'd eat raw garlic to lower my blood pressure. I also assume that if my subconscious or unconscious is contributing to my experience of hypertension then I would assume some aspect of my conscious life agenda is not good for me presently. Then it's a bit of detective work. However, most people I know and have known think I'm a bit weird. So I leave it in your court and as always wish you the best ;o).
My hypertension was related to stress caused due to my being the main care provider for the Alzheimer's afflicted mother along with a diet that wasn't optimal. She's now passed away and my heart health situation is much improved. My reference is more to my daughter's condition and its causes. My chemistry is very good as is my heart physiology since I go to gym three times weekly. My main enemy is metabolic syndrome AKA insulin resistance where I'm classified as pre-diabetic. It can be defeated via diet and exercise, which is my plan. Thanks as always for your replies!
Completely off-topic, I'm afraid, but have you seen this? It adds considerable support to your theory (at MoA) that recent Ukrainian aircraft loss rates may be attributable to the entry of the newest A-50 AWACS variant. Interesting, I just stumbled across it now.
I think I am correct (but happy to be educated if wrong ) that Putin has said (paraphrasing) that Russia went through its period of madness and never wants to go back. The West in contrast is just entering its own (woke) version and dispaying many of the ills of the worst that the Soviet regime could produce.
Yes, that was the point of digging up all the materials that show Russia as a whole began its internal healing process in 1991 but was delayed by the Oulaw US Empire's Neoliberal Rape during the Yeltsin years.
It was a pleasant surprise to see Natalia Solzhenitsyn mentioned--still kicking at age 84. She must've pinched herself at being lauded. Somewhere, Alexander is smiling.
Yes, the civil suit by the King family that was decided in 1999 was most certainly ignored and buried. The court proceedings and evidence exist online for the curious. Unfortunately, the links are on my other computer which I don't have access to currently.
Thanks as usual Karl. If anyone is interested in the UK's history of violence might I suggest Caroline Elkins' 'Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire'. As to that perpetrated by the USA, where does one begin?
One place to begin is with "The Many Headed Hydra" by Linebaugh and Rediker, with Helen Hunt's "A Century of Dishonor" being another. But IMO, it's important to explore Imperialism's shared origins that predate the Roman Empire while also speculating on the psychological reasons for the coveting of material gain when settled agriculture became the main method of human organization 10,000+ years ago--what is it about Human Nature that threatens Human Co-existence? What mechanism prevents sharing the wealth? Freud's explanations don't provide any help. IMO, the answer lies within human culture.
Thank you. Got a download of Linebaugh and Rediker and a 2nd hand copy of Hunt.
I'm not sure that there is anything in human nature that threatens human existence so I am in agreement with you on the nurture/culture issue. That being the case Graeber and Wengrow's observation that there was an absence of the usual architectural evidence that indicates a ruling elite in the mid-fourth millennium, whereas by the mid-third millennium such evidence can be observed, is perhaps a clue.
My opinion is that Sargon was the first ever emperor and the legends that surround his founding of the Akkadian empire suggest that it took a relatively short time for the contradictions of early urban society and its recently evolved elite system to further develope into a regionally competitive oligarchy. Could it be the case that Sargon may also be understood as the first 'tyrant' or liberator of the people from local oligarchs?
Finally, my understanding of NLP, from a brief reading, is that it essentially reverses Freud's notion of Conscious and Subconscious in that it suggests that it is the Conscious mind that is potentially unstable and prone to becoming unbalanced and it is the Subconscious mind that seeks a balance or re-balancing. That might explain how the ruling elites of a wannabe empire/hegemon contribute to their own downfall. Inter breeding and glass ceilings. Sorry about the length of this. ;o)
Comment length is fine as is its content. Currently dealing with the likelihood of subconscious affect on physiology, specifically hypertension, through contributions to hidden levels of stress. Hudson's detailed history of Mesopotamia along with Graeber's work is very revealing. My big question relative to that is What about East & South Asia? I was fascinated with Melanesian leveling cultures when I first encountered them, and then there're the similar examples from the Americas. The other examples of human pathways are there but were relegated to the fringe by the dominant Europeans. That paradigm is now changing with the emergence of the Chinese pathway and its Confucian goals of Balance and Harmony. Xi Jinping Thought seeks to merge Chinese Communist ideology with its unshakable, longstanding Confucian culture, which IMO is far more powerful than Mao's Thought, which it seeks to complement, not displace.
This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, akin to Deng's efforts to undermine Mao's legacy through the massive exaggeration of the Great Leap Forward drought losses. Without Stalin the Soviet Union would never have industrialized at the incredible rate required to be able to beat the Germans and the Lebensraum would have been established, there would now be no more Russia. Xi has done well to stop the drift away from core Marxist values, and to see Mao as the overwhelming success that he was.
The period 1918 to 1941 was one of a constant battle to rid the Soviet Union of the previous regime throughout society and those that thought that a warmed up social democracy would serve the USSR well. Such periods require brutality and Stalin was the person for that. All such things end up with excesses (and the archives have shown that the excesses were much less than previously thought), but do not take away from Stalin's achievement. The rot set in with Khrushchev and the long decline of the USSR started.
Putin seems to want to erase and denigrate the communist period, calling back to the disgusting Tsarist period. The communist period did not just beat the Germans and industrialize the USSR but also brought new opportunities to the Soviet peoples that were not available to them previously. It seems that Putin is happy with a warmed up social democracy and vast differences in wealth. That's why the communist Party-state of China is so far ahead of it. Mao understood the mistake that Khrushchev was making by denigrating the communist revolution and Stalin, Putin does not seem to be learning that lesson.
Another good piece, thank you. For what it's worth, my remarks yesterday about Nuremberg hypocrisy were a) not directed at Russia alone but all the victor nations presiding who were all guilty of excessive war crimes themselves and b) the 'millions' in Russia I mentioned were mainly referring to those immediately following the 1917 Bolshevik take-over, so I wasn't think of Stalin necessarily, rather the whole bloody period. My admittedly limited understanding is that Stalin found himself having to purge the purgers in order to have a viable nation state capable of withstanding a German invasion and/or being able to mount an invasion of his own to realize the dream of turning all of Europe into a single, communist polity - the internationalist agenda. Further, the main point was that there were a whole slew during that sad period of 'show trials', which Putin also mentions, so setting up yet another such show trial in Nuremberg was hypocritical. Which it very much was.
"Tragedies like this have occurred multiple times in the history of mankind. All this happens when an idea, attractive at first sight, but empty in practice, is put higher than fundamental values - human life and human rights and liberties,"
-- Vladimir Putin visiting the Butovo firing range where some 20 thousand people, including priests and artists were killed in 1937-38 alone.
IMO, Neoliberalism is one of those ideas, "empty in practice ... put higher than fundamental values" that must go the way of the divine right of kings and other similar political manifestations as they are Anti-Human. Here we see why Putin must be suppressed by the West for the truths he articulates, and the same must be said of Xi's many global initiatives.
There are claims (from propagandists of the Empire of Lies, that Stalin killed "millions" in his purges. Yet historians perusing official documents cannot find these "millions.
At worse maybe 1.2 million.
Stalin was demonised by mass hysterical propaganda. Same was done to Putin and Xi.
No masses of dead bodies needed to convict at the Court of Public Opinion.
Yet the same people refused to see real evidences of mass indiscriminate killings of Palestinians amounting to hundreds each day. All with photographic proof.
https://militaryhistorynow.com/2023/01/08/the-enemy-within-five-little-known-facts-about-stalins-purge-of-the-red-army-2/
"An estimated death toll was hard to determine, for in those times people simply disappeared and the NKVD covered their tracks well. The official number stands 1,548,366 detained persons, of whom 681,692 were shot – an average of 1,000 executions a day. Various historians claim that the real number of victims could be twice as much."
"At first, it was thought that between 25 % and 50 % of the Red Army officer corps was purged. Recent evaluations suggest that the real number was between 3.7 % and 7.7%"
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/10-facts-stalins-great-purge.html
"Although estimates vary, most experts believe at least 750,000 people were executed during the Great Terror, which started around 1936 and ended in 1938. More than a million survivors were sent to forced labor camps, known as Gulags. "
https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-purge
"Until recently, historians had estimated that the purge claimed as many as 50,000 out of an estimated 100,000 officers. Now, thanks to greater access to Russian archives, we know that far less than 50 percent were lost, and even as officers were purged, new officers were added—almost 14,000 in 1937 and 57,000 in 1938. At its worst, then, no more than 12.5 percent of the officer corps was repressed."
https://www.historynet.com/stalin-attacks-red-army/
Thankyou for debunking the Western propaganda and Khrushchev's lies, Stalin should be viewed as the hero who saved Russia and drove the developments that freed so many to achieve new dreams. But Putin seems bent on denigrating anything communist, Russia will end up forever underperforming China as long as he does this. Iran also seems to be much closer to a socialist orientation than Putin. Sad.
Roger, if you closely follow what Russia's doing under Putin as I do, you'll see you're perspective is mistaken. Why do you think the West denigrates Putin as another Stalin? because first and foremost his program to rebuild Russia from the destruction of the Yeltsin years has made Russia the massive and extremely formidable power it was under Stalin at the end of WW2.
Russia lost a lot of its technology industries in the 1990s and hasn't really built a lot of them back, it needs more of the developmental state planning that China has so successfully utilized. I see more of a progressive mixed economy social democracy in Russia, somewhat akin to the 1950s US, especially with the new prominence of religion (and the MIC acting as a mini development state). The Ukraine War has helped to get rid of much more of the Western-liberal intelligentsia, Russia needs to move further, and the sanctions helped drive some re-shoring.
Joint Ventures with the Chinese would help build back some of the lost capabilities while better utilizing the well educated population. Proper state-owned industrial banks would also help, the Central Bank is extremely BIS-standard in its policies.
I see the celebrations of the Great Patriotic War, but much less of what Stalin achieved so that the Soviet Union was capable of winning that war. The West will call Putin any propagandist epithet they can, Devil, Hitler, Stalin blah, blah, blah no matter what policies Putin follows, his crime is not being a sober version of Yeltsin.
Putin is very firm on state self sufficiency just as Xi is.
Might change as reports of Russia buying Chinese high end chips now coming out.
I really don't see the point of comparison Russia and America. What's most important is what Russia is doing besides token symbolism seen in the west. Russias rebirth and internationally recognized efforts for human rights is its hallmark.
To make the comparison is to also make the contrast. Some are already aware of the differences, but many are not, and it's for them that they must continue to be made.
Thanks for the reply. All of my early research was via local library services. I got hold of what I could but even with access to county library services there was a severe limit to the range of information I could access. Consequently my knowledge of east and south-east Asia as very limited. Although I probably brushed up against some anthropological references to Melanesian culture at university in the '70s. Definitely food for thought though WRT the 'imperial project' aspect of my history hobby project. So thanks for that input.
Finally, I have a relatively simplistic attitude to health and well-being. Assuming your experience of hypertension manifests as headaches and is blood pressure related; if it was me I'd eat raw garlic to lower my blood pressure. I also assume that if my subconscious or unconscious is contributing to my experience of hypertension then I would assume some aspect of my conscious life agenda is not good for me presently. Then it's a bit of detective work. However, most people I know and have known think I'm a bit weird. So I leave it in your court and as always wish you the best ;o).
My hypertension was related to stress caused due to my being the main care provider for the Alzheimer's afflicted mother along with a diet that wasn't optimal. She's now passed away and my heart health situation is much improved. My reference is more to my daughter's condition and its causes. My chemistry is very good as is my heart physiology since I go to gym three times weekly. My main enemy is metabolic syndrome AKA insulin resistance where I'm classified as pre-diabetic. It can be defeated via diet and exercise, which is my plan. Thanks as always for your replies!
Completely off-topic, I'm afraid, but have you seen this? It adds considerable support to your theory (at MoA) that recent Ukrainian aircraft loss rates may be attributable to the entry of the newest A-50 AWACS variant. Interesting, I just stumbled across it now.
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/russia-fuses-s-400-missiles-with-a-50-awacs-to-shoot-down-ukrainian-aircraft-at-longest-possible-range/
Yes, b made an update comment that included that info to which I replied thanking him for providing evidence proving my hypothesis.
I think I am correct (but happy to be educated if wrong ) that Putin has said (paraphrasing) that Russia went through its period of madness and never wants to go back. The West in contrast is just entering its own (woke) version and dispaying many of the ills of the worst that the Soviet regime could produce.
Yes, that was the point of digging up all the materials that show Russia as a whole began its internal healing process in 1991 but was delayed by the Oulaw US Empire's Neoliberal Rape during the Yeltsin years.
These are two stories worth knowing but understood by very few in the West.
It was a pleasant surprise to see Natalia Solzhenitsyn mentioned--still kicking at age 84. She must've pinched herself at being lauded. Somewhere, Alexander is smiling.
And here's a political murder by the US govt. Of course MSM ignored it.
https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2022/04/14/u-s-government-found-guilty-of-assassinating-dr-king/
Yes, the civil suit by the King family that was decided in 1999 was most certainly ignored and buried. The court proceedings and evidence exist online for the curious. Unfortunately, the links are on my other computer which I don't have access to currently.
Thanks as usual Karl. If anyone is interested in the UK's history of violence might I suggest Caroline Elkins' 'Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire'. As to that perpetrated by the USA, where does one begin?
One place to begin is with "The Many Headed Hydra" by Linebaugh and Rediker, with Helen Hunt's "A Century of Dishonor" being another. But IMO, it's important to explore Imperialism's shared origins that predate the Roman Empire while also speculating on the psychological reasons for the coveting of material gain when settled agriculture became the main method of human organization 10,000+ years ago--what is it about Human Nature that threatens Human Co-existence? What mechanism prevents sharing the wealth? Freud's explanations don't provide any help. IMO, the answer lies within human culture.
Thank you. Got a download of Linebaugh and Rediker and a 2nd hand copy of Hunt.
I'm not sure that there is anything in human nature that threatens human existence so I am in agreement with you on the nurture/culture issue. That being the case Graeber and Wengrow's observation that there was an absence of the usual architectural evidence that indicates a ruling elite in the mid-fourth millennium, whereas by the mid-third millennium such evidence can be observed, is perhaps a clue.
My opinion is that Sargon was the first ever emperor and the legends that surround his founding of the Akkadian empire suggest that it took a relatively short time for the contradictions of early urban society and its recently evolved elite system to further develope into a regionally competitive oligarchy. Could it be the case that Sargon may also be understood as the first 'tyrant' or liberator of the people from local oligarchs?
Finally, my understanding of NLP, from a brief reading, is that it essentially reverses Freud's notion of Conscious and Subconscious in that it suggests that it is the Conscious mind that is potentially unstable and prone to becoming unbalanced and it is the Subconscious mind that seeks a balance or re-balancing. That might explain how the ruling elites of a wannabe empire/hegemon contribute to their own downfall. Inter breeding and glass ceilings. Sorry about the length of this. ;o)
Comment length is fine as is its content. Currently dealing with the likelihood of subconscious affect on physiology, specifically hypertension, through contributions to hidden levels of stress. Hudson's detailed history of Mesopotamia along with Graeber's work is very revealing. My big question relative to that is What about East & South Asia? I was fascinated with Melanesian leveling cultures when I first encountered them, and then there're the similar examples from the Americas. The other examples of human pathways are there but were relegated to the fringe by the dominant Europeans. That paradigm is now changing with the emergence of the Chinese pathway and its Confucian goals of Balance and Harmony. Xi Jinping Thought seeks to merge Chinese Communist ideology with its unshakable, longstanding Confucian culture, which IMO is far more powerful than Mao's Thought, which it seeks to complement, not displace.
This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, akin to Deng's efforts to undermine Mao's legacy through the massive exaggeration of the Great Leap Forward drought losses. Without Stalin the Soviet Union would never have industrialized at the incredible rate required to be able to beat the Germans and the Lebensraum would have been established, there would now be no more Russia. Xi has done well to stop the drift away from core Marxist values, and to see Mao as the overwhelming success that he was.
The period 1918 to 1941 was one of a constant battle to rid the Soviet Union of the previous regime throughout society and those that thought that a warmed up social democracy would serve the USSR well. Such periods require brutality and Stalin was the person for that. All such things end up with excesses (and the archives have shown that the excesses were much less than previously thought), but do not take away from Stalin's achievement. The rot set in with Khrushchev and the long decline of the USSR started.
Putin seems to want to erase and denigrate the communist period, calling back to the disgusting Tsarist period. The communist period did not just beat the Germans and industrialize the USSR but also brought new opportunities to the Soviet peoples that were not available to them previously. It seems that Putin is happy with a warmed up social democracy and vast differences in wealth. That's why the communist Party-state of China is so far ahead of it. Mao understood the mistake that Khrushchev was making by denigrating the communist revolution and Stalin, Putin does not seem to be learning that lesson.
Another good piece, thank you. For what it's worth, my remarks yesterday about Nuremberg hypocrisy were a) not directed at Russia alone but all the victor nations presiding who were all guilty of excessive war crimes themselves and b) the 'millions' in Russia I mentioned were mainly referring to those immediately following the 1917 Bolshevik take-over, so I wasn't think of Stalin necessarily, rather the whole bloody period. My admittedly limited understanding is that Stalin found himself having to purge the purgers in order to have a viable nation state capable of withstanding a German invasion and/or being able to mount an invasion of his own to realize the dream of turning all of Europe into a single, communist polity - the internationalist agenda. Further, the main point was that there were a whole slew during that sad period of 'show trials', which Putin also mentions, so setting up yet another such show trial in Nuremberg was hypocritical. Which it very much was.