Once again, this is an actual question; and I'm hoping to broaden my horizons and have a good conversation or two. I'm relatively new to commie subs, still trying to read political theory to figure out which one I like the most, so this might come off as uneducated. But why am I seeing so many positive posts about Stalin, followed by some comments that boil down to "Stalin was good, if you think he wasn't, that's just western propaganda" I'm thinking of the post that mentioned the 1921 Soviet Famine as a specific example.
I know that Stalin didn't create the famine, it was a byproduct of almost a decade of war, unrest, and a ton of other factors. But Stalin did do some bad shit. Things like sending 14 million people to gulags to work as slave labor, and killing millions more in his purges. I would argue that he used communism to become an authoritarian. Similar to how Putin is ruling now, stuffing ballot boxes, starting wars, and pushing propaganda. (I realize that we get pushed propaganda, too in the form of faux news, MSNBC, and most media outlets. I don't wish to have a discussion that boils down to "we do it too, you just don't see it")
As other have pointed out those numbers are way off but also i think its worth pointing out that Stalin didnt invent gulags (or political purges) it was a long standing system by then fuck Lenin was sent to one before the revolution, he and many other people in positions of power in the early USSR just used the tools they knew and were available.I think there are a lot of situations where socialists in the past have done things that are wrong but only in the sense of they should have been better rather than merely the same as capitalist and thats just a fucked way of thinking because they WERE better in so many other places. Also no one is saying Stalin was literally flawless but compared to what he is accused of he might as well be.
I now know those numbers were wrong. Like most other internet historians, I used Wikipedia and didn't have time to double check those numbers as I was in the bathroom at work (always poop on the clock ;) ). That's on me. Even Wikipedia has largely differing numbers on that matter. One said 1.8 million, another said 14, and I think it'll be almost impossible to get right numbers because of the secrecy the USSR had during that time (especially during the Cold War). I know he did great things, but I truly believe that those are far overshadowed by the shady and cruel things he did. Another specific example would be his infamous Order 227. I acknowledge that he did a great job of mobilizing the economy and industry to help defeat the Nazis while being in an active invasion. That being said, I believe we can find better communist leaders that didn't kill at least 700,000 of his political opponents to maintain power, with some sources estimating between 650,000 and 1.2 million. That last link is directed to a PDF from the Jackson School of International Studies. Like I said, I know he did great things, and we should draw a light to those actions, but we shouldn't blindly say he was great. I think we have different people in history that set a much better example, like Fidel Castro for one. None of this was meant as a personal attack, just trying to back up my points of view and explain why part of my post was just numskullery :)
The soviet archives were opened after the dissolution of the USSR, the idea that these things are unknowable is wrong. Anti soviet historians with a shred of decency revised their analysis following those events and retracted many of their extreme claims. Conquest called the Holodomor a genocide prior to the opening of the archives and later admitted he was wrong.