this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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History Memes

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A place to share history memes!

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  1. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.

  2. No fascism (including tankies/red fash), atrocity denial or apologia, etc.

  3. Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.

  4. Follow all Piefed.social rules.

  5. History referenced must be 20+ years old.

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 25 points 4 days ago

Countdown to a brigade of triggered tankies:

3... 2... Oh wait, this is piefed

[–] mrbutterscotch@feddit.org 39 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Watch it, you'll summon the .ml tankies defending War Crimes

[–] timestatic@feddit.org 12 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah lmao I literally thought this is just calling on the .ml invasion to happen. Its only a matter of time now

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 9 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I think piefed defederated with .ml

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

No, I think we're still federated. I'm just very 'active' as a moderator in the HistoryMemes comm banning tankie apologists here, so they probably don't see much point in it.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 9 points 4 days ago

Oh, I see. Keep up the good work!

[–] XM34@feddit.org 3 points 4 days ago

Here, take this badge of honor for your work: 🎖️

[–] timestatic@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 days ago

Oh I agree, it's so peaceful on these threads. I block all the .ml comms but I still have to see .ml users in other threads so I'm planning on switching to piefed

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[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 65 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Low estimates are nine million dead and the high estimates are that he killed thirty million of his citizens.

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 53 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Western propaganda! TO THE GULAGS WITH YOU.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 67 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Oh never mind Stalin was nine to thirty million dead Lenin was only four to fourteen million.

I keep confusing these mass murdering communist heads of state.

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 19 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Oh, I thought you were talking about Zedong... D:

His number is forty to seventy million dead.

High score so far.

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[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 14 points 5 days ago (4 children)

But Lenin has a fancy sarcophagus so he gets a free pass.

It's ironic that you say "sarcophagus" because the only reason Lenin was mummified was that King Tut's tomb had been discovered just before his death. Pravda had covered the discovery extensively and the Bolsheviks decided to capitalize on Tut's popularity by preserving Lenin's corpse -- in hilariously amateurish fashion, since mummification was not something regularly done in Russia.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 7 points 5 days ago

Also, Stalin was hot when he was young, so we can fix him.

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[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Okay Stalin was just a dipshit but most people you're counting against Lenin died in circumstances legitimately out of his control (the civil war and the famine resulting thereof). He was still a dipshit, but not a mass murdering dipshit.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 11 points 5 days ago (5 children)

I mean, I don't know how much blame I'd ascribe to Lenin, but his 'war communism' policy was very much a contributor to the famine.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 5 days ago

I mean true but save for some weird decisions (something something bag men) that strictly goes under the war part; I can forgive the Bolsheviks for not pulling punches while fighting literal fascists, and they did address the problem as soon as they knew about it. War communism didn't need to be as brutal or as far-reaching as it was, but for the most part it was an acceptable play in a terrible situation.

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[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 25 points 5 days ago (16 children)

What are you referencing? Even in the most anti communist historical interpretations the vast amount of deaths are usually attributed to Stalin, not Lenin.

If we're talking about the holodomor..... That began in 1932, roughly 8 years after Lenin had already died.

I'm not claiming that there aren't any valid criticisms of the Russian revolution, however I think attributing all that criticism to Lenin is just historically inaccurate.

We also have to view history within the context of their own time when evaluating things like social morality. Was the Soviet revolution devoid of crimes against humanity, no. But I think it would be hard to argue that it wasn't a vast improvement compared to the literal tyrannical rule of the Romanov family.

[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Lenin is responsible for a huge amount of deaths during the revolution, during the civil war and after. This whole story of "Lenin was good and then Stalin corrupted the revolution" is actually rooted in the propaganda of Khrushchevs destalinisation. But if you read a good biography of Lenin, you will find out that was totally fine with all the political murders

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Lenin is responsible for a huge amount of deaths during the revolution, during the civil war and after

I would say that the Romanov are the party who are largely responsible for the deaths during the revolution. Some kind of revolution was going to happen in Russia, and just reducing all the blame on Lenin ignores the context of the actual fractious nature of the revolution.

This whole story of "Lenin was good and then Stalin corrupted the revolution" is actually rooted in the propaganda of Khrushchevs destalinisation.

Again, I didn't say he was a nice guy. My claim was that it's straight up ahistorical to claim he murdered 9 million people.

if you read a good biography of Lenin, you will find out that was totally fine with all the political murders

What is a revolution if not a collection of political murders? Again, we have to view the revolution with context and measure them against their contemporaries. It's not as if the revolution happened to a ruling government that was unfamiliar with political murders themselves.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (8 children)

I would say that the Romanov are the party who are largely responsible for the deaths during the revolution. Some kind of revolution was going to happen in Russia, and just reducing all the blame on Lenin ignores the context of the actual fractious nature of the revolution.

Would you like to remind me what kind of mass violence there was between February and October in 1917

It’s not as if the revolution happened to a ruling government that was unfamiliar with political murders themselves.

Would you like to remind me what provisional government and elected legislature the Bolsheviks actually performed their revolution against?

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[–] JensSpahnpasta@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago

Maybe just do not try to downplay soviet crimes? They were not nice guys, they murdered a lot ot people and we really should not discuss about how many millions were slaughtered. Lenin was not a good man.

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[–] ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Churchill starved 4 million Bengali to death.

And the high estimates of excessive deaths in British occupied India is 100 mil?

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 22 points 4 days ago (3 children)

So because British imperialism was bad, mass death in the Soviet Union was okay?

It seems like you're learning the wrong lessons from history...

[–] ugandan_airways@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

It’s that same style whataboutism that Trumpers love to do: “what about Biden?” It’s fucking annoying and I hate Joe Biden. When your only argument is pointing to what someone else did, you don’t really have an argument.

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[–] Draegur@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 days ago

Sounds like we all agree that IMPERIALISM BAD. Glad that's been cleared up

Cool. The first one still happened.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

People who think Bernie Sanders is right-wing hate this post

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

So piefed is like entirely anti communist?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm anti-bolshevik, not anti-communist.

If you think disdain for dictators who overthrow democratically elected socialist governments is anti-communist, that's a you problem, man.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Stirring up drama in leftist spaces online is not praxis

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago

Stirring up drama in leftist spaces online is not praxis

... okay?

Where did I say it was?

Not that fascists with a coat of red paint are leftists. Nor do I go into their online spaces.

[–] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Leninism, stalinism and Maoism leads straight to fascism - historically speaking.

But communism is a destination - not a journey, damnit. Those ideologies merely suppose how you reach that destination, and as you can see they do not...

...because they lead to fascism.

A centralized committee?! A one party system?!?! No, mon signor. No bueno. That's centralization of power. It's power to the people, not some git in a suit spewing sweet nothings.

[–] sundaymidnight@piefed.social 9 points 5 days ago

haha certain persons cof cof... ml... cof cof.. 'll have a brain bleeding

[–] king_comrade@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Did you mix up Lenin and Stalin? Weird to see shade thrown at Lenin, spose Marx and Engels were also mass murdering criminals?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Lenin couped a democratic socialist government, started a 4-year long civil war in the process, implemented mass imprisonment of political dissidents, suppressed workers' rights and freedoms, and attempted to wage wars of aggresion against neighboring states, including crushing the anarchists of Ukraine.

Lenin has a better reputation, and legitimately is not as bad as Stalin... but Lenin is still fucking horrible.

[–] king_comrade@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Admittedly a lot of my surface knowledge of the character comes from Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast and he paints a more nuanced picture of Lenin than just 'gross war criminal'. I think focusing on just his failures and crimes does a disservice to history tbh, I don't hate your meme I just think Stalin fits better.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 10 points 4 days ago

Lenin's crimes are often ignored or justified by apologists, which is exactly why the meme is important.

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