Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jttmab who wrote (14633)	9/17/2002 12:24:23 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

Stalin was rational enough. He caused the Ukrainian terror famine to break the kulaks, so that he could collectivize agriculture, and the men in the field followed orders because they were fanatics who understood that the kulaks were the rural equivalent of the petit bourgeoisie, and needed to be broken. He got rid of all potential rivals among the Old Bolsheviks during the show trials. He created an efficient police state, without which he could not have held onto power in so unwieldy an Empire as the Soviet Union. He made a pact with Hitler in order to recover territory that once belonged to the Russian Empire, and because Hitler would likely cause the sort of instability that would make revolution in other countries more possible. And he himself was gearing up for an anti- semitic campaign (against "rootless cosmopolitans", code for Jews) just before his death, which may have been hastened by his doctors. Is there a mitigating factor? Well, he may have been an honest fanatic, and thought that the pursuit of socialism by the vanguard party would eventually usher in the Golden Age of Communism. Hard to say, but a sweeter vision than that of racial dominance envisioned by the Nazis........