The thing that has been bugging me for a while has been a simultaneous use of variations of "Nazi" and "Hitler" as metaphors for the worst thing/person imaginable and total ignorance, disinterest or even idealization of communist Bolshevism. Even here, in this very community there was this guy with communist symbolism and a communist-themed name. Haven't seen anyone calling him out on it, while if a fan of the Third Reich would happen to show up, everyone would lose their shit and the hypothetical Nazi, in all probability would get banned very quickly. Communist symbolism provokes no real negative reaction beyond "that's weird stuff". Tourists buy soviet souvenirs with same symbolism on them and decorate their walls with it, I've personally witnessed this all the way from the purchase to the decorating of a room in Washington DC. Times magazine had both Stalin and Hitler (and Putin, ha!) as their person of the year, in a recently uploaded short video where they quickly go through all the faces they've put on their front page, they did not Include Hitler, but did not cut out Stalin. The reason for that, among other things, is that you and me are all victims of a successful soviet and later Russian propaganda.
I'm not going to discuss why one side got to be the baddie metaphor and the other didn't. This thread is about what Bolshevism was, and I'll compare it to Nazism for clarity.
To start off, few years ago, In a conversation I once told my mother that the communists were just as bad as the Nazis, she replied with a phrase that essentially translates into "at least they didn't do experiments on people." This is the image that pops up in everyone's head, and is my first point:
1. They did, and kept doing it after the war. They were not any more humane about it.
But Bolsheviks didn't gas people, did they? Wrong again, in fact, guess who came up with the method in the first place?
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_van Side note: if you switch to the Russian page (and happen to speak Russian) you will find no mention of who invented and started using this first, it was all sadist Germans.
But... the Nazis killed 6 million jews!
3. And the Bolsheviks starved to death 7 million Ukranians.
Also Stalin rounded up the Jews who fled from the SS and sent them back. I don't necessarily think that a crime becomes less of a crime if the victims are not united under a single ethnic group, but if you want to go down that road - there is an Ukrainian genocide right there. And the places of starved to death Ukrainians were taken by forcefully brought in ethnic Russians, a factor successfully utilized in Russian invasion of Ukraine today. Also mass deportation of a dozen smaller (entire!) nations is worth mentioning, in conditions no better than those described in "Schindler's list".
But Hitler was the aggressor, he invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, and everything else!
4. And Stalin invaded Finland, baltic states, Poland. Under different leadership Soviet Union invaded a number of other countries, long before the Nazis existed.
This is common knowledge at this point, but the Third Reich and the Soviet Union worked together for a while. It was not just an agreement not to attack, but an exchange of resources and intelligence. -
5. - Including training of Gestapo by the NKVD (KGB) in setting up concentration camps.
Nazis were murdering innocents everywhere!
6. And so were Bolsheviks, in much greater numbers. Quotas of people to kill, all ages and social classes, often randomly picked on the streets. People in charge filling the quotas and asking for more.
7. Let me throw in gang rapes of 2 million German women in there if you're not convinced yet.
You know what? The Germans renounced that part of their horrific past. Nazi symbolism is banned in Germany, and the country is now a democratic state. While in Russia various war criminals are called heroes, given medals and paid pensions for what they did. Russian national anthem has an almost identical text and rhythm as its soviet predecessor, communist symbolism is everywhere and Putin calls fall of the Soviet Union "The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century" while invading other countries as his primary occupation, I might add. You can look up a documentary "The Soviet Story" to get more detail, if you so desire, I recommend you do so.
That's all I wanted to say, I guess I needed a vent. Do forgive me if I skipped some typos or made grammatical errors.
I'm not going to discuss why one side got to be the baddie metaphor and the other didn't. This thread is about what Bolshevism was, and I'll compare it to Nazism for clarity.
To start off, few years ago, In a conversation I once told my mother that the communists were just as bad as the Nazis, she replied with a phrase that essentially translates into "at least they didn't do experiments on people." This is the image that pops up in everyone's head, and is my first point:
1. They did, and kept doing it after the war. They were not any more humane about it.
But Bolsheviks didn't gas people, did they? Wrong again, in fact, guess who came up with the method in the first place?
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_van Side note: if you switch to the Russian page (and happen to speak Russian) you will find no mention of who invented and started using this first, it was all sadist Germans.
But... the Nazis killed 6 million jews!
3. And the Bolsheviks starved to death 7 million Ukranians.
Also Stalin rounded up the Jews who fled from the SS and sent them back. I don't necessarily think that a crime becomes less of a crime if the victims are not united under a single ethnic group, but if you want to go down that road - there is an Ukrainian genocide right there. And the places of starved to death Ukrainians were taken by forcefully brought in ethnic Russians, a factor successfully utilized in Russian invasion of Ukraine today. Also mass deportation of a dozen smaller (entire!) nations is worth mentioning, in conditions no better than those described in "Schindler's list".
But Hitler was the aggressor, he invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, and everything else!
4. And Stalin invaded Finland, baltic states, Poland. Under different leadership Soviet Union invaded a number of other countries, long before the Nazis existed.
This is common knowledge at this point, but the Third Reich and the Soviet Union worked together for a while. It was not just an agreement not to attack, but an exchange of resources and intelligence. -
5. - Including training of Gestapo by the NKVD (KGB) in setting up concentration camps.
Nazis were murdering innocents everywhere!
6. And so were Bolsheviks, in much greater numbers. Quotas of people to kill, all ages and social classes, often randomly picked on the streets. People in charge filling the quotas and asking for more.
7. Let me throw in gang rapes of 2 million German women in there if you're not convinced yet.
You know what? The Germans renounced that part of their horrific past. Nazi symbolism is banned in Germany, and the country is now a democratic state. While in Russia various war criminals are called heroes, given medals and paid pensions for what they did. Russian national anthem has an almost identical text and rhythm as its soviet predecessor, communist symbolism is everywhere and Putin calls fall of the Soviet Union "The greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century" while invading other countries as his primary occupation, I might add. You can look up a documentary "The Soviet Story" to get more detail, if you so desire, I recommend you do so.
That's all I wanted to say, I guess I needed a vent. Do forgive me if I skipped some typos or made grammatical errors.
