A World Behind Barbed Wire

[Valin]

WSJ:

ANDREW STUTTAFORD
4/23/11

The most remarkable thing about "The Way Back," the 2010 film by Peter Weir, was neither its protagonists (escapees from the Soviet gulag system who trekked thousands of miles to their freedom) nor the curious tale of the almost certainly fictional 1956 "memoir" that inspired it (Slawomir Rawicz's "The Long Walk"). No, what distinguished "The Way Back" was its depiction of life in Stalin's camps. There have been a handful of films on this topic, but, as observed Anne Applebaum, author of a fine 2004 history of the gulag, this was the first time it had been given the full Hollywood treatment. Hitler's concentration camps are a Tinseltown staple, but Stalin's merit barely a mention.

Publishers have been more even-handed. There are many books on Soviet terror, and some have won huge readerships. Yet, as Hollywood's cynics understand, the swastika will almost always outsell the red star. That's due partly to the perverse aesthetics of the Third Reich but also to a disconcerting ambivalence—even now—about what was going on a little further to the east. The slaughter of millions by Moscow's communist regime remains shrouded in benevolent shadow. The Soviet experiment is given a benefit of a doubt that owes nothing to history and far too much to a lingering sympathy for a supposedly noble dream supposedly gone astray.

A flurry of recent books on Soviet oppression—surely encouraged by the interest generated by Ms. Applebaum's "Gulag"—is thus to be welcomed. One of the best is edited by Ms. Applebaum herself. "Gulag Voices" (Yale, 195 pages, $25) is a deftly chosen anthology of writings by victims of Soviet rule. Some are published for the first time in English, most are by writers little known in the West and each is given a succinct, informative introduction. Above all, they help illustrate the duration, variety and range of Soviet despotism.

(Snip)

A very different (and highly unusual) perspective can be found in "Gulag Boss" (Oxford, 229 pages, $29.95) by Fyodor Mochulsky, the reminiscences of an engineer recruited by the NKVD (the Stalin-era secret police) to supervise forced labor in a Siberian camp. It was written during and after the U.S.S.R.'s implosion and ends with Mochulsky appearing to reject the methods, although not necessarily the ideology, of the system he served for so long. But he does so in the strained, awkward prose of a man unwilling to face up to what he had done. Mr. Mochulsky talks of disease, lack of food and other hardships, but the scale of the death toll that he must have witnessed is, at best, only there by implication. His overall tone is one of pained technocratic disappointment that the camp was so poorly run: He was a Speer, so to speak, not a Himmler. Yet Albert Speer served 20 years in jail. Mr. Mochulsky went on to enjoy a successful diplomatic and intelligence career and, in retirement, the luxury of modest regret.

(Snip)

[Argyle58]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

[Valin]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

 

You could be on to something....however I would add you didn't want to be a Jew in the USSR, or for that matter not being a "Great Russian".

[Argyle58]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

 

You could be on to something....however I would add you didn't want to be a Jew in the USSR, or for that matter not being a "Great Russian".

 

 

True, the same can be said of the Yakut, the Lapps, or any of the other Eurasian races there, not to mention anyone from Lithuania. But, they are not targeted for extermination because of it. The forms of persecution they faced was dreadful, but they were not subject to pogroms.

[Sanguine]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

I see it a bit differently. I think Hitler, being european and "right wing" is preferred as the embodiment of evil over the poor communists trying to free the masses. I think there is a definite bias and sympathy toward the socialists/communists, even thought what they did was even worse, if only by the sheer volume of death and destruction.

 

Reading the Gulag Archipelago or The Forsaken, or any number of the books and personal testimonies that have come out of Russia fairly recently make it very clear that one exceeded the other only in terms of numbers.

[Argyle58]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

I see it a bit differently. I think Hitler, being european and "right wing" is preferred as the embodiment of evil over the poor communists trying to free the masses. I think there is a definite bias and sympathy toward the socialists/communists, even thought what they did was even worse, if only by the sheer volume of death and destruction.

 

Reading the Gulag Archipelago or The Forsaken, or any number of the books and personal testimonies that have come out of Russia fairly recently make it very clear that one exceeded the other only in terms of numbers.

 

 

You could be right in your premise. I have only one negative thing to say about it. There was nothing "right wing" about Hitler and the Nazis. They were socialists....Nazi is a contraction of the name of their political establishment...The National Socialist Party. And their actions represent the culmination of Progressive policies when allowed to run their course to the extreme.

[Sanguine]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

I see it a bit differently. I think Hitler, being european and "right wing" is preferred as the embodiment of evil over the poor communists trying to free the masses. I think there is a definite bias and sympathy toward the socialists/communists, even thought what they did was even worse, if only by the sheer volume of death and destruction.

 

Reading the Gulag Archipelago or The Forsaken, or any number of the books and personal testimonies that have come out of Russia fairly recently make it very clear that one exceeded the other only in terms of numbers.

 

 

You could be right in your premise. I have only one negative thing to say about it. There was nothing "right wing" about Hitler and the Nazis. They were socialists....Nazi is a contraction of the name of their political establishment...The National Socialist Party. And their actions represent the culmination of Progressive policies when allowed to run their course to the extreme.

 

Agreed that they were a part of the progressive, leftist machine that has been festering for ~100 years now. Which only serves to highlight the fact that it is one of the big lies perpetuated by the same left. Remember, the winner writes the history. And, so far, the left is winning.

[Valin]

I think that part of the reason that Nazi's are treated worse than the Soviets and the ChiComs is the genocidal aspect of their purges. While Stalin and Mao are held personally responsible for the deaths of up to 30 million people each, there was little of a racial aspect to either purge; they were more about the threat to their personal power and maintaining the illusion of the "purity" of the communist doctrine.

 

While Hitler's crimes pale in comparison, I think that it is the stated intent to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies and ethnic Slavs that garners them more attention than the Communists.

 

I see it a bit differently. I think Hitler, being european and "right wing" is preferred as the embodiment of evil over the poor communists trying to free the masses. I think there is a definite bias and sympathy toward the socialists/communists, even thought what they did was even worse, if only by the sheer volume of death and destruction.

 

Reading the Gulag Archipelago or The Forsaken, or any number of the books and personal testimonies that have come out of Russia fairly recently make it very clear that one exceeded the other only in terms of numbers.

 

 

You could be right in your premise. I have only one negative thing to say about it. There was nothing "right wing" about Hitler and the Nazis. They were socialists....Nazi is a contraction of the name of their political establishment...The National Socialist Party. And their actions represent the culmination of Progressive policies when allowed to run their course to the extreme.

 

Agreed that they were a part of the progressive, leftist machine that has been festering for ~100 years now. Which only serves to highlight the fact that it is one of the big lies perpetuated by the same left. Remember, the winner writes the history. And, so far, the left is winning.

 

 

I think we can agree on this...the world is a better place without either one of these systems in power.