Matvei Bronstein: Theorical physicist. Pioneer of quantum gravity. Arrested, accused of fictional “terroristic” activity and shot in 1938

Lev Shubnikov: Experimental physicist. Accused on false charges. Executed

Adrian Piotrovsky: Russian dramaturge. Accused on false charges of treason. Executed.

Nikolai Bukharin: Leader of the Communist revolution. Member of the Politburo. Falsely accused of treason. Executed.

General Alexander Egorov: Marshal of the Soviet Union. Commander of the Red Army Southern Front. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Arrested, accused on false charges, executed.

General Mikhail Tukhachevsky Supreme Marshal of the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the Red Napoleon. Arrested, accused on fake charges. Executed.

Grigory Zinoviev: Chairman of the Communist International Movement. Member of the Soviet Politburo. Accused of treason and executed.

Even the secret police themselves were not safe:

Genrikh Yagoda : Right-hand of Joseph Stalin. Head of the NKD Secret Police. He spied on everyone in Russia and jailed thousands of innocents. Yagoda was arrested and executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda

Nikolai Yezhov : Appointed head of the NKD Secret Police after the death of Yagoda. Arrested on fake charges, executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov

Everybody was absolutely terrified during this period. At least 600 000 people were killed and over 100 000 people were deported to Gulags in Siberia.

Today, Russian schools no longer teach what Joseph Stalin did. Many young russians actually believe that Stalin was a great patriot.

This is part of an effort by Vladimir Putin to rehabilitate him:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/10/vladimir-putin-russia-rehabilitating-stalin-soviet-past

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/05/21/stalin-is-making-a-comeback-in-russia-heres-why-a89155

  • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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    2 days ago

    communism is an economic system whereas democracy is a social one

    Communism is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a communist society, the pseudoscientifically postulated utopia of a stateless, classless, moneyless, post-scarcity society. Communist ideology is like the Christianity of politics & economics that keeps promising the 2nd coming of Christ: they insist it’ll happen someday inevitably. No possible way Marx was wrong.

    Colloquially, communism refers to a communist state (also known as a Marxist–Leninist state): a political system/government consisting of a socialist state following Marxist–Leninist political philosophy with a dictatorial ruling class that promises to achieve a communist society.

    Democracy is a political system/government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Colloquially, democracy refers to liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy: democracy following ideas of liberal political philosophy.

    So, colloquially, communism refers to a political & economic system whereas democracy refers to a political system.

    As a political system, the communist state is totalitarian, the most extreme authoritarianism:

    Totalitarianism is a label used by various political scientists to characterize the most tyrannical strain of authoritarian systems; in which the ruling elite, often subservient to a dictator, exert near-total control of the social, political, economic, cultural and religious aspects of society in the territories under its governance.

    Whereas an authoritarian regime is primarily concerned with political power rather than changing the world & human nature (they will grant society a certain degree of liberty as long as that power is uncontested), totalitarianism aims for more. A totalitarian government is more concerned with changing the world & human nature to fulfill an ideology: it seeks to completely control the thoughts & actions of its citizens through such tactics as

    • Political repression: according to their ideology, rights aren’t inherent or fundamental, the state is the source of human rights. Rights (eg, freedom of speech, assembly, & movement) are suppressed. Dissent is punished. Unauthorized political activities aren’t tolerated.
    • State terrorism: secret police, purges, mass executions & surveillance, persecution of dissidents, labor camps.
    • Control of information: full control over mass communication media & the education system to promote the ideology.
    • Economic control.

    All of this is entirely compatible with Marxist-Leninism.

    Liberalism, however, is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism. It holds that governments exist for the people & authority is legitimate only when it protects inalienable/fundamental/inherent rights & liberties of individuals. The people have an inherent right to obtain a government with legitimate authority, and when their government lacks or loses legitimacy, the people have a right & duty replace or change that government until it obtains legitimacy.

    • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      Liberalism, however, is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism.

      an argument easily disproven by pointing to the US for the last few decades.

      • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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        10 hours ago

        Nope, a government can’t disprove a moral & political philosophy. As we can plainly observe, liberalism/libertarianism & authoritarianism are on opposite sides of the ideological map.
        political map with axes left–right & libertarian–authoritarian
        Liberalism is a philosophy whereas liberal democracy is a type of government as was clearly stated:

        Colloquially, democracy refers to liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy: democracy following ideas of liberal political philosophy.

        If anything, all you’re observing is a government depart from a philosophy to become a different type of government. Even so, your claim is off: the US has been protecting inherent human rights & liberties for the most part in recent history until Trump.

        Even so, there are other liberal democracies across the globe.

        • 𝕆𝕔𝕦𝕝𝕚@anarchist.nexus
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          1 hour ago

          As we can plainly observe, liberalism/libertarianism & authoritarianism are on opposite sides of the ideological map.

          The political compass is incredibly basic and does a horrible job at describing ideologies. Ideology is not just a basic “left wing/right wing, libertarian/authoritarian” %'s, it’s more accurately representable with parameters. It’s as useful as a toy.

          If anything, all you’re observing is a government depart from a philosophy to become a different type of government

          Besides liberalism’s glaring issues, the whole point is that this is the inevitable endpoint of capitalism and by extension, liberalism. If an ideology always ends up in a horrible result as we see in the US and other liberal nations, it’s fair to include that in the criticism of Liberalism.

          your claim is off: the US has been protecting inherent human rights & liberties for the most part in recent history until Trump.

          Jesus fucking christ what? The Indian genocides/reservations? Chattel slavery, and modern slavery through penal labor? The war on terror? The countless coups done by the US that installed fascist dictators? Japanese internment camps? The monroe doctrine? Operation paperclip? Palestine? Literally all of this happened before Trump came into power. What the fuck are you talking about. How is that defending “human rights & liberties” in any way?

          • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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            42 minutes ago

            hey, when obama drone bombed all those arab kids he was really checks notes protecting human rights. same with Biden aggressively clamping down on pro-Palestinian peaceful protests by students. I feel like my human rights are defended so hard.

              • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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                35 minutes ago

                when you think about it, Biden killing people in Gaza was just his best effort to solve world hunger through humane depopulation.

                /sarcasm, since I’m not sure some liberals wouldn’t take me seriously and think it was a good idea.

        • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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          1 hour ago

          there’s a lot wrong with your comment, but let me focus on this part here because there’s only so much stupid I can put up with.

          Even so, your claim is off: the US has been protecting inherent human rights & liberties for the most part in recent history until Trump.

          you’re out of your fucking mind if you think the US has been even remotely protecting human rights. this is nothing more than the most obvious western propaganda bullshit, and even our allies in the rest of the western world would scoff at the idea.

        • ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 hours ago

          imagine being so illogical that you think that something as complex as all human ideologies can be represented on a 2D plain.
          reality is much more complicated that you can fathom, silly brah

          • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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            2 hours ago

            Ah, so you reject conventional political science, too? Cool.

            It’s just straightforward definitions & logic: the diagram is there for the slow.

            Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law.

            Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law.

            • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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              37 minutes ago

              Ah, so you reject conventional political science, too?

              the political compass is not “political science”, you debate nerd. and even if it was, I’d say it’s pretty good odds you’re not a political science major, and you’re just badly regurgitating liberal nonsense you read on the substack for some aide to Nacy Pelosi. what you’ve posted so far is contemptible in how easily it’s debunked even by looking at what the partisan corporate US media shows you, let alone any third party observer to the absolute human rights atrocities the US has been involved in.

      • Eugene V. Debs' Ghost@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Shhh, you’ll interrupt the lib circlejerk of how they’re the only good ones who commit atrocities, every other atrocity done by others is worse.

    • Allero@lemmy.today
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      The “political” aspect of communism stems directly from the desire to radically alter the economic system. It is not tied, however, to the particular political order.

      Coming from the same very Wikipedia article you cite on communism:

      Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers’ self-management, and an authoritarian socialist, vanguardist, or party-driven approach to establish a socialist state, which is expected to wither away.

      So, communism, just as capitalism and socialism, can be combined with all sorts of governance types. It can be authoritarian (and so can be capitalism - look at fascism to see an example), and it can be democratic (early Soviets) or even libertarian (anarcho-communism). You can build a totalitarian communist hellhole, and a totalitarian capitalist one; same in reverse.

      Now, an argument can actually be made that capitalism is inherently undemocratic. As your ability to exercise rights is heavily tied to your wealth (think of regular worker suing a billionaire, or all the lobbying, or corruption scandals involving the wealthiest and the way they slip out of them like nothing ever happened), people can be and commonly are silenced. Moreover, if you have money, nothing stops you from financing the media to translate your message. This way, important political messages are drowned in favor of what the rich want to translate, and certain (rather corrupt) voices are heavily amplified over others.

      By extension, liberalism, even in the most ideal of its forms, is deeply flawed when it comes to a true democracy.

      Finally, most communists (including Marx, since you mention him) realize that the communist society is at least very far off from the current state of affairs. This is why socialism exists as a transitory state, an economic system that grants a lot of benefits of communism (worker’s rights, a social state, socially owned industry) while keeping the monetary incentives in the economy. The absolute majority of communists support this transition and welcome a socialist state.

      • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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        3 minutes ago

        So, communism, just as capitalism and socialism, can be combined with all sorts of governance types.

        While this is true, they’re talking about Stalin & the political system mentioned before

        Colloquially, communism refers to a communist state (also known as a Marxist–Leninist state)

        not any political system. None of the other types of communist governments have existed to scale for a meaningful duration & none have fulfilled their fantastical/mythical promise. They either fail within a few years or persist through authoritarian repression while purporting to strive for a fantasy they may never achieve.

        Now, an argument can actually be made that capitalism is inherently undemocratic.

        Not a political system. Nothing you wrote about it necessarily happens (depends on government), and the rich have been successfully sued & convicted of crimes before.

        liberalism

        Isn’t some deluded speculation. It’s a moral & political philosophy of immediately realizable demands to restrict government authority[1]. Are you arguing against the restriction of government authority & against liberty? That’s a strong argument to reject your political system as illegitimate.

        Unlike the fantasy of a communist society, the demands of liberalism have been achieved before in North America & Europe. It’s why you’re allowed to write everything you have.

        true democracy

        Because liberalism is not democracy, liberal democracy is, and as mentioned:

        Colloquially, democracy refers to liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy

        True democracy was already defined

        Democracy is a political system/government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state.

        and demands less.

        This is why socialism exists as a transitory state

        Only to communists: socialists regard it as the goal.

        economic system that grants a lot of benefits of communism (worker’s rights, a social state, socially owned industry)

        Economic systems aren’t political systems, so they don’t have rights, though they may depend on rights (from a political system).

        Moreover, those benefits amount to less than purported in communist states.

        With all their rhetoric on substantive equality, & the time, state ownership, & central planning to achieve it, we’d expect at least the main outcome of economic equality. Yet, measures of economic inequality don’t support that: China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba rate medium on economic inequality. (Only, North Korea with an average height notably shorter than South Korea due to food shortages has low economic inequality.) To the contrary, the “flawed” liberal democracies in Europe, Canada, East Asia, Australia do better with low economic inequality.

        Despite an ideology opposing the exploitation of workers, Soviet forced labor camps did exactly that & would work the malnourished to death.

        The formal guarantees for nutrition from those benefits meant little when at least 5 million died during the Soviet famine of 1932 the Soviets created.

        For instance, over five million people lacked adequate nutrition and starved to death during the Soviet famine of 1932–1933, one of several Soviet famines. The 1932–33 famine was caused primarily by Soviet-mandated collectivization, although the famine in part was also caused by natural conditions. In response to frequent shortages, massive second economy existed for all categories of goods and services.

        In contrast, during the Great Depression in the United States, mortality fell & there were few reported cases from starvation.

        Without profit motive in those “benefits”, we might have expected a better environmental record in the Soviet Union. To the contrary

        Total emissions in the USSR in 1988 were about 79% of the US total. Considering that the Soviet GNP was only some 54% of that of the USA, this means that the Soviet Union generated 1.5 times more pollution than the USA per unit of GNP.

        Their planners considered pollution control

        unnecessary hindrance to economic development and industrialization

        and

        By the 1990s, 40% of Russia’s territory began demonstrating symptoms of significant ecological stress, largely due to a diverse number of environmental issues, including deforestation, energy irresponsibility, pollution, and nuclear waste.

        Stemming from those so-called benefits, the Soviet constitution of 1977 made a number of promises it couldn’t realize.

        • labor, free from exploitation, as the source of growth
        • continuous improvement of their living standards (art. 39)
        • steady growth of the productive forces (art. 40).

        The Soviet experience of socialist ownership and the concomitant centrally planned character of the economy showed the difficulties of realizing economic growth in order to ensure an increasing standard of living. Growth in the Soviet Union had been high in the nineteen thirties and early fifties, but had been deteriorating ever since.

        The actual functioning of the centrally planned economy was very different from the way it was planned to function. This had very much to do with the fact that economic actors in the Soviet Union also responded to state actions in a way that frustrated the state’s stated intentions. People engaged in informal and illegal activities and reduced their working time, frustrating the growth targets.

        Shortages increasingly lead people to the second economy with its blat (favors) network. Eventually, the last Soviet leaders, conceding failure by their own standards (economic, social, & cultural rights) & western standards (civil & political rights), dismantled the system from within: Western governments had exceeded their communist state by all standards.

        The end of the Cold War has changed the focus of the debate on human rights. The West, with its focus on civil and political rights, no longer opposed the Soviet states, with their emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights. The demise of the communist systems gave rise to a certain extent of triumphalism in the West, which had proven to be not only superior in political and civil rights, but also in economic and social rights. The economies of the western countries produced much more income and the material welfare of their populations was much higher than that of those living in Eastern Europe.


        1. by rule of law & protection of essential rights/liberties ↩︎

    • AppleTea@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      State terrorism is a contradiction in terms. Legally, terrorism is violence carried out by a group that is not recognized as a state internationally. States cannot do terrorism, the term exists to protect their monopoly on legal violence. George Washington was a terrorist until the British empire recognized and began doing business with the constitutional United States. We see a similar change occurring with Taliban members and the present government of Afghanistan.

      More importantly, though. You claim liberal democracy is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism, yet if we dig into the present and recent past of the United States, we find policies that match the list you have provided.

      The Lavender Scare and Hoover’s FBI, the Red Scare and COINTELPRO, the police response to Kent State anti-war protests in 1970, the police response Columbia’s anti-genocide protests last year, the ongoing existence of privately run labor camps and prison farms.

      • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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        10 hours ago

        State terrorism is a contradiction in terms.

        Nope

        State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state’s citizens.

        Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims.

        The violations mentioned before are illegitimate exertions of authority to repress inherent human rights & liberties. Legal authority isn’t always legitimate authority. Violence against nonviolent dissidents (for political/ideological aims) is unjust.

        You claim liberal democracy is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism

        Nope, reread:

        Liberalism, however, is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism.

        I don’t know about labor camps, but none of that has any bearing on a moral & political philosophy.

        Moreover, the fact we know it & discuss it openly puts that government far beyond repressive governments that suppress & deny their failures ever happen.

        Like all governments, liberal democratic governments lapse into illegitimate authority. More importantly, however, they correct their lapses due to the people exercising their inherent liberties to induce reforms. That’s the design lacking from authoritarian governments like communist states: transparency & accountability to the people exercising their liberties to induce reform. Nothing short of a revolution or dissolution keeps communist states accountable to the people: they repress such liberties & send critics to labor camps as anti-revolutionaries.

            • ozymandias@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              3 hours ago

              brah

              i don’t respect you, personally… specifically you are a stupid, silly bitch who doesn’t understand logic but you keep saying “logic” because you saw a youtube video somewhere.

              you illogical, gish galloping, chatgpt copy pasta-ing, moron. i respect logic, and i disrespect you.
              you.
              you suck and i don’t like you. try to understand that.