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[Helgoland]

And quite willing to commit atrocities too. It's a shame his NEP didn't survive longer, though.


Anyway, a new song is gaining popularity among Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine.

[smeeprocket]

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

[Knit tie]

I wouldn't be so categorical in my judgement of various Soviet leaders, as they were all very complex and multifaceted figures about whom books have been written by men and women much smarter individually than all of us here combined.

Anyway, a new song is gaining popularity among Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine.

It that a joke? Another attempt to portray the Novorossiyan forces as being composed of Russian soldiers to any significant extent and not of local volunteers who are not liking the Ukrainian terror bombing of Donbass any more than the locals of Chechnya liked the Russian terror bombing of Grozny?

If you'd like to hear some real news from Novorossiya, one of the rebels' best commanders, Bednov, nicknamed "Batman," has been recently murdered.

[Baffler]

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Who is this, comrade? I've never heard of such a person.

Anyway, a new song is gaining popularity among Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine.

It that a joke? Another attempt to portray the Novorossiyan forces as being composed of Russian soldiers to any significant extent and not of local volunteers who are not liking the Ukrainian terror bombing of Donbass any more then Chechens liked the Russian terror bombing of Grozny?

I think he's just rickroll'd us.

[Sergarr]

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Are we talking about the same Trotsky that actually planned to incite the world-wide revolution?

[smeeprocket]

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Are we talking about the same Trotsky that actually planned to incite the world-wide revolution?

I love me some Trotsky. Reading his stuff is inspiring as hell. I assume there are not multiple Trotskys though.

[Helgoland]

It that a joke?

Indeed it was, and one aimed at the Westerners too - note the line "For we are the slaves of the Dark Lord's war." Poe's law, I guess.

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Of all people, Trotsky? The one who in the middle of a collectivisation-induced famine argued that the USSR needed more collectivization? IIRC he was a competent military leader, but the one advantage he apparently had over Stalin was being less competent at politics.

[smeeprocket]

It that a joke?

Indeed it was, and one aimed at the Westerners too - note the line "For we are the slaves of the Dark Lord's war." Poe's law, I guess.

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Of all people, Trotsky? The one who in the middle of a collectivisation-induced famine argued that the USSR needed more collectivization? IIRC he was a competent military leader, but the one advantage he apparently had over Stalin was being less competent at politics.

that doesn't mean he wasn't an inspirational writer.

Other than Marx and Engels, we are short on non-atrocity supporting/committing writers of old.

[Knit tie]

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Are we talking about the same Trotsky that actually planned to incite the world-wide revolution?

I love me some Trotsky. Reading his stuff is inspiring as hell. I assume there are not multiple Trotskys though.

No, there's just one guy who has an insane amount of both praising and deriding propaganda written about him and objective opinions about whom are very hard to find.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The USSR was fucked from the word go, as far as I've been able to determine. Maaayybeee the Mensheviks or a Left Communist group would have done a decent job without segueing straight into "what if we just killed our ethnic and political opponents?", but that would require either of those to have been any more than fringe.

[smeeprocket]

I think the mensheviks would have stalled at the necessary capitalism part. Everyone seems to have.

[Knit tie]

It that a joke?

Indeed it was, and one aimed at the Westerners too - note the line "For we are the slaves of the Dark Lord's war." Poe's law, I guess.

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Of all people, Trotsky? The one who in the middle of a collectivisation-induced famine argued that the USSR needed more collectivization? IIRC he was a competent military leader, but the one advantage he apparently had over Stalin was being less competent at politics.

that doesn't mean he wasn't an inspirational writer.

Other than Marx and Engels, we are short on non-atrocity supporting/committing writers of old.

Communists were not the only people in the history of the world who didn't commit atrocities, you know.

@Helgo: Indeed, Poe's law.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I think the mensheviks would have stalled at the necessary capitalism part. Everyone seems to have.

As the Menshevik Lost Cause line goes, it would have been better since the Alt-Union would have had the opportunity to actually exist as a free republic under the guise of people who were aware of the worst possibilities of capitalism. This would have allowed cultural and industrial development without all of the....everything that Lenin and Stalin did.

But its a bit irrelevant, as the Mensheviks were small-fry.

[smeeprocket]

It that a joke?

Indeed it was, and one aimed at the Westerners too - note the line "For we are the slaves of the Dark Lord's war." Poe's law, I guess.

It was Trotsky that was the real loss.

Of all people, Trotsky? The one who in the middle of a collectivisation-induced famine argued that the USSR needed more collectivization? IIRC he was a competent military leader, but the one advantage he apparently had over Stalin was being less competent at politics.

that doesn't mean he wasn't an inspirational writer.

Other than Marx and Engels, we are short on non-atrocity supporting/committing writers of old.

Communists were not the only people in the history of the world who didn't commit atrocities, you know.

@Helgo: Indeed, Poe's law.

When I say we, I refer to communists/socialists/etc.

[Helgoland]

Other than Marx and Engels, we are short on non-atrocity supporting/committing writers of old.

Ooooh, you've been missing out!
Orwell counts, since he was a socialist (and pretty much the only one whose thoughts I can sort of feel into). I especially recommend Homage to Catalonia, for exposing the bigotry and infighting of the Spanish Civil War as well as the mundane inhumanities of warfare; but Down and Out in Paris and London may be of bigger interest to you. 1984 suffers a bad case of It Was His Sled, and is often (maybe usually) misunderstood - not something to read without context for sure; I'd recommend it as a followup to Homage.
Brecht counts too, he even emigrated to the GDR - he did not commit atrocities, but interestingly defended them very eloquently. Life of Galilei is my favorite, mostly because it's the only one of his books I've read.
Tucholsky I know little about, but he may be right up your alley.
Camus I cannot recommend highly enough, but he's a tough read. La Peste was very interesting.

There's countless others I'm forgetting, but these are the ones that are most important to me.