[neverevergiveup]

Attacking, rightfully, the actions of Stalin is not a reflection on the Russian people who took back control of their nation. It is, however, a reflection on those who would like to go back to the days of the USSR.

[Responsibility2nd]

Right. Why demonize the man? He never murdered more than - say - 10 million people.

[Yaelle]

Some time you have to keel meelions of people to make an omelet, nyet?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Hard to "excessively demonize" this:

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

[Boogieman]

Imagine if Merkel said “excessive demonization” of Hitler was an attack on modern Germany...

[katana]

Stalin made his contemporary and one time ally Hitler look like a small time street corner thug. He could be charming, witty, and was quite intelligent. But the gears were always turning and no one could predict who or which group would next be made to disappear from the scene. The book Stalin: The Court of the Red Czar is maybe the best and most thoroughly readable biography of this human monster.

[ought-six]

Stalin was a monster of the highest order.

[NorseViking]

Putin’s point is that the ship has sailed. He doesn’t want people to feel guilty over Stalin. Hitler guilt didn’t serve Germans well.

[Bringbackthedraft]

25 percent of Russians consider Stalin’s repressions “historically justified,....................... Yeah, like Hitler’s. s/ Who did they poll, the children of the NKVD who’s parents, unlike the nazis, escaped prosecution. The best thing that occurred in Russia was the death of Stalin, he apparently was on the verge of eliminating Jews like Hitler did. Had he done that, what would the world have done to stop it? I don’t see a fleet of B-47’s dropping A bombs, and the UN action most likely would have been a reprimand? Russian politics at the time is like ours today, too many dirty hands, covering for each other’s criminal activities. At least we aren’t at the point of Lubyanka or the mines of Kolyma and the others. (Not yet, anyway.)

[GOP Poet]

Stalin did a damn good job of excessive demonization all on his own. He was a monster.

[Billthedrill]

Martin Amis had something to say about cuddly little Koba: Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. However you feel about Amis, he nailed Uncle Joe.

The thing to remember about the deliberate infliction of mass starvation on the Kulaks is that for many progressives, it isn't any more than their own morality writ large. In Stalin's own words, "one man's death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." I don't think I'll be warming up to the monster anytime soon.