Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 04/30/2025 11:35:43 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree late on Tuesday renaming the airport in Volgograd as Stalingrad, as the city was known when the Soviet army defeated the Nazi German forces in the biggest battle of World War Two, APA reports citing Reuters.
"In order to perpetuate the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, I hereby decree ... to assign the historical name 'Stalingrad' to Volgograd International Airport," the decree published on the Kremlin's website said.
(Excerpt) Read more at en.apa.az ...
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Stalin - Bad guy. Horrible guy.
Stalingrad’s defenders - Heroes whose sacrifice should not be forgotten.
So, yeah. I can see Putin’s point here.
Now, if he had named the airport “Stalin International Airport”, that would be something altogether different.
And in the Ukraine the Azov Battalion whose forefathers pledged allegiance to Adolf Hitler carries on.
Truth is such a pesky thing.
Next up. Renaming the St Petersburg airport to Leningrad.
Soviets gonna Soviets.
> Next up. Renaming the St Petersburg airport to Leningrad. <
Ha! If this keeps up, I might have to reevaluate my initial opinion.
After that, Putin will rename the Kazan airport to Mongolgrad.
There’s a subway station in Paris called “Stalingrad”.
They lost at least 1.5 times as many people as we did in all of WWII there, same for the krauts. And that doesn’t count those that went into captivity and never came back.
Remembering that battle is legitimate. Renaming the city to that Stalin era name would be bad, but this is fine.
The scale and misery of that battle on both sides is nearly beyond our comprehension. Reminders are good.
They would have been overun without us, and then they tried to overun the World. World saved twice, and it still takes us for granted.
Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
Numbers of deaths caused by Stalinism, 1924–1953 (excluding killings outside of Soviet borders)
Event Est. number of deaths
Dekulakization 530,000–600,000
Great Purge 700,000–1,200,000
Gulag 1,500,000–1,713,000
Soviet deportations 450,000–566,000
Katyn massacre 22,000
Holodomor 2,500,000–4,000,000
Kazakh famine of 1931–33 1,450,000
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet_Union_under_Joseph_Stalin
We could have saved a lot of money and American lives by telling Stalin to pound sand and NOT running merchant convoys through u-boat infested arctic waters to Murmansk.
But Roosevelt was himself a socialist and his administration was shot through with communists ...
From GROK:
Stalin’s policies (1924–1953) included forced collectivization, the Great Purge, Gulag labor camps, mass deportations, and engineered famines like the Holodomor. Below is a breakdown based on available evidence:
- Holodomor (1932–1933): The Ukrainian famine, widely regarded as man-made, killed an estimated 3.5–7 million people, with 5 million often cited as a median figure.
- Other Famines: Collectivization-related famines in Kazakhstan, the Volga region, and elsewhere caused 1–2 million deaths.
- Great Purge (1936–1938): Executions during the purges are estimated at 600,000–1.2 million, based on NKVD records and mass grave findings.
- Gulag System: From 1929–1953, about 1.6 million deaths are documented in labor camps due to starvation, disease, and executions, though estimates range up to 2.5 million.
- Deportations: Forced resettlements of ethnic groups (e.g., Chechens, Volga Germans) caused 200,000–500,000 deaths, with some estimates higher.
- Other Repressions: Political executions, “dekulakization,” and smaller-scale purges add hundreds of thousands more.
Total Estimates:
- Conservative estimates: 6–9 million deaths directly attributable to Stalinist policies.
- Higher estimates: Some historians, like Robert Conquest, suggest 15–20 million, including indirect deaths from policy failures.
- Recent scholarship (e.g., Anne Applebaum, Timothy Snyder) leans toward 10–15 million as a balanced range, acknowledging data gaps.
These figures exclude World War II deaths, as they are not directly tied to Stalinism. Discrepancies arise from Soviet record falsification, differing methodologies, and debates over “intentional” vs. “incidental” deaths.
At least Henry Wallace did eventually see the error of his ways.
In 1952, he published an article, “Where I Was Wrong”, in which he repudiated his earlier foreign policy positions and declared the Soviet Union to be “utterly evil”.
More from GROK:
Stalin’s treatment of Kazan, the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (TASSR), was shaped by his broader policies of Sovietization, industrialization, and repression, which had profound effects on the city and its largely Tatar and Russian population. While Kazan was not singled out for unique persecution compared to other Soviet cities, it faced significant hardship under Stalinism due to its status as a Tatar cultural and political center. Below is a detailed account based on available evidence:
- 1921–1922 Famine: Kazan, located in the Volga region, was severely hit by the famine exacerbated by Stalin’s war communism policies and grain requisitions. The famine killed an estimated 500,000 to 2 million people in the broader Volga region, including many in and around Kazan. The city’s population, particularly the Tatar majority, suffered from starvation and disease, with reports of mass mortality and social breakdown.
- Cultural Repression: Kazan was a historic center of Tatar culture, with a rich tradition of Islamic scholarship and intellectual life. Stalin’s policies targeted this identity:
- Language and Education: The Tatar language was suppressed, with its Arabic script replaced by Latin in the 1920s and Cyrillic by 1939. Tatar-language schools, presses, and theaters in Kazan were closed or Russified, eroding cultural heritage.
- Religious Persecution: Kazan’s mosques and Islamic institutions, central to Tatar identity, were shuttered or repurposed. Clerics were arrested or executed during the anti-religious campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s.
- Intellectual Purges: Tatar intellectuals in Kazan, including scholars and writers, were targeted as “bourgeois nationalists.” Figures like Mir Said Sultan-Galiev, a Kazan-born Bolshevik advocating for Tatar autonomy, were purged, with Sultan-Galiev arrested in 1923 and later executed.
- Great Purge (1936–1938): Kazan, as a regional hub, saw intense political repression during the Great Purge. Local Communist Party leaders, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens were accused of “counter-revolutionary” or “pan-Turkist” activities. Thousands in Kazan were arrested, executed, or sent to Gulags. NKVD records suggest hundreds of executions in the city, with mass graves later uncovered in the region.
- Industrialization and Social Change: Stalin’s push for rapid industrialization transformed Kazan into a Soviet industrial center:
- Forced Labor and Urbanization: The city’s population grew as peasants, including Tatars displaced by collectivization, were funneled into factories. Working conditions were harsh, with low wages and long hours.
- Cultural Erasure: Historic Tatar neighborhoods and architectural sites in Kazan were neglected or destroyed to make way for Soviet infrastructure, further diluting the city’s Tatar character.
- Collectivization’s Impact: The agricultural hinterlands around Kazan were devastated by forced collectivization in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Tatar peasants, labeled “kulaks,” were stripped of land and livestock, leading to economic collapse and migration to Kazan, where many faced poverty. This indirectly strained the city’s resources and social fabric.
- Relative Treatment: Compared to regions like Ukraine (Holodomor) or Crimea (1944 Tatar deportation), Kazan did not face targeted ethnic cleansing. However, its Tatar population endured cultural suppression and economic hardship on par with other non-Russian regions. The city’s strategic importance as an industrial and administrative center meant it was tightly controlled, with dissent swiftly crushed.
Long-Term Impact: By Stalin’s death in 1953, Kazan’s Tatar cultural identity was significantly weakened, with Russian language and Soviet ideology dominating public life. The city’s demographic balance shifted toward a Russian majority due to industrialization and Russification policies, a legacy that persisted into the post-Soviet era.
It’s really none of our business what they do.
Hitler would have gotten the Cacauses without us. That arrogant basta5d( who went to hell, 80 years ago today) thought he could take us on
We stomped his ass.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.