My vote is for Sergei Zubov.
Posted on 09/02/2008 10:22:27 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Stalin's mass murders were 'entirely rational' says new Russian textbook praising tyrant
By Will Stewart
Last updated at 1:10 AM on 03rd September 2008
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Ruthless: 20 million died as a result of Stalin's actions
Stalin acted ‘entirely rationally’ in executing and imprisoning millions of people in the Gulags, a controversial new Russian teaching manual claims.
Fifty-five years after the Soviet dictator died, the latest guide for teachers to promote patriotism among the Russian young said he did what he did to ensure the country’s modernisation.
The manual, titled A History of Russia, 1900-1945, will form the basis of a new state-approved text book for use in schools next year.
It seems to follow an attempt backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate Stalin’s record in a more positive light.
Critics have taken exception, however, to numerous excerpts, which they say are essentially attempts to whitewash Stalin’s crimes.
In the West, it has been widely accepted that in the 1920s millions were shot, exiled to Siberia, or died of starvation after their land, homes and meagre possessions, were taken to fulfil Stalin’s vision of massive ‘factory farms.’
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This makes sense folks. I know it is difficult to even imagine, but to communists (socialists or liberals), humans are just a tool to be used to achieve their goals. They do not put humans on any higher plane then trees or rodents. That is why they demand euthenasia, abortion, and praise mass murderers.
Simple as that!
JoMa
I can’t help but look at Russia as a dying nation. They may be making lots of money, but not lots of babies. The population, as far as I know, is still shrinking. Women know. They know how horrible an environment their little babushka would have to grow up in and it’s not worth it to a significant number of Russian women.
More spies, spying on fewer people...to what end?
Death is not a MEANS to utopian socialism; mass murder is the FRUIT of utopian socialism.
To use a modern metaphor, the mass killing is not a bug, but a feature.
See tagline.
No. He only has to toss God in the river. It's a set of simple logical steps from there.
It makes me sick.
Its hard not to notice glee on the Russian websites/forums re kicking Georgian (and by association - American) ass. While not that many are longing for return of Communist rule (no more than 25%, judging by various elections in the last decade; and don’t even start the conspiracy theory that collapse of the USSR was a gimmick), most are nostalgic for Russian prestige and power in the world stage, and the lost Empire. During Olympics: so many calculations of combined total of medals if the Soviet Union was still intact. Then they would beat Chinese and American butt for sure.
They don’t see a paradox of simultaneously looking down at people from Caucus or Middle Asian -stans, and wanting the Empire back, including all these people as subjects. Another inconvenient truth all those praising Stalin conveniently forget, that during the terror years nobody was safe - no matter how small potato you were, or how far you lived.
The best Russian writers (the sole of the nation for the last two hundred years) had the slave mentality of populace as one of their main targets. Its still there.
sole=soul
duh
Wonder what Pooty-Put paid this guy to publish this drivel?!!
Nonsense. If they are exploited by their rulers it is because the majority of them consistently CHOOSE to be exploited. They have proved that they are capable of overthrowing their rulers so if they are content under any given exploitative despot, and they certainly seem happy with Putin, one can hardly feel sorry for them.
Instead save your sympathy for the millions of non Russians who have fallen victim to the Russian predilection for cruel and despotic leaders.
“People get the government they deserve.”—le Comte de Maistre
True, but only if your objectives are to break down society and create a hell on earth. The rationalization that the Russians are trying to foster is that it was necessary to kill millions in order to modernize society. This notion is not only irrational, it is ridiculous. That is why the people trying to rationalize Stalins crimes are irrational.
Not true. There are plenty of rational evil people. They only need to take one simple sentence to heart to unlock evil.
“The ends justify the means”
Infowarrior has it right because that one simple sentence is not rational. Anyone who believes it is, is obviously irrational. The ends cannot be divorced from the means. One cannot create utopia by means of terror. It is impossible and therefore irrational to believe that it is possible.
Your supposedly rational evil people demonstrate their irrationality and their evil by believing that “the ends justify the means”.
He was closely followed by Nicholas II, with Lenin, the folk singer Vladimir Vysotsky and Peter the Great trotting behind. Then, at some point, the last emperor overtook the dictator, though not for long.
These names are among the last 12 candidates for the Name of Russia which have been chosen by participants from a list of 500. Some 2.3 million Russians had cast their vote by that point.
In September the competition will reach TV screens, and the final result will be announced in December. This vote is not as straightforward as one might think. The organisers of the programme explain that for the time being there is no limit as to how many times a person can vote, and that political parties, particularly communists and monarchists, have been using this loophole and mobilising their supporters to make multiple votes in order to boost their favourite heroes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/23/russia.television
Comment: The steel with the possessive suffix -in ,will probably be numero uno in December
They are choosing the path of barbarians and thus deserve extinction. It is unfortunate but no one is forcing it on them.
“'Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. ‘Tis not contrary to reason for me to chuse my total ruin, to prevent the least uneasiness of an Indian or person wholly unknown to me. ‘Tis as little contrary to reason to prefer even my own acknowledg'd lesser good to my greater, and have a more ardent affection for the former than for the latter.” (2.3.3.6)"...Hume famously closes the section of the Treatise that argues against moral rationalism by observing that other systems of moral philosophy, proceeding in the ordinary way of reasoning, at some point make an unremarked transition from premises linked only by “is” to propositions linked by “ought” (expressing a new relation) — a deduction that seems to Hume “altogether inconceivable” (T3.1.1.27). Attention to this transition would “subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceiv'd by reason” (ibid.)."
David Hume
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/
Cordially,
As soon as God is gone, the only standard to judge things is how well it suits you. You can dress a made-up morality in fancy philosophy; but it comes down to: "that's what the maker-upper fancies." There is no way to distinguish between your philosophy and Stalin's except in fanciness. But fanciness is a preference of the philosopher. Stalin preferred a more direct philosophy and there is no way to distinguish them.
Except for one thing. Stalin has a lot of guns. So his philosophy wins. And there's no reason to think it shoudn't because they are both made-up philosophies.
Stalin's postulates that his personal power is really, really important. Your's may postulate otherwise. But they are arbitrary and indistinguishable by any standard other than who has more guns and the will to impose.
But that assumes Stalin's goal was utopia. All the evidence I see is that his goal was power. By that standard, he did pretty well with the mass-murder philosophy and it was entirely rational. "Kill whomever opposes you or whom you suspect might oppose you" worked for Stalin for pretty much his whole adult life.
Just remember the immortal words of Churchill,
"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
My vote is for Sergei Zubov.
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