Time to hear an apology for the Great Terror in the USSR

[pzrmeyer2]

Bear the guilt
Time to hear an apology for the Great Terror in the Soviet Union
By ERIC MARGOLIS, TORONTO SUN

This seems to be historic guilt month. Germany just opened a new memorial to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. Armenians demand Turkey admit Ottoman-era massacres were genocide. Japan is being blasted anew for denying wartime atrocities.

Yet the greatest crime in modern history, and bloodiest genocide, have almost vanished from our collective memory. Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the Great Terror in the Soviet Union in which tens of millions were murdered or imprisoned.

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, at least commemorated for the first time what he termed "colossal" Soviet crimes by attending a memorial this week for its victims.

It was interesting watching Putin, former head of the FSB security service, denouncing crimes of its direct predecessors, KGB and NKVD. The same Putin who recently called the Soviet Union's collapse a "tragedy." Still, we applaud his long-overdue recognition of Communist-era crimes.

The Soviet terror began in the 1920s when Lenin ordered the extermination of Cossacks and opponents of the Bolsheviks. Next came Catholics of White Russia, and resisters to communism in the Baltic states and Moldova. Stalin then ordered liquidation of two million small farmers, known as "Kulaks."

In 1932-33, Stalin unleashed genocide against Ukraine's independent-minded farmers.

Six to seven million Ukrainians were shot or purposely starved to death. The man who directed this genocide, Lazar Kaganovich was made Hero of the Soviet Union and died in Moscow in 1991.

ATTENTION GRABBER

When Communist Party bureaucrats delayed Stalin's plans to transform the Soviet Union from a backward rural society into a modern industrial powerhouse, "Koba," as he was called, had NKVD shoot 700,000 party members. Thereafter, his orders were promptly obeyed.

Almost all the party and military hierarchy were executed during the Great Purges of 1937-38, which culminated in the Moscow Show Trials.

From 1934-1941 alone, some seven million victims were sent to the system of concentration camps known as the "gulag," including one million Poles, hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, and half the entire Chechen and Ingush people. Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Bashkirs, Kalmyks followed. Stalin's gulag did not need gas chambers: Cold, disease and overwork killed 30% of inmates yearly.

To this day, Russian and foreign historians are unsure of the full number of Lenin and Stalin's victims. Estimates range from 20-40 million total deaths from 1922 to 1953.

Stalin committed his worst crimes well before Hitler's major atrocities got under way.

We have forgotten that Germany alone did not spark the Second World War. Germany and the U.S.S.R. jointly invaded Poland in 1939; Stalin then attacked Finland. Two years later, Britain and the U.S.S.R. invaded neutral Iran. History indeed remains the propaganda of the victors.

If we keep hectoring Germany and Japan to admit guilt for events of the 1940s, is it not time the United States, Britain and Canada admit their own culpability in allying themselves to Stalin, a monster who killed over four times the number of Hitler's victims?

After all, Stalin's concentration camps were up and running a decade ahead of Germany's. The murder of millions of Ukrainians and Balts took place before the world's gaze -- six or seven years before the Second World War.

'UNCLE JOE'

The foolish Roosevelt, who hailed Stalin as "Uncle Joe," and the cannier Winston Churchill both knew they were allied to the biggest mass murderer since Genghis Khan.

They used a larger devil to fight a smaller, less dangerous one -- then paid his price by handing over half of Europe to Moscow.

Remember this when today's warmongers wax poetic about the glories of World War II -- and call for WW III.

Western powers should practise what they piously preach to Germany, Japan and, lately, Turkey, by at least apologizing for their sordid deal with Stalin, which was every bit as immoral as if they had made a deal with Hitler, as Stalin long feared they would, to destroy the Soviet Union.

[sid guttridge]

Sorry.

Sid.

[phylo_roadking]

I thought your name was Sid...not Joe....

[sid guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

If you are waiting for an apology from Joe, you have left it a little late!

In his absence, I'll just have to do.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Waleed Y. Majeed]

waleed

[Andy H]

Jeez what a piece of journalism.

[statemachine]

Eric Margolis calls them like he sees them.

[Annelie]

Yes, Eric Margolis writes what he thinks.

http://www.ericmargolis.com/biography.php

Not only do I read everything that is written by him
but I agree with a lot of what he writes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Margolis

[pzrmeyer2]

Jeez what a piece of journalism.

Ummm..do you disagree?

if so, please tell us what exactly does he have wrong? Specifics, please.

[michael kenny]

if so, please tell us what exactly does he have wrong? Specifics, please.

These bits maybe:

is it not time the United States, Britain and Canada admit their own culpability in allying themselves to Stalin


The 'Alliance' with Stalin was forced on them by Hitlers attack. I do realise some here think we chose the wrong side but really............what a stretch.

We have forgotten that Germany alone did not spark the Second World War. Germany and the U.S.S.R. jointly invaded Poland in 1939.

Germany did start WW2 by invading a country she knew had a treaty with France and GB.

Poland also took a chunk of Czechoslovakia when it was dismembered..




then paid his price by handing over half of Europe to Moscow.

Nobody 'handed over' half of Europe. The Soviets took it the hard way. Perhaps it might be better to blame Hitler because he is the one who gave the Russians the excuse to enter eastern Europe.

[Marc Binazzi]

what seems puzzling with hindsight is that at Yalta no-one seemed to challenge Stalin's ambitions over Eastern Europe, although I would say that the allies could have stood against him if they really wanted to. This is a bit gruesome to say but I wonder what would have happened if Roosevelt had died a bit earlier and Truman was the one facing Uncle Joe......

[Paddy Keating]

Here's an interesting essay from the Stanford University website: http://wais.stanford.edu/Individuals/wa ... sevelt.htm Of course, even if Roosevelt was of Jewish origin, it has no bearing on his attitude to Joseph Stalin, whom some contend was also of Jewish origin. And then there are those who suggest that the maiden name of Winston Churchill's mother was Jacobson. So, there you have it! It's all a massive conspiracy, with Jews running the Punch & Judy Show promoted as Capitalism versus Bolshevism. Mind you, if they really did control things back in the 1930s, then how did the Germans and their millions of helpers across Europe manage to implement the Final Solution? There again, a rough profile of the Six Million suggests that the majority came from the lower social orders. Ah yes, say the conspiracy theorists, the working classes always pay the price while the rich go free. Say it ain't so, Herb!

Basically, gents, man is a swine and will behave disgustingly given less than half a chance. Descartes was wrong.

PK

[Marc Binazzi]

Descartes was wrong.

I agree, but I am not sure that one will be understood by everyone on this forum........

[sid guttridge]

Hi Guys,

Historical apologies are meaningless unless given by the perpetrators. For example, Blair's apology for British participation in the slave trade was entirely vacuous. Any apology on behalf of the USSR would be equally vacuous, as would any given by modern Germans for the more extreme activities of the Third Reich.

Ideally, what successor societies should do is;

1) Pursue criminal charges against individual perpetrators whilst they still can. (Russia has totally failed in this).

2) Publicly recognise the full enormity of what happened. (Turkey and Japan have failed in this.)

This unburdens them of any historical baggage.

Of course Hitler started WWII. Stalin colluded in it and jumped on the bandwagon later. Stalin may have been cocked, but Hitler was the trigger.

Of course history isn't the propaganda of the victors. It never has been. Was the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran covered up? Hardly!

Why should "the United States, Britain and Canada admit their own culpability in allying themselves to Stalin" when they didn't actually seek to do so. Hitler forced them into the same camp. Churchill had tried to strangle the USSR at birth, while Hitler declared war on Roosevelt whilst already at war with the USSR. They were uncomfiortable bedfellows created by Hitler.

While I wouldn't claim that the motives of the Anglo-Americans were much more than self interest and self preservation, one has to say that the barely distinguishable Totalitarian powers were a far worse option for humanity. The Anglo-Americans supported one to destroy the other in WWII and wore down the other through the Cold War. This strikes me as a thoroughly good thing and nothing to apologise for.

Nobody is pretending that Stalin wasn't responsible for a massive number of deaths. The question is, who can now appropriately be held to account for it and how?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Marc Binazzi]

I agree, Sid. Another yet more vacuous example is the Pope (can't recall whether it was the Pole or the German) apologizing for all the crimes and horrors perpetrated in the name of Christianity. In that type of situation, it comes so late that you can't take it seriously.