It takes a very brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army.

Joseph Stalin

(Crossposted from Instagram)

In American culture we often use Hitler as our prototypical representation of evil. I think Stalin was worse. He founded the Gulag prison camp system, which enslaved millions of Russians and was effectively used as a tool to terrify his own population into submission. Millions of farmers were evicted from their farms, and millions more died in the ensuing famine. He had over 80% of his highest ranking party members killed. He also famously refused to exchange a POW for his own son, because the prisoner was a higher rank (his son died in prison).

This quote is my "favorite" Stalin quote in that it chillingly captures his nature. For him it's a joke, but one that represents a terrifying reality: Red Army soldiers had more to fear from Stalin than the enemy. He executed his own officers. He sent men into battle with broomsticks instead of guns, and organized special battalions at the rear of his army, which were to kill "panic mongers and cowards".

Stalin cared only about the preservation and expansion of his own power, and nothing for the fear and suffering of his people. Though they might diverge in the obviousness of their callousness, Vladimir Putin very much reminds me of Stalin in this regard. On the eve of what's looking like his third round of invading a neighboring state, I thought I'd touch on some of what Putin's done.

Putin's "presidency" is a sham. He routinely smashes any legitimate attempts at real democracy by busting up protests and demonstrations. He assassinates political rivals. Or, to avoid martyring them, arrests them and has them run on a hamster wheel of court dates and bureaucratic red tape. Perhaps the most recent example is opposition leader Alexi Navalny, who was poisoned, returned to Russia, was arrested, and is still a prisoner (being tortured via sleep deprivation).

Using the government as his arm, he has routinely seized all the assets of individuals dissenting with him (inventing crimes to legitimize this seizure), and redistributing them to himself and oligarch's loyal to him (notable in this is all of the Russian press). By using the state to make various oligarchs rich he has created this perverted hybrid of capitalism and communism where expenses are nationalized and profits are privatized.

He has already invaded neighboring foreign nations twice (Georgia and Ukraine). On multiple occasions he has ordered interventions in hostage situations that result in mass casualties. The most horrifying of which was the Beslan school hostage crisis, where the KGB was ordered to fire incendiaries on the roof of a school gymnasium filled with hostages, most of them children (hundreds died).

There is even evidence that he has intentionally bombed his own people for political reasons (so he could blame the bombings on Chechens and seize power from Yelstin, the first president of Russia). I suppose the larger point I'm trying to make is that Putin is every bit as sociopathic as Stalin, and, given the free reign and opportunity, he will be every bit the enemy of humanity that Stalin was.

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