• raoul@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago
    1. There will not be a dramatic purge inasmuch the MVD has already been cleaned up

    I think the memo put in doubt the dictator part, not the brutal part of Stalin.

    • Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      What’s so brutal about him exactly?

      The purges weren’t just stalin going around shooting his opposition, they were a series of anti-corruption trials aimed at removing revisionists in power who were intent on seeing a return of capitalism. It was only in the worst cases, people who had deliberately committed espionage or sabotage, who were sentenced to death. Everyone else however, was largely either just barred from political life, or sent to jail, or not prosecuted at all as they hadn’t done anything yet.