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In the last five years, Indian Railways has been transformed drastically under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. From the latest achievement of indigenously developing the country’s fastest train Vande Bharat Express, there have been several firsts in Indian Railways.Some of the major achievements in Indian Railways under the Modi Government are :-Introduction of Vande Bharat Express trainIt is India’s first semi-high speed train and was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. It is first indigenously built engineless train. It is meant for intra-day travel and it is expected to reduce travel time by 10-15% as compared to Shatabdi Express. It is built by capable engineers from the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai in a short span of only 18 months. It can touch speeds up to 220 kmph. Railway minister Piyush Goyal has announced that this train shall be the future of Indian Railways.Railways and Alstom develop locomotives under #MakeInIndiaIndian Railways in collaboration with Alstom SA from France manufactured 12,000 HP locomotives at its Madhepura factory. This is an export oriented and completely #MakeInIndia initiative which is a matter of great pride for the nation. Developing a locomotive which is faster and with higher hauling capacity is a mean feat in itself. The hauling capacity is 6,000 tonnes and can reach a maximum speed of 120kmph.Further, Indian Railways converted its diesel locomotive into an electric locomotive. With this success, now the Indian Railways plans to convert all its diesel locomotives to electric ones during their mid-life rehabilitation. This ensures better efficiency and protects the environment too.Highest ever production of Linke Hofmann Busch coachesThe coach manufacturing has picked up across its factories and the pace is astonishing. India shall soon be exporting the same too. Indian Railways has manufactured more LHB (Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches in the last two years than what it did in the first 17 years since their introduction. Railways manufactured 5,500 coaches between 2017 and December 2018. Between 2001 and March 31, 2016, 4,020 LHB coaches were manufactured and just in 2016-2017, 1,470 LHB coaches were produced.Use of LEDs, solar power and WiFi across railway stationsCould you ever imagine 100% LED lighting of all railway stations was ever possible? Now it is done. LEDs are eco friendly, consume less power and provide better lighting and are aesthetically more beautiful as well. A first in the world, solar panels were used as grid in railways.A total of 16 solar panels, each producing 300 Wp, were fitted in six coaches and the train has a power back-up and can run on battery for at least 72 hours. The cost of these solar panels, manufactured under 'Make in India' initiative, is Rs 54 lakh. Today, every big station in India has free and reliable WiFi for the passengers.Railway electrification at its peak and safetyNew electric locomotives need electrified rail lines. The government has ensured a record breaking 4,087 Rkm of tracks are electrified just in 2017-18 year itself. Can you imagine there were about 4,943 unmanned level crossings which had to be eliminated and proper safety features installed. The number of railway accidents caused due to unmanned level crossings in the year 2009-10 was 65. 48 accidents were reported in 2010-2011, 54 in 2011-2012, 53 in 2012-2013, 47 in 2013-2014, 50 in 2014-2015, 29 in 2015-2016, 20 in 2016-2017, 10 in 2017-2018, three in 2018-2019.High-class facilities at railway stationsThis is newly opened Manduadiah railway station in VaranasiA Railway waiting lounge at TirupatiRailways is transforming. A New India of tomorrow needs railways as its engineEscalators at Ahmedabad (Kalupur) railway stationIRCTC retiring room at Kacheguda railway stationBeautification of Kota railway stationBogiBeel BridgePROJECT SWARN - 14 Rajdhanis and 15 Shatabdi trains were identified to significantly improve passengers experience under “Project Swarn”. To achieve the objectives under this Project, ‘staff behaviour’ was identified as an important parameter. The frontline staff of these premier trains was trained in various aspects such as catering, linen management and cleanliness.Introduced and proliferated Global Positioning System (GPS) based ‘Fog Pass device’ which displays the name and distance of approaching signals and other critical signal landmarks in advance during train operation.In order to improve the functioning of Railways, substantial financial and administrative powers covering a wide spectrum of working have been delegated by the Railway Board to General Managers (GM),Divisional Railway Managers (DRM) and field officials.SAFETY OF INDIAN RAILWAYSIn the current year from 1st April, 2017 to 30th November, 2017 consequential train accidents decreased from 85 to 49 in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year.During the year from January to December 2017 to give thrust to safety related issues, Safety drives were launched on all zonal railways with a view to prevent accidents.Emphasis on night inspections and ambush checks regularly by officers and supervisors, review of fracture prone locations, frequent and intensive footplate inspection, etc.Focus on monitoring practices associated with booking, counselling, training, PME, performance evaluation etc. of crew in view of SPAD by Loco Pilots.A special safety drive regarding – “Working on running lines” and “Safety at work sites” for a period of fifteen days to check incidences of uncoupling in passenger train (Locomotive Getting Separated from Formation).Gate Mitras were deployed at all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) on Broad Gauge instead of only identified UMLCs in order to enhance safety.Under Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) a provision of `20,000 crore has been made in 2017-18 out of ‘RRSK’ to fund essential works for ensuring safety.PASSENGER AMENITIES, SERVICESFrom 03rd Nov. 2017, Service started to provide information to passengers through Short Messaging Service (SMS) regarding status of delayed trains. Initially, all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Tejas & Gatiman Trains covered. From 15th Dec, 2017, all Jan shatabdis, Duranto and Garib Rath trains have also been included. Now this service is available in around 250 trains.Permitted m-Aadhar as one of the prescribed proofs of Identity for Rail Travel Purpose.Extension of Scheme of Alternate Train Accommodation System aka VIKALP for the benefit of Waitlisted Passengers with effect from 1st April, 2017 in all Mail/Express trains.Initiatives for The Senior Citizens -Persons With Disabilities: Indian Railways launched Quota of 2 Berths for Divyangjans & Senior Citizens in AC 3 class. This is in addition to existing quota of 4 berths in SL class.Online booking of Retiring Rooms has been commissioned at 497 railway stations of Indian Railways. With a view to ensure optimal utilization of available accommodation in Retiring Rooms and Dormitory, instructions have been issued to Western Railway for booking of Retiring Room as well as dormitory for minimum duration of 3 hrs except for night booking where the booking will be done mandatorily from 2100 hrs to 0900 hrs. This facility is presently available at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat stations.New Catering Policy in Railways launched. 33% Sub Quota for Women in Allotment of each Category of minor Catering Units at All Category of stations has been provided under this policy. Roped in Self Help Groups To Make Local Cuisines Available Through E-Catering Services of its PSU IRCTC.Initiated programme for 100% LED lighting at stations leading to improved illumination and passenger safety. Completed more than 3500 stations so far with a target to cover all Railway stations by March 2018.Provision of mobile/laptop charging points at all railway platforms.Provision of insect catchers at railway stations.A new mobile app IRCTC Rail Connect launched. Aadhar linked user IDs have been allowed to book 12 e-tickets in one month as against 6 tickets for non Aadhar user IDs.A new Integrated Mobile App ‘Rail SAARTHI’ launched which provides various services viz. Rail e-ticket booking, unreserved ticketing, complaint management, Clean my Coach, passenger enquiry etc.Payment of ticket using UPI/BHIM App has been implemented at reservation counters as well as on e-ticketing website.HIGH SPEED RAILWAY/ MOBILITYA road map developed to increase speed of trains by overcoming the existing impediments on Principal routes of the railways on Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) along with diagonals (Delhi – Mumbai, Delhi – Howrah, Howrah- Chennai, Chennai – Mumbai, Delhi – Chennai and Howrah – Mumbai) due to fixed infrastructure, movable infrastructure, and operational practices.Projects for two routes viz. New Delhi- Mumbai Central (including Vadodara- Ahmedabad) and New Delhi- Howrah (including Kanpur- Lucknow) for raising of speed to 160/200kmph have been included in WP 2017-18 at Rs. 18,000 crores approximately. Speed Enhancement project entails works such as through fencing, removal of level crossings, train protection warning system (TPWS), mobile train radio communication (MTRC), automated and mechanized diagnostic systems etc. which will considerably enhance safety and reliability. The main outcome of the implementation of the projects is increase in the maximum speed of the trains to 160/200 kmph. This will reduce the travel time of premium Rajdhani type trains to 12 hours as against the present travel time of 17 hours for Howrah Rajdhani and 15 hours 35 minutes for Mumbai Rajdhani.Replacement of loco hauled commuter trains with MEMU/DEMU trains: MEMU trains have a potential for average speed increment of up to 20kmph in comparison to loco driven passenger trains.Ground-breaking ceremony of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (MAHSR) by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and Hon’ble Prime Minister of Japan was held in September, 2017. Managing Director and other Directors in the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), constituted for implementation of the MAHSR project, have been appointed.NEW TRAINSIndia’s First Tejas Express Between Mumbai and Karmali inaugurated.More Than Three Decade Old Demand for an “Express” Train for People of Kirandul in Dantewada District of Chhattisgarh fulfilled. Extended Train No. 08152 Visakhapatnam – Jagdalpur Upto Kirandul.Prime Minister of India & Prime Minister of Bangladesh Jointly along with Chief Minister, West Bengal Flagged off New Cross-Border Train between India & Bangladesh, “Kolkata-Khulna Bhandhan Express” from Kolkata.Introduced tri-weekly new special Rajdhani between Delhi – Mumbai route from 16th October, 2017.Introduced First AC EMU consisting of 12-car (12 coaches) fitted with “Indigenous” 3-phase Propulsion system of Ms BHEL on Mumbai Suburban Section.Introduced third Mahamna Express to run between Varanasi and Vadodara on 22nd September 2017.Vistadome Tourist Coach with glass walls launched at Vishakhapatnam to run between Visakhaptnam and Araku Valley. The Vistadome coach has features like glass roof, LED lights, rotable seats, GPS based info system etc will offer to tourists to enjoy scenic beauty not only at destination but also along the journey.Introduced Train No.22165/22166 Bhopal-Singrauli Express (Bi-Weekly)Introduced Train No 22167/22168 Singrauli-H. Nizamuddin Express(Weekly)Introduced Train No 18109/18110 Jammu Tawi-Rourkela Express (Daily) Upto Sambalpur:Introduced Train No 22913/22914 Bandra(T)-Patna Humsafar Express (Weekly)Introduced Train No 22921/22922 Bandra(T)-Gorakhpur Antyodaya Express (Weekly)Introduced Train No 22434/ 22433 Anand Vihar (T) To Ghazipur (Bi-weekly) via Kanpur, Allahabad:Introduced New DEMU Service between Baiyappanahalli-Whitefild-Baiyappanahalli.Introduced Train No 22163/64 Bhopal- Khajuraho Mahamana Intercity Express (Daily),Introduced Train No 22833/34 Bhubaneswar- Krishnarajapuram Humsafar Express (Weekly)Introduced Train No 17323/17324 Hubballi – Varanasi – Hubballi Express (Weekly)Introduced Train No 17325/17326 Hubballi – Mysuru – Hubballi Express (Daily)Introduced Train No 16791/16792 from Punalur to Palakkad.Introduced Train No 22992/22991 Veraval – Bandra Terminus Super Fast ExpressIntroduced Train No 22994/22993 Mahuva – Bandra Terminus Super Fast ExpressIntroduced Train No 19030/19029 Mahuva – Bandra Terminus Super Fast ExpressIntroduced Train No 58653/58654 Ranchi-Barkichanpi Passenger upto ToriIntroduced Train No Train No 14715/14716 Sri Ganganagar – Tiruchirappalli Humsafar Express (Weekly) (via Krishnarajapuram, Pune, Ahmedabad) the fourth Humsafar clan of trains.Introduced Train No Train No 22877/22878 Ernakulam – Howrah Antyodaya Express (Weekly) (via Salem, Katpadi, Visakhapatnam) first Antyodaya clan of trains.Extended Train No. 19653/19654 Ajmer Ratlam Express Extended up to Indore.Extended Frequency of Train No.22419/22420 Ghazipur City-Anand Vihar (T) Suhail Dev Express from tri-weekly to four days a week.INFRASTRUCTUREThe first Phase of the Station Redevelopment Program comprising 23 major Railway Stations of Indian Railways was launched.Mission Retro Fitment to revamp passenger coaches launched to enhance the passenger experience. It will cover 45,000 Coaches.Significant Step taken towards Providing Rail Connectivity for Chardham Pilgrimage in the State of Uttarakhand through commencement of final location Survey.Record Commissioning of sections on Electric Traction: During the calendar year 2017, all time record commissioning of Electric Traction of 2367 route kilometer was achieved. A target for electrification of 4,000 route kilometer has been set for achievement during financial year 2017-18.OPENING OF MAJOR ROUTES ON ELECTRIC TRACTIONDuring the calendar year 2017, commissioning of missing links have resulted in better linkages and seamless connectivity on following routes:Commissioning of Andal-Sitarampur section,Commissioning of Indore-Mhow section.Commissioning of Singapur Road – Lanjigarh – Titlagarh sectionCommissioning of Lapanga – Sambalpur section.Commissioning of Una Himachal – Amb Andura section.Commissioning of Lalitpur – Udaipura section.Commissioning of Walgaon – Narkher section.Commissioning of Manpur-Tilaiya-Bakhtiyarpur section.Commissioning of Ramanagaram-Mysore sectionELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE FACTORY AT MADHEPURA IN BIHAR (MAKE IN INDIA PROJECT)-First phase of construction of factory has been completed. First prototype locomotive under assembly at the factory and expected to be rolled out by Feb.’18 as per time line. Manufacturing of High Horse Power Freight locomotives (9000 hp) for hauling longer and heavier trains with improved mobility. Manufacturing of High Horse Power Passenger locomotives (9000 hp) for improving average speed of coaching trains in this Locomotive Factory at Madhepura.SECURITYSeats earmarked for Security Personnel of escorting teams in the trains. Berth no.63 in S1 Coach of the train earmarked for Security Personnel so they can be located easily in case of need.Railway Protection Force decided to extend Child Rescue Campaign in 47 additional Railway Stations taking total to 82 Railway Stations. The campaign had been successfully implemented in 35 existing Railway Stations. RPF rescued around 21,000 children in last three years.GREEN INITIATIVESDedicated Green Corridor in Bhagalpur- Banka section (Bihar) of Malda Division.Dedicated Green Corridor-Madhupur-Giridih section of Asansol Division.500 Kwp Solar Roof Top System commissioned at Mysuru Work Shop.Indian Railways Organization for Alternate Fuel (IROAF) sets gold standards by winning Golden Peacock Award for Eco Innovation for the year 2017 for introducing eco friendly and cost saving Dual Fuel 1400 HP Diesel engines on DEMU trains.First DEMU Train with Solar powered Coaches inducted into service of the Nation.New Water Management Policy with respect to consumption and utilization in Railways was released.GreenCo Certificates developed by CII given to Three Units of Indian Railways viz. Diesel Locomotive Works (Varanasi), Perambur Carriage Works (Chennai), Lalaguda Carriage Workshop (Hyderabad)Various new initiatives taken for improving energy efficiency- Replacement of all electrical equipments at railway stations and service buildings with energy efficient BEE star rated equipments under ESCO model, 100% LED lighting at all the railway stations, service buildings, workshops, Sheds and other installations etc. With this, savings of Rs. 125 Cr. achieved this year by saving about 7% energy.Building Management Information System (BMIS) implemented at Rail Bhawan including LED lights which shall save about Rs.30 lacs per annum in the energy bill.Policy for use of energy efficient equipments by all vendors issued to the railways.More than 60 MW of solar & wind power plants have already been installed covering 270 stations & 120 administrative buildings & hospitals and further orders for about 150 MW have been placed for solar plants on roof tops of Railway Buildings.An International Conferenc on Green Initiatives and Railway Electrification organized in October 2017.DIGITAL INDIA INITIATIVESFor incentivizing people to opt digital transactions, IR has withdrawn service charge from booking of e-tickets, offered free insurance of Rs 10 lakhs on e-tickets and 0.5% discount on Season Tickets purchased through digital means etc.Around 9,500 POS machines have been installed at various ticket booking counters to accept payment from Debit/Credit cards. No MDR is charge for booking through Debit cards at ticketig counters.The facility of payment through UPI/BHIM has been provided at PRS counters.Rail Cloud Project Launched– To achieve the goal of single digital platform for Indian Railways.Railsaver App developed and its utilization popularized with the railways.Implementation of e-office in the Railway Board.Implementation of on-line submission and assessment of Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) through SPARROW for officers of Indian Railways.Digitization of old Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APARs) of Group-A Officers of Indian Railways.Launching complimentary Wi-Fi facility at National Rail Museum (NRM), New Delhi, first museum in India to have such facility.Agreement with M/s Google Cultural Institute (GCI) for digitization of Railway Heritage and bringing them online for universal access and creating awareness among future generations.In collaboration with Google Cultural Institute , launched an innovative programme for dissemination of India’s rich cultural heritage to railway passengers through video screens at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai.In collaboration with ISRO, expediting use of space technology on Indian Railways for various projects like Real Time Train Information System, Advance Warning System at Unmanned Level Crossing GatesIn order to promote digital payments, preference in Upgradation to those passengers who have booked ticket through digital mode of payment has been implemented.THANK YOU:-)

Joseph StalinPros:Collectivized agriculture and ended famines. Did so despite enormous resistance. Without this, industrialization would have been impossible.Industrialized the nation, enabling the creation of weapons to defeat Hitler. Hitler’s plan was to conquer and exterminate all Jews and communists, half of the Slavs, and enslave the remainder.Annexed the Eastern Bloc and moved fascist collaborators, bringing stability to these regions for decades to come.Took a semi feudal, peasant agrarian nation and turned it into the world’s second largest industrial economy, doubled the life expectancy, brought freedom from homelessness, healthcare, education, retirement, guaranteed employment, free daycare, and other benefits to all citizens. After Stalinism was abandoned by Khrushchev the death warrant for the USSR was signed. It would only be a matter of time.Cons:In hindsight the purges should not have happened.The Doctor’s Plot was caused by atherosclerosis, as deduced by his private physician on autopsy. This can cause a strengthening of some inclinations, such as suspiciousness becoming paranoia.The Katyn Massacre was cruel.USSR mortality numbers2.76 million. This list is here, with sources: death toll 2.pdfThis is the death toll of the actions of the USSR.The Holomodor was not intentional and should not be counted. Alexander Finnegan's answer to What is the history of famines and starvation in Russia 1850-present day?All the other numbers you are used to hearing have been shown to be inflated and exaggerated, many fabricated.This document is based on reliable research from respected authors and official figures.The Black Book of Communism has been shown to be a fraud. Alexander Finnegan's answer to What is the most biased book you’ve ever read?This includes the Great Purges, the NKVD Polish repressions, the transfer of various populations that resulted in death, the gulags, etc. Alexander Finnegan's answer to Why did Stalin kill the kulaks?Gulag numbers are here: number of gulag.pdf 1,053,829 died in the gulag. But it must also be remembered that this includes people who died from natural causes. The death toll went up during WWII because everyone in the nation was on food rations so there was no starvation, but sick people and older people sometimes succumbed out of the stress. There were also outbreaks of diseases that caused deaths. Solzehnitsyn Lied pdf.pdf,The Great Purges included 777, 975. But this includes a large number that were sentenced to execution but it was never carried out. The Great Purges were not as top down as one might guess. Alexander Finnegan's answer to Was Stalin central to the Great Purge of the 1930's?The PurgesIt has been shown that the purges were more complicated than one might imagine. Russia had always been under great pressure from attack on all sides. Within a few years Russia had seen the Tsar overthrown, a bloody civil war sponsored by 18 imperialist nations, conspiracies within his own party as discovered earlier in an undercover sting called “Operation Trust.” 37 volumes of conspiracies and treachery were discovered. The intelligence services would arrest people and then torture them until they admitted they knew something, believing that something had to be happening given the threats from outside the country, particularly the Nazis and Japan. People would say anything to make the torture stop. This led to more arrests and tortures. Members of the party, the factory workers, and everyone in the society believed there were conspiracies afoot. Stalin was terrified of the revolution being toppled. He also knew that Germany planned on invading for certain by 1939 and the country was not ready. Production shortfalls led to the belief by members of the party that there was intentional sabotage. This led to the estimation that based on intelligence (faulty) that it was “for certain” there were a certain number of traitors. This led to quotas. The individual members of the party at the lower levels began to increase their numbers to give the impression of loyalty so they wouldn’t be blamed. The entire thing became its own system of feedback loops. As documents have not been released it is not known how many conspiracies there were, or how they could know. This is not the first time this has happened in history.During the Red Scare in America a sense of great fear and paranoia overcame the American public. Each accusation led to more, and the paroxysm of fear overcame the bourgeoisie in America. It reached critical mass, ruining the lives of many before people took a step back and stopped it. This also happened with the ramp up to the Iraq war after 911. America was terrified after the attack. It felt powerless. It was reported that Dick Cheney almost had a nervous breakdown. The response was to pressure the intelligence services to find out who caused 911 and to root out the terrorists. This led to expectations. The intelligence services began to see conspiracies where they did not exist. Anything that could remotely be seen as negative was. There became a genuine belief that Saddam Hussein had WMDs. This led to a mass hysteria in the U.S. It was rumored that Saddam was developing biological weapons that would be released to terrorists. The U.S. invaded Iraq. It would be found there were no WMDs. The U.S. also started the “War on Terror,” which saw conspiracies where they did not exist. Torture began to be used to get information, but this information was unreliable. It led to false accusations which led to more arrests. Then drone attacks, indefinite detention, and black op cites. The large scale surveillance program began. Likewise, the Salem Witch Trials took on a similar tenor. Mass accusations, paranoia, murders, and more repression. Feedback loops of torture, accusations, more torture followed. But somehow they never seemed able to get to the root of the problem. Enemies were everywhere and nowhere. People were tortured with the expectation that they would say something incriminating. Protestations of innocence were regarded as lies. But then the torture led to them getting whatever they wanted to hear because torture is an unreliable way to get information as people will say anything to make the torture stop.Released documents show no disparities in Stalin’s agreement to the repressions and his own personal thoughts. They confirmed he believed they were real. There was no indication that they repressions were done for cynical, self serving purposes. Stalin knew that purging the military would make the country more weak, but he feared conspiracies more. The conventional wisdom was that people were working with Trotsky, who was collaborating with Germany and Japan to overthrow the Soviet Union. After the civil war there were a number of Tsarists, fascists, and others who had indeed has some conspiracies. But the extent of this is unknown. And it wasn’t just Stalin that expressed these fears. The fears went all the way down to the factory worker level.Source: The Great Fear: Stalin’s Terror of the 1930s, by James HarrisThe issue of Stalin’s legacy and the Soviet Union is an interesting study in how we know what we know1. Historians are influenced by the cultural norms and bourgeois influences of society. History is also written by the victors.2. Propaganda has a cognitive framing effect. It creates associations between images and narratives that are false. But we see propaganda based narratives so much, and they are repeated by so many, they become the prevailing cognitive “frame” used when thinking about an issue.3. Goebbels talked about this in reference to propaganda. Edward Bernays was one of the leading advertising experts in the U.S. He used Freudian psychoanalysis to tap into the deepest and most basic subconscious desires and urges in people. Prior to this advertisers relied upon rationality to sell a product. When selling cars they would talk about the practicality of the car, the build quality, etc. After Bernays you would see a car commercial with someone driving fast, a beautiful woman in the car, and images related to status. You might see the person driving the BMW going to a cocktail party in a swanky part of the city while a valet drives the car away. Beautiful people await. All of these are appeals to subconscious desires, such as status, sex appeal, money and power. Bernays used these techniques to convince America to stop being isolationist and enter the WWI. Goebbels directed an enormous amount of energy creating propaganda against the Soviet Union and communism. After WWII the U.S. government hired former Nazis to work on “fighting communism” and creating propaganda against the Soviet Union. The U.S. even waived prosecution against them for war crimes in exchange for these services. The U.S. government also used its resources to demonize Stalin and communism. Operation Mockingbird was a CIA operation that brought in mainstream journalists to demonize the Soviet Union. This was only one of many anti-communist operations.4. The primary purpose of schooling is socialization. This means teaching students to value the things required to work in a modern industrial and office environment. The bells are like a work bell. Listening to the teacher and following directions is like following a line foreman. Being on time means arriving to work on time. Even lunch break is similar. Socialization also requires conformity. This means accepting the narrative espoused by the teacher in history.5. There were many primary source documents about actions done by Stalin and the USSR only just released within the last few decades. And many are still not released. The primary narrative about Stalin was written by Robert Conquest. Conquest was a rabid anti-communist. Due to a lack of historical records and the influence of Nazi propaganda from the Hearst publishing machine and others, there was significant “gap filling” used in writing his narrative. This was the “frame” for other historians to consider, including Applebaum. This narrative became so ingrained in the minds of people that others started repeating it, such as journalists and other writers. This narrative also happened to go along well with demonizing the Cold War enemy. The military industrial complex depended on the evils of communism to justify massive defense budgets. Presidents also wanted to use the Cold War and Soviet “aggression” to justify wars in Korea and Vietnam. Now that the Soviet Union is gone Russia was quickly replaced as the “bad guy” to justify the bloated military budget of the U.S. The real reason for the bloated military budget was economic—many representatives in Congress have military bases, production of armaments, or have constituents that join the military for jobs—thus the military industrial complex has become an essential part of the U.S. economy.6. The “Evil Empire” narrative of the Soviet Union and Stalin have become so ingrained that academics that look at new information and attempt to correct the historical record are labeled “Stalin apologists,” which they equate to being a Holocaust denier. Thus there is great peer pressure and risk of becoming a pariah due to scorn from others that don’t want to be associated with someone like that. Many scholars would rather just not bother with it.7. In the Soviet Union the oligarchs and elites benefit from the demonization of Stalin and the USSR because it is against their interest to have the Soviet Union resurrected. Marx taught that the social classes of different nations have more similarites in interests than do different nations. Proof of this is how the artistocracy in Europe would sometimes not even know the language of the nation they were governing, such as Catherine the Great, who had to learn Russian.8. In many respects Hitler and the Nazis did more to harm communism than anyone. By effectively using propaganda against communism it created the false “mainstream narrative” in the West that communism “Doesn’t work,” “killed 100 million people,” “starved and imprisoned millions,” and “always leads to mass death.” Attempts by historians to attack these lies using newly released primary sources is met with eye rolls, claims of being “The same as the Holocaust deniers.” It even becomes a form of moral judgment against the person stating the truth, “What kind of person denies such atrocities? Do you support mass murder?” Thus members of the left distance themselves from Lenin, Stalin, and the Soviet Union. And by cutting themselves off from the rich writings of Lenin and Stalin one loses an important source of real historical examples of the achievements of Marxism Leninism. A similar example would be if the Apostles were labeled as sex offenders and mass murderers. The de-Stalinization by Khrushchev in his “Secret Speech” had a devastating effect on the faith in the Soviet Union. In fact it was so devastating it was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. In fact during the Gorbachev period dissidents played a litany of anti-Stalin and anti-USSR propaganda on TV. It was this and the showing of the lives of rich American movie stars that led the people to lose their faith in the Soviet Union and socialism. Sadly, they would find out all too brutally what capitalism really meant—austerity, starvation, homelessness, massive inflation, and poverty. To this day Russia has not recovered. A recent poll showed that 60% of those living in the former Soviet Union said they miss it. Stalin has a 55% approval rating. Many now say that had they known what would happen they would have fought hard for the Soviet Union.The GulagIS THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO BY ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN AN ACCURATE DEPICTION OF WHAT THE SOVIET UNION WAS LIKE?No.His wife told the truth very clearly:A 2003 article regarding the death of Solzhenitsyn’s wife put it like this:“In her 1974 memoir, Sanya: My Life with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”…, she wrote that she was ”perplexed” that the West had accepted ”The Gulag Archipelago” as ”the solemn, ultimate truth,” saying its significance had been ”overestimated and wrongly appraised.”Pointing out that the book’s subtitle is ”An Experiment in Literary Investigation,” she said that her husband did not regard the work as ”historical research, or scientific research.”She contended that it was, rather, a collection of ”camp folklore,” containing ”raw material” which her husband was planning to use in his future productions.”The Gulag Archipelago shouldn’t be taken seriouslyFurther, Solzehenitsyn was a right wing radical and extremist.“But there's something else that makes him more complex than just a victim of tyranny and a crusader against it. Once in America and feted by Western leaders, he urged the US to continue bombing Vietnam. He condemned Amnesty International as too liberal, opposed democracy in Russia, and supported General Franco.”Mark Steel: A reactionary called SolzhenitsynThe other accounts of the gulags from letters written by prisoners depicts a whole different reality.“Well-known accounts of Stalin-era labor camps like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” and Gustaw Herling’s “A World Apart” imply, in their very titles, that detention sites were almost entirely cut off from the rest of Soviet society – islands divided from the country’s “mainland,” or underworlds into which prisoners disappeared, never to be heard from again.In fact, most Stalin-era labor camp inmates theoretically enjoyed at least some letter-writing privileges. Although rules varied depending on where and when a prisoner was held, often inmates could receive an unlimited amount of correspondence through the official camp mail system (though this was heavily censored).The amount they could send depended on the crime, with harsher limits for political offenders. In the 1940s, inmates sentenced for political crimes were often limited to sending only two to three letters home per year. But some political prisoners, like Formakov, managed to get around these constraints and send steady streams of letters through a mixture of official and illicit channels.”“In a separate series of letters, Formakov describes the stage shows he performed in as part of a camp cultural brigade. In a letter to his wife dated March 9, 1946, Formakov explained that the sunny attitudes the inmates who participated in these shows had to assume were often very much at odds with their reality:“We had a concert on the 8th in honor of International Women’s Day. I served as the emcee… You act as master of ceremonies, make some witty remarks, and then head backstage, release your soul, and you just want to wail… For this reason, I never let it go; my soul is always in a corset.”In addition to letters on standard lined notebook paper and mass-produced postcards, Formakov sent handmade birthday and Christmas cards. In one case, he carved a special anniversary greeting into birch bark for his wife. He wrote and illustrated short stories for his two children (Dima, five years old at the time of Formakov’s first arrest in July 1940, and Zhenia, born in December 1940). And he decorated the pages of some of the letters he sent with pressed wildflowers.”In letters from Stalin's labor camps, a window into Soviet political oppression“But his letters – both those sent through official channels and those smuggled out – capture many details that rarely figure in the memoirs of labor camp survivors. For instance, in a letter dated August 10, 1944, Formakov describes the surreal experience of going to the camp club to watch the 1941 American musical comedy “Sun Valley Serenade,” which had just been purchased by Soviet authorities and would have been a hot ticket in Moscow. Similarly, in a communication dated Oct. 27, 1947, he references rumors of an impending devaluation of the ruble, which suggests that – despite the Soviet state’s efforts to keep plans for a December 1947 currency reform secret – news had leaked, even to distant labor camps.Such passages support recent research by scholars Wilson Bell and Golfo Alexopolous, who have noted that labor camps were far more intertwined with the rest of Soviet society than previously thought.”Other accounts have also corroborated these facts.The Truth about the Soviet Gulag – Surprisingly Revealed by the CIA““Humanitarian” lies serve to brainwash the population into supporting imperialist wars. Fed by far-right propaganda, and funded by the CIA, the mainstream “news” outlets describe the Soviet labour camps – also known as the “the Gulags” – as Stalin’s means to repress pro-democracy dissidents and to enslave the Soviet masses. However, the same CIA that, through Operation Mockingbird, gave the US military almost-total control over mainstream press in order to foster anti-Soviet disinformation (Tracy 2018), has recently released declassified documents that invalidate the slanders surrounding the Gulags.The CIA which conducted various anti-Soviet operations for almost five decades, and whose staff strived to obtain accurate intelligence about the USSR, cannot be said to have any bias in favor of the USSR. Therefore, the following declassified CIA files that surprisingly “confess” in favor of the Soviet Union are particularly valuable.”“The Conditions of the PrisonsA 1957 CIA document titled “Forced Labor Camps in the USSR: Transfer of Prisoners between Camps” reveals the following information about the Soviet Gulag in pages two to six:1. Until 1952, the prisoners were given a guaranteed amount food, plus extra food for over-fulfillment of quotas2. From 1952 onward, the Gulag system operated upon “economic accountability” such that the more the prisoners worked, the more they were paid.3. For over-fulfilling the norms by 105%, one day of sentence was counted as two, thus reducing the time spent in the Gulag by one day.4. Furthermore, because of the socialist reconstruction post-war, the Soviet government had more funds and so they increased prisoners’ food supplies.5. Until 1954, the prisoners worked 10 hours per day, whereas the free workers worked 8 hours per day. From 1954 onward, both prisoners and free workers worked 8 hours per day.6. A CIA study of a sample camp showed that 95% of the prisoners were actual criminals.7. In 1953, amnesty was given to 70% of the “ordinary criminals” of a sample camp studied by the CIA. Within the next 3 months, most of them were re-arrested for committing new crimes.The following are excerpts of the CIA document, underlined and put together for the reader:“According to page four of another CIA (1989) document titled “The Soviet Labour System: An Update,” the number of Gulag prisoners “grew to about 2 million” during Stalin’s time.These figures match Soviet statistics as well, from declassified Soviet achieves. The following is a 1954 declassified Soviet archival document (Pyakhov), an excerpt of which is translated into English:“During the period from 1921 to the present time for counterrevolutionary crimes were convicted 3,777,380 people, including to capital punishment – 642,980 people to the conent in the camps and prisons for a period of 25 years old and under – 2,369,220 into exile and expulsion – 765,190 people.“Of the total number of convicts, approximately convicted: 2,900,000 people – College of OGPU, NKVD and triples Special meeting and 877,000 people – courts by military tribunals, and Spetskollegiev Military Collegium.“It should be noted… that established by Decree … on November 3, 1934 Special Meeting of the NKVD which lasted until September 1, 1953 – 442,531 people were convicted, including to capital punishment – 10,101 people to prison – 360,921 people to exile and expulsion (within the country) – 57,539 people and other punishments (offset time in detention, deportation abroad, compulsory treatment) – 3,970 people…Attorney General R. RudenkoInterior Minister S. KruglovJustice Minister K. Gorshenin”The Soviet archives remained declassified for decades, only to be released near or after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In addition, after Stalin died, the pro-Stalin head of the NKVD (Soviet interior ministry) Lavrenty Beria had already been executed by Khrushchev, a staunch anti-Stalinist (History in an hour 2010). These facts make it very unlikely that the Soviet intelligence would have a pro-Stalin bias.The Italian-American historian Michael Parenti (1997, pp. 79-80) further analyzes the data provided from the Soviet archives:“In 1993, for the first time, several historians gained access to previously secret Soviet police archives and were able to establish well-documented estimates of prison and labor camp populations. They found that the total population of the entire gulag as of January 1939, near the end of the Great Purges, was 2,022,976. At about that time, there began a purge of the purgers, including many intelligence and secret police (NKVD) officials and members of the judiciary and other investigative committees, who were suddenly held responsible for the excesses of the terror despite their protestations of fidelity to the regime.“Soviet labor camps were not death camps like those the Nazis built across Europe. There was no systematic extermination of inmates, no gas chambers or crematoria to dispose of millions of bodies…. [T]he great majority of gulag inmates survived and eventually returned to society when granted amnesty or when their terms were finished. In any given year, 20 to 40 percent of the inmates were released, according to archive records. Oblivious to these facts, the Moscow correspondent of the New York Times (7/31/96) continues to describe the gulag as ‘the largest system of death camps in modern history’.“Almost a million gulag prisoners were released during World War II to serve in the military. The archives reveal that more than half of all gulag deaths for the 1934-53 period occurred during the war years (1941-45), mostly from malnutrition, when severe privation was the common lot of the entire Soviet population. (Some 22 million Soviet citizens perished in the war.) In 1944, for instance, the labor-camp death rate was 92 per 1000. By 1953, with the postwar recovery, camp deaths had declined to 3 per 1000.“Should all gulag inmates be considered innocent victims of Red repression? Contrary to what we have been led to believe, those arrested for political crimes (‘counterrevolutionary offenses’) numbered from 12 to 33 percent of the prison population, varying from year to year. The vast majority of inmates were charged with nonpolitical offenses: murder, assault, theft, banditry, smuggling, swindling, and other violations punishable in any society.”Thus, according to the CIA, approximately two million people were sent to the Gulag in the 1930s, whereas according to declassified Soviet archives, 2,369,220 up until 1954. When compared to the population of the USSR at the time, as well as the statistics of a country like the United States, the Gulag percent population in the USSR throughout its history was lower than that of the United States today or since the 1990s. In fact, based on Sousa’s (1998)research, there was a larger percentage of prisoners (relative to the whole population) in the US, than there ever was in the USSR:“In a rather small news item appearing in the newspapers of August 1997, the FLT-AP news agency reported that in the US there had never previously been so many people in the prison system as the 5.5 million held in 1996. This represents an increase of 200,000 people since 1995 and means that the number of criminals in the US equals 2.8% of the adult population. These data are available to all those who are part of the North American department of justice…. The number of convicts in the US today is 3 million higher than the maximum number ever held in the Soviet Union! In the Soviet Union, there was a maximum of 2.4% of the adult population in prison for their crimes – in the US the figure is 2.8% and rising! According to a press release put out by the US department of justice on 18 January 1998, the number of convicts in the US in 1997 rose by 96,100.”ConclusionSeeing the USSR as a major ideological challenge, the Western imperial bourgeoisie demonized Stalin and the Soviet Union. Yet after decades of propaganda, declassified archives from both the US and USSR together debunk these anti-Soviet slanders. Worth our attention is the fact that the CIA – a fiercely anti-Soviet source – has published declassified documents debunking the very anti-Soviet myths it promoted and continues to promote in the mainstream media. Together with declassified Soviet archives, the CIA files have demonstrated that the bourgeois press has lied about the Gulags.Notes13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2018, from 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of SlaveryCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA). (1989). THE SOVIET FORCED LABOR SYSTEM: AN UPDATE (GI-M 87-20081). Retrieved February 12, 2018, http://fromhttps://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000500615.pdfCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA). (2010, February 22). 1. FORCED LABOR CAMPS IN THE USSR 2. TRANSFER OF PRISONERS BETWEEN CAMPS 3. DECREES ON RELEASE FROM FORCED LABOR 4. ATTITUDE OF SOVIET PRISON OFFICIALS TOWARD SUSPECTS 1945 TO THE END OF 1955. Retrieved January 5, 2018, from https://www.cia.gov/library/read...Hillary and Bill used ‘slave labour’. (2017, June 08). Retrieved June 10, 2017, from Hillary and Bill used ‘slave labour’Игорь, П. (n.d.). Книга: За что сажали при Сталине. Невинны ли «жертвы репрессий»? Retrieved August 28, 2018, from Книга: За что сажали при Сталине. Невинны ли "жертвы репрессий"?Parenti, M. (1997). Blackshirts and reds: Rational fascism and the overthrow of communism. San Francisco, Calif: City Lights Books.Sousa, M. (1998, June 15). Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union. Retrieved August 27, 2018, from Lies concerning the history of the Soviet UnionThe Death of Lavrenty Beria. (2015, December 23). Retrieved August 31, 2018, from http://www.historyinanhour.com/2...Tracy, J. F. (2018, January 30). The CIA and the Media: 50 Facts the World Needs to Know. Retrieved August 28, 2018, http://fromhttps://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cia-and-the-media-50-facts-the-world-needs-to-know/5471956 “Source: The Truth about the Soviet Gulag – Surprisingly Revealed by the CIAKenneth Neil Cameron in his short biography on Stalin:"[Stalin's role in the war] was recognized by the Soviet people, and by the end of the war he was regarded as the savior of the nation.The record shows that the tribute was well deserved. Had Stalin not won the fight for industrialization and defeated the Trotskyists and Bukharinites, the USSR would have become a Nazi province. Had he not had the foresight to build a metallurgical industry in the Urals, the Red Armies could not have been supplied with arms. Had he not industrialized the economy and introduced mechanized farming, he would have had neither a base for producing arms nor a mass of soldiers trained in the operation of machinery. Had he not signed a nonaggression treaty with Germany, the USSR might have been attacked 22 months sooner. Had he not moved the Soviet armies into Poland, the German attack would have begun even closer to Moscow. Had he not subdued General Mannerheim's Finland, Leningrad would have fallen. Had he not ordered the transfer of 1,400 factories from the west to the east, the most massive movement of its kind in history, Russian industry would have received a possibly fatal blow. Had he not built up the army and equipped it with modern arms, it would have been destroyed on the frontiers.He did not, of course, do these things alone. They were Party decisions and Party actions, and behind the Party throughout was the power, courage, and intelligence of the working class. But Stalin stood at all times as the central, individual directing force, his magnificent courage and calm foresight inspiring the whole nation."From Stalin: Man of Contradiction, pg. 107 (1987)Alexander Finnegan's answer to What if the devil met Stalin?Was Joseph Stalin a bad person?Growing up I was terrified of my father. He had a terrible temper. Whenever I heard the sound of footsteps I knew that pain wouldn’t be far behind. My heart would race. I just had to be strong and take it. If I cried he made it worse.“I’ll give you something to cry about” he would say, the smell of alcohol on his breath.I developed smallpox. It scarred my cheeks badly.“Hey Pock Pock” the kids at school would say, mocking me. I hated them, but if I cried it made it worse. I had to be strong like I was dealing with my father. I learned that crying won’t get you anywhere. You have to be strong, like steel.I was very devout. My mother entered me into the seminary where I studied theology. I went to every mass and devotion. It was quiet there, peaceful.One day I came across the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx in a bookstore near the cafe. I had never seen anything like that. He managed to perfectly capture the injustice I saw in this world. He offered scientific answers as to why capitalism was exploiting people. On Friday afternoons I used to go for a walk through the city. The aristocrats would ride by in their carriages, the women dressed up so fancily. Not long after the workers would pass by, their clothes tattered, dirt on their faces, weary. They used to spend most of their money at the bar after work. Kind of like my father did. He was unhappy too. He hated his job.“Why do some do so well while others suffer?” Marx offered explanations that made sense. I spent my free time reading more and more. I started talking with the other seminarians about Marxism. Some were interested, but many were against it. One of them turned me in. He was extremely conservative.I was summoned.“Our kingdom is not of this earth” the formation director said to me. I told him about the ideas of Marx, and that there is hope for something now, in this world. After a meeting with the other supervising priests I was dismissed for passing out Marxist literature.Fast forward a few years…The desire to make change didn’t go away. It had become a spiritual matter for me to stop the exploitation, alienation and oppression of capitalism. If others couldn’t do it, I was going to damn well try. I joined an upstart group of other Marxists called the Bolsheviks. I met Trotsky and Lenin. Trotsky was a genius, and also very eccentric. He believed in free love, communal living, communal raising of children, and he was an atheist. He wrote extensively and was extremely energetic. Lenin had a near religious devotion to Marx. He had so much charisma. People were inspired just listening to him. He believed that with the right people, with those willing to do what it takes, he could overthrow the Tsar and institute a Marxist society.1924The multiple gunshots Lenin suffered from assassins took everything out of him. There were times when he looked half dead from exhaustion. But he kept pushing himself, afraid everything would fall apart without him. I could tell, as could others, that his health was declining. It also became clear that someone would have to assume his position. Trotsky naturally wanted it. I think he expected it. Some expected him too, while others thought it should be me. I wasn’t the public speaker that Trotsky was. But I am far more practical, especially in administrative matters.We all knew that socialism could never be safe so long as there were even one capitalist nation on earth. The Paris Commune taught us that. The imperialists would stop at nothing. But Trotsky sometimes didn’t know when to slow down. He wanted worldwide revolution, all the time. That wasn’t the right way to do it. You have to strengthen the home front before you engage in never ending war. When Lenin’s time came I feared it was going to get ugly. Trotsky wasn’t going to happily go away if he didn’t run the whole show.circa 1930Germany hasn’t turned out well. The Nazis are growing in power. They have hypnotized the nation. Judging by the speeches Hitler is giving it won’t be long before there is another war. In Mein Kampf Hitler laid out very clearly his hatred for Jews and communists. He calls them “JudeoBolsheviks.” We are 50–100 years behind the West in industrialization. Russian troops were slaughtered in WWI. We have no tanks, no planes, nothing. We have 5–10 years to prepare by industrializing or they will smash us.I ordered a 5 Year Plan to industrialize. It became clear that the only way we were going to be able to feed those in the cities after moving them from the farms was to collectivize and update the farming techniques. I convinced many members of the party but some are unconvinced. After the announcement of the collectivization the kulaks went crazy. They slaughtered half the livestock needed to farm. Some killed the families of government officials. They encouraged the farmers to grow less food.“They wanna take 30% for the cities, we’ll grow 30% less,” they chanted.Clearly they weren’t math majors. Many were hiding grain to speculate on the prices, hoping requisition fees would go up. People in the cities are going to starve and these people don’t give a damn. I ordered the soldiers to assist the turning over of the grain. I had to have them removed or everybody would have starved. The Western media is calling this genocide. Genocide would have been if I just had all of them shot, but I didn’t.To make things worse there was a famine in the Ukraine from drought, sabotage, an increase in the birth rate, and more people in the cities not farming. Goebbels told Hearst, the newspaper publisher in America that I caused the famine intentionally. They even used recycled photos from earlier famines to really play it up. I ordered everyone in the nation to be on rations until the famine subsided. They brought me a copy of the newspaper. Goebbels has only the best working with him. And Hearst might as well have a swastika tattooed on his arm. They have a contract together to publish pro Nazi fake news.Some criticized me for collectivizing. But after the famine I was proven right. But tales of me and the “Holodomor” never went away.Circa 1937I received word that Trotsky had been collaborating with the Japanese and the Germans to overthrow me. Trotskyites, Tsarists, and social democrats have been conspiring. Even some members of the military are in on it. I had their phones bugged, and my spies have confirmed it. A few years prior we ran an undercover operation called Operation Trust. We discovered a vast array of conspiracies, spies, double agents, and plots seeking to overthrow the government. It filled 37 volumes! Later we would discover even more disturbing news. What hurt the worst was that Tukhachevsky and Bukharin were in on it! Who can you trust? I have already had attempts on my life. Why should it be different for me than Lenin? He took three bullets. The Americans are wanting us destroyed too. We have had sanctions for years. They won’t accept gold, only grain for payment. They want us to starve. Even during the famine they would take no less than grain. I lock my room at night. Nobody is permitted to enter. The American media said I was “paranoid.” How can you be paranoid when you have had attempts on your life? You can’t win with anybody. You have to remain strong, because you are fundamentally alone. I have terrible dreams.It became clear that there was a cancer in the party. And if not cut out it would destroy the whole body of state. I ordered a purge to root out the conspirators. Trotsky fled. I put the top officials on trial. The evidence was clear. Most confessed publicly. We had journalists from America there too. They admitted to conspiring to overthrow the government, do away with the collectivization of agriculture, reinstate the NEP and the let the kulaks and private property be, and roll back the gains we made for the people. The problem is that there was no going back. The Germans were going to attack. We weren’t growing enough food to feed those industrializing the nation in the cities. But without that we wouldn’t have the tanks, planes, guns and other arms we need to fight the Germans. The Lend Lease from the Americans can only go so far. Losing was not an option. Losing meant extermination at the hands of the Germans. Bukharin said he felt sorry for the kulaks having been moved. But how sorry would he feel when the Germans brought worse atrocities? You have to be strong. You can’t let emotion get in the way. Nazis don’t care about compassion. It is just like when I knew my father was coming up the stairs. Crying only made it worse. You just have to face it, no matter how hard it was going to be. Meanwhile the purges started to take on a life of their own at the lower levels. Some made false accusations as to be spiteful. I issued an order to reign it in. The process was ugly, but there was no other choice. It was a horrible time. People don’t know what it is like to live during these times of crisis. You have to make very tough choices. FDR has had to do the same thing. All leaders do.Most of the purges involved firings. The more serious offenders were sent to the gulag. The West doesn’t have anything like them. They are work camps. Men and women are together. They aren’t cells. People move around, go to movies, can write letters, go to cultural events, and do other things. But they are expected to work hard. During the war we were low on food so everyone had rations. The older and sicker people didn’t hold up well. There have been outbreaks of typhoid. Most people admitted go home. They are paid for their work, and the workday is 8–10 hours per day. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these Tsarists didn’t write a bunch of lies about his experience to garner support from the West. They would probably even give him a Nobel Prize in literature!Sometimes the weight of carrying all this feels like it is too much. I have even resigned several times. But the people won’t let me. I don’t know what is going to happen after I am gone. I need to implement some way to weed out corruption, greed, and stagnation. It has to be a meritocracy and remain ideologically sound. If not the Soviet Union will fall. I see so much incompetence, weakness, and dishonesty around me. The future depends on our future leaders. All it takes is even one leader not up to the task, someone foolish and easily wooed by approval from the West. Someone who trusts too much. Capitalists can never be trusted.People think I have no feelings. They think it is easy, or that I have god like control over everything. I am not a dictator. I have to work with the Politburo too. I feel like the only adult in the room. Somebody has to be a steady hand at the ship of state. The only one who really understood was FDR. Churchill is a sop. Given the number of fascists in the Eastern Bloc I worked out a deal to bring them in to the Soviet Union at Yalta. I can’t leave fascist governments in control at the border. We would never be safe like that. We can’t let Germany reunite, either. Germans are too aggressive. They are better off split up. In fact I had to work very hard to keep the spies and operatives out. Truman told me about the A bomb at Potsdam and used it just to prove the point.I try to enjoy the little things—a glass of Georgian fruit wine, a good cigar, or spending time with family. For my birthday they wanted to read one of my old poems that I wrote in my youth, but I was too embarrassed. It feels like those days were so long ago.Somebody asked me what would happen if the Soviet Union was destroyed.“There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries. The working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost,” I said.I pray that day never comes.I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.— Ioseb Besarionis dze JughashviliSourcesContents Another View of Stalin by Ludo Martenshttps://mltheory.files.wordpress... Kruschev Lied by Grover FurrS-300 in Syria – a preliminary assessment...Stop Spreading Nazi Propaganda: on HolodomorOrigins of the Great PurgesNew Study Supports Idea Stalin Was PoisonedLet’s Be Honest – Stalin Was Less of a Criminal Than Churchill, Truman, and LBJWhy doesn’t the Soviet Union exist any more? Part 5: Perestroika and glasnost - Invent the Futurenumber of gulag.pdfSolzehnitsyn Lied pdf.pdfLeft Anticommunism: The Unkindest Cuthttps://msuweb.montclair.edu/~fu...Did the Soviet Union Invade Poland in September 1939?The Holodomor Hoax: Joseph Stalin’s Crime That Never Took PlaceAlexander Finnegan's answer to How much of Stalin's paranoia was based on actual assassination plots?Alexander Finnegan's answer to How true is the claim that most Cold War propaganda about the Soviet Union is regurgitated directly from Nazi propaganda?Alexander Finnegan's answer to Did Stalin really kill 60 million people?Alexander Finnegan's answer to What is the most insane fact about the present that would be nearly impossible to describe to someone in from the past?https://www.quora.com/share/Why-has-history-forgotten-that-Stalin-had-signed-a-peace-pact-agreement-with-Hitler-to-invade-Poland-after-Germany-did-meaning-Stalin-was-a-willing-Axis-member-until-Hitler-attacked-the-Soviet-Union-1?ch=10&share=63d3b959Alexander Finnegan's answer to What are the least known facts about Communist Russia?

I really love reading the answers by all the armchair “experts” who get their so-called facts from Facebook and god knows what other fake news sites. Apparently, they’re experts on everything, despite never having lived in the region, not knowing even basic history, who probably didn't even known who Kurds or other ethnic groups in the region were until ISIS. And now all of a sudden they know more then the people actually living thru these events…how interesting… Anyways, back to actual FACTS! Kurds were divided into 4 regions after the Treaty of Lausanne; Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. Since the question only asks about the Kurds in Iraq and Syria, I will only focus on those two regions. Iraqi Kurds (Bashuri Kurds) Yes, Israel does support the Kurds in Iraq and has in an official capacity sin(more)