Stalinism

[mikem3]

Ms. Isreali and Mr. Dumanis are correct and my 'quick and dirty' e-mail of
0645 did not adequately address the roots of Soviet terror as beginning with
Lenin rather than with Stalin.  Yes, Lenin was no saint and certainly the
father to the son to continue that analogy.

And of course the CheKa was created under Lenin (see what happens you try to
discuss things before the first cup of coffee?).

Could it be that my professors (and I) drew some sort of philosophical line
between the revolutionary terror of Lenin and the institutional terror of
Stalin?  Of course, to the corpse its all the same and any academic or
philosophical niceties are moot.  In the same vein, as Mr. Dumanis pointed
out as we see Stalin's crimes as internal and Hitler's as external - but,
again, to the victim it is still death.

I also appreciate Ms. Isreali's point that Stalin added institutional
terror.

I am interested in the view of Russians (especially Russian historians)
towards the development of the Soviet Union's political structure as it was,
vis-a-vis the way it existed on paper and how it was presented to the
non-Soviet world (as a socialist democracy).

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