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arguably the russian revolution would have failed without trotsky's ingenious tactics
by ptah 7y ago
arguably the russian revolution would have failed without trotsky's ingenious tactics
- CryptoPunk 7y agoThere is nothing ingenious or intellectually redeeming about using brutality and deceit to gain power. That's all people like Adolf Hitler and Leon Trotsky did. They betrayed humanity and the culture of humanitarianism that had been built up for millenia before them to gain an advantage. Mass murderers who traded the moral foundations of their civilization for tactical and strategic advantage are intellectual midgets who belong in the dustbin of history.
- throwaway2048 7y agoSomebody can be both terrible and intellectual/clever. Do not mistake intellectual with moral, empathetic, or good.
- ptah 7y agoso napoleon wasn't ingenious either? what about sun tzu's art of war? does it have zero ingenuity too?
- goatinaboat 7y agoThe Art Of War emphasised winning without fighting wherever possible. So not really comparable.
- ptah 7y agoso did trotsky, he preferred infiltration to fighting
- dredmorbius 7y agoOne of the more well-known stories about Sun Tzu, taken from Sima Qian, illustrates Sun Tzu's temperament as follows: Before hiring Sun Tzu, the King of Wu tested Sun Tzu's skills by commanding him to train a harem of 360 concubines into soldiers. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled. In response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated the command, and again the concubines giggled. Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the king's two favored concubines, to the king's protests. He explained that if the general's soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, it was the fault of the officers. Sun Tzu also said that, once a general was appointed, it was his duty to carry out his mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Afterwards, both companies, now well aware of the costs of further frivolity, performed their maneuvers flawlessly.[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu In longer form: https://titusng.com/2013/03/04/the-test-of-sun-tzus-art-of-war-on-concubines/ https://titusng.com/2013/03/04/the-test-of-sun-tzus-art-of-w...
- CryptoPunk 7y agoMy knowledge of history is too limited to comment on either. If Napoleon was more brutal than his contemporaries, then no, he wasn't ingenious, just dishonorable. Trotsky and his fellow Soviet revolutionaries were proud of mass murder, making them far more depraved than their peers and predecessors in Russia. The term "Red Terror" is not some term used by his opponents to cast him in a bad light. It was a term Trotsky used, to describe the murderous purges his government carried out. He advocated for the eradication of an entire class of people. He was one of the progenitors of the hell on Earth that were the territories under the totalitarian Soviet state.
- ptah 7y agodo you prefer trotsky's nemesis stalin?
- Ididntdothis 7y agoIs it ok to think that both were mass murderers?
- ptah 7y agoit should be safe. stalin died in 1952 :)
- pjc50 7y ago"Culture of humanitarianism" is not a good description of Tsarist Russia. No, the problem with Trotsky et al is the extreme brutality in the name of liberation.