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There is also a good review in the Financial Times which emphasises Stalin being well read. My favourite was 'On a book about the English Civil War, he made a m
by jsmith99 5y ago
There is also a good review in the Financial Times which emphasises Stalin being well read. My favourite was 'On a book about the English Civil War, he made a mark comparing the Puritan chaplains of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army with the political commissars of the Soviet Red Army.' This is apparently a popular comparison and Putin is a Cromwell fan too.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/af83a4c8-966a-4bcc-8fb1-bb4cd1fc8752 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/af83a4c8-966... (amp link hopefully avoids paywall) and https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/stalin-hitler-and-cromwell-and-the-politics-of-memory-2014-01-10 https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/stalin-hitler-and-cromwell-a... for a Stalin/Cromwell comparison.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- potbelly83 5y agoMaybe they can also follow Cromwell into coming to the realization that in the end only God can rule over men.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoIt would seem just not celebrating any of them is the easy option. It's only when you need to justify Cromwell's statue outside Parliament, that your opposition to a Stalin statue becomes tricky. In particular, Cromwell is accused of genocide against Catholics, so stating "Cromwell may have thought his was a divine task, but he did not arbitrarily decide that innocent people were suddenly enemies of the people, to be eliminated either on account of their religion, race, or supposed class interest." seems at best ill-informed, at worst outright propaganda. I mean he's fighting for power against royalists, how is that not class interests? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Ireland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Irelan...