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I don't think anybody's being proud here, the system was indeed repressive, unjust, and absurdly ineffective, and killed a lot of people; it doesn't need to be

I don't think anybody's being proud here, the system was indeed repressive, unjust, and absurdly ineffective, and killed a lot of people; it doesn't need to be stated every time. You're very unlikely to find Soviet sympathizers on HN. What's happening is people with actual history knowledge rolling their eyes on some clearly overboard statements, especially about Soviets murdering all their engineers and scientists and stealing the nuclear power technology. Let's not get ridiculous.

ch4s3 4y ago
It’s pretty clear if you’re familiar with anything available from the NKVD archives that industrial espionage was one of their key functions. There’s good documentation of this we’ll into the 1970s when it was the KGB of course. It’s also well documented that tons of intellectuals and engineers(broadly speaking) got wrapped up in the Stalinist purges. Writing the charge of “wrecking” into law was a real thing. The deaths of untold numbers of wreckers on the White Sea Canal is no exaggeration. The tyrant of the quota system was very real. The RBMK being based on Chicago-Pile-1 is well known. The way in which the USSR acquired the atomic bomb is also well documented. I’d go on to say that any time this topic comes up, a number of Soviet apologists show up. There are actually some fairly prominent members of the community that are unapologetically Stalinists, not many but surprisingly some. It’s still worth rebutting IMHO.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  Here’s another example of their theft: smuggling of IBM, DEC, and Intel systems, reverse engineering them, and making clones that worked with varying success/failure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_computing_technology_smuggling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_computing_technology_...
  - ch4s3 4y ago
    You're exactly right, it's frustrating that there's a particular brand of technophilic tankie who loves to talk up Soviet computing and denies how much of it was based on stolen devices and schematics.

ch4s3 4y ago

It’s pretty clear if you’re familiar with anything available from the NKVD archives that industrial espionage was one of their key functions. There’s good documentation of this we’ll into the 1970s when it was the KGB of course. It’s also well documented that tons of intellectuals and engineers(broadly speaking) got wrapped up in the Stalinist purges. Writing the charge of “wrecking” into law was a real thing. The deaths of untold numbers of wreckers on the White Sea Canal is no exaggeration. The tyrant of the quota system was very real. The RBMK being based on Chicago-Pile-1 is well known. The way in which the USSR acquired the atomic bomb is also well documented. I’d go on to say that any time this topic comes up, a number of Soviet apologists show up. There are actually some fairly prominent members of the community that are unapologetically Stalinists, not many but surprisingly some. It’s still worth rebutting IMHO.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
Here’s another example of their theft: smuggling of IBM, DEC, and Intel systems, reverse engineering them, and making clones that worked with varying success/failure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_computing_technology_smuggling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_computing_technology_...
- ch4s3 4y ago
  You're exactly right, it's frustrating that there's a particular brand of technophilic tankie who loves to talk up Soviet computing and denies how much of it was based on stolen devices and schematics.