4 ms·

Do you really think that 18 million people were sent to gulags for being antagonists of Stalin? Don't you think that it's much more plausible a scenario where t

by lp4vn 3y ago

Do you really think that 18 million people were sent to gulags for being antagonists of Stalin? Don't you think that it's much more plausible a scenario where the regime needed a lot of cheap work and because of that kept sending people to gulags for lower crimes like petty theft or even customary crimes like not holding a job? The educated middle/high class in Moscow was probably quite critic of Stalin's policies and nothing would happen to them as long as they were not loud enough with their criticism.

leereeves 3y ago
Yes I really do think that the Soviets sent people to gulags for "being antagonists of Stalin". Even before Stalin, under Lenin (who was not nearly so bad as Stalin) about 100,000 people were executed for being "counter-revolutionaries" during the Red Terror.
- PlkMarudny 3y ago
  Lenin was... As bad or worse.
kashunstva 3y ago
> Don't you think that it's much more plausible a scenario where the regime needed a lot of cheap work… It’s pretty clear that in at least a couple periods of Stalinist history, extreme paranoia led him to imprison or otherwise dispose of enemies in great numbers, e.g. 1937 and again with the Doctor’s Plot toward the end of his life. The late 30’s intensification is, after all, know as the Great Purge and not the great worker shortage. Anne Applebaum’s scholarly account of the gulag is a great read on the subject. I think she would probably agree that the it wasn’t an either/or issue. Labour demands for industrialization were a driver as were Stalin’s own delusions.
- Carioca 3y ago
  I've been reading up on Soviet Rocket history and both Kurolev and Glushko were sent to Gulags for suspicion of organizing against the government. On the other hand they did do dome engineering work while there, so I suppose there were facilities that didn't conform to today's image of a Gulag
  - thriftwy 3y ago
    It was much worse - why pay scientists and engineers when you can arrest them and exploit them to work for free? It's as bad as privatized incarceration and worse.

by lp4vn 3y ago

leereeves 3y ago

Yes I really do think that the Soviets sent people to gulags for "being antagonists of Stalin". Even before Stalin, under Lenin (who was not nearly so bad as Stalin) about 100,000 people were executed for being "counter-revolutionaries" during the Red Terror.

PlkMarudny 3y ago
Lenin was... As bad or worse.

kashunstva 3y ago

> Don't you think that it's much more plausible a scenario where the regime needed a lot of cheap work… It’s pretty clear that in at least a couple periods of Stalinist history, extreme paranoia led him to imprison or otherwise dispose of enemies in great numbers, e.g. 1937 and again with the Doctor’s Plot toward the end of his life. The late 30’s intensification is, after all, know as the Great Purge and not the great worker shortage. Anne Applebaum’s scholarly account of the gulag is a great read on the subject. I think she would probably agree that the it wasn’t an either/or issue. Labour demands for industrialization were a driver as were Stalin’s own delusions.

Carioca 3y ago
I've been reading up on Soviet Rocket history and both Kurolev and Glushko were sent to Gulags for suspicion of organizing against the government. On the other hand they did do dome engineering work while there, so I suppose there were facilities that didn't conform to today's image of a Gulag
- thriftwy 3y ago
  It was much worse - why pay scientists and engineers when you can arrest them and exploit them to work for free? It's as bad as privatized incarceration and worse.