Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I’m in the early stages of a new story (book? Not sure. We’ll see), and part of that research is looking into early Soviet history. This has led me to consider a number of books (note: if you happen to know of any particularly good, though not too cumbersome, volumes, let me know: I’m on Facebook and Mewe), each one of which I did a bit of looking into. More the writers than the books at first. I didn’t want to saddle myself up with some kind of Communist apologist monologue that in any way attempts to make the Reds look like anything other than they were: an evil menace. When the late Ronald Reagan called them “The Evil Empire,” he spoke arguably the greatest truth even uttered by a President, and a breath of fresh air after the placating, “Please don’t nuke us” ridiculousness of his immediate predecessor. To try to make this Evil Empire look like anti-heroes or, worse, protagonists in the story of civilization, is unforgivable.

Which leads us to my problem this week. Looking into one book in particular (I’m still going through it at the moment, so I’ll hold off on recommending or even naming it until such time as I don’t feel like I’m wasting your time and mine) I was shocked, then sickened, to see not one but many reviewers calling the writer to task because he showed a very one-sided, anti-Communist, anti-Stalin version of Soviet history. Why dwell on the “Few things” that the Communists and Uncle Joe did wrong, they asked, when society could be much better served by exemplifying what they did right?

I’m sorry: what?

One brain donor spouting such words I could almost write up to random stupidity. But many, making the same argument? I hate to say it folks, but it looks more and more like the brainwashing of the youth of America is well under way, and in no time at all people will be saying, outright and with great sadness, that the wrong side won the Cold War.

So, for those out there (not you, gentle reader, who are intelligent and well read in history and many other subjects) who think that the Soviet Union generally, and Uncle Joe Stalin specifically, were antiheroes, or misunderstood, or were the unsung but ultimately defeated heroes of the decades-long Cold War, let me give you a very brief lecture about just how dribbling stupid you are.

To start with Joe Stalin, that arguably most recognized late leader of the former Evil Empire, was anything but a hero of the unwashed masses. Quite the contrary, he was responsible for the murders of millions—read that again: millions!—of human beings, somewhere between 40 and 60 million by what I’ve been able to gather. To say that this monster (not a man; anyone capable of doing what he did has given up his right to be counted among the rest of us human beings) is heroic in any way is to condone the murders of millions of people, and at the risk of making enemies that I’d rather not have as friends anyway, if you are the kind of thing capable of condoning these atrocities then you are a monster as well, and to hell with you. To quote the beast: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”

This is to say nothing of the indescribable evils perpetrated by the Soviets against every territory that they occupied, the additional murders of countless men, women, and children, as well as the systematic rape of women and children, something so sickening that if you can still look at their history and think them AT ALL noble or worthwhile you should do the world a favor and just kill yourself. Seriously. If you can know, beyond doubt, that you’re rooting for a murder machine capable of sexually assaulting CHILDREN you have no business in my world. You should die, have your bodies cremated, and those ashes shot into space, so as to not contaminate the world with even a particle of your wretched presence.

Understand something: these were no heroes. These were beasts. Subhuman. Animals, only worse. If you think that there’s something wrong with dwelling on the “Few things” that they did wrong, you’re sick. If you think that society could be much better served by exemplifying what they did right you have no place in civil society. Not to mince words: you’re garbage. Filth. A murderer in thought if not action. There is no bright spot to the Soviet monster, and if you think for even a single goddamned second that there was, you can rot in hell, right next to good ol’ Uncle Joe.