A very interesting post! The way that the Soviets used the Kulaks as scapegoats for their troubles reminds me of how the Nazis did the same thing to the Jews during World War II. Although the Kulaks were not rounded up and systematically annihilated, they two situations seem to have their origins in the same feelings of blame and resentment.
Month: March 2018
Comment on Episode 4: A New Purge by ejrhodes5
Great post! I think it’s crazy that he set quotas – I have to wonder where he got the numbers from. How do you decide how many politically suspicious people there are in a society? It seems like quota systems never really work out well; as you mentioned, in this case it resulted in false accusations made just to avoid becoming one of the required executions.
Comment on Kirov and Killing by Dalton Ragland
Such an interesting event I have never heard about! Do you think that assassination has been used by corrupt leaders as a proficient tool to get what they want in society? In your opinion, do you think people would have been better off with Kirov in office instead of Stalin?
Comment on The Use of Propaganda in Films by Emma
I also did my post on Soviet film! I think it’s really sad that great filmmakers like Eisenstein, Kuleshov, and Vertov were stifled during the Stalinist period – I can’t imagine what great things they would have done with greater creative license.
Comment on Exploration of the Poles by rachelharriman10
My question would be as to why the drift began to break apart? Additionally, it is interesting to understand that although many things were happening within the Soviet Union, internal affairs did not attract all of its attention. The Soviet Union and Russia today remain a competitive country when compared to the rest of the world.
Comment on Episode 4: A New Purge by rachelharriman10
Regarding your last paragraph, the Soviet Union, Russia today, is still under scrutinzation for many questionable plots. Violence and secrecy has been their forte for decades now. The most recent is the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy, which many believe was carried out by none other than Russia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/poisoning-of-russian-ex-spy-puts-spotlight-on-moscows-secret-military-labs/2018/03/18/9968efb6-2962-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.38531c0a8133
Comment on The Magnitogorsk Experiment by Justin Kane
Great post! From reading other posts in addition to this one it seems like the 1930s saw great technological advances but at the expense at many of its people. While they were doing great things and improvements in mass production they didn’t look at the bigger picture on what this would do its people. Its very interesting!
Comment on Young Communists and Young Thug by rachelharriman10
If the Russian government took over as the parental figure for the youth, what then became the role of the biological parents? Were they present only to provide physical needs while Lenin controlled ideologies/intellectual growth?
Comment on Open Up, Communism is Knocking on Your Door by Justin Kane
I really enjoyed how you wrote the two first paragraphs. The entire time i was able to visualize what it must of been like to be in that situation and the feelings they must have felt. The use of the images were timely with what i was reading that helped me visualize everything even better. Great post!
Comment on Central planning meets film: The censorship of a mass medium by cnritchey
Kathryn, I loved your focus on films during this period. I liked how you brought up the difficulty of creating new films during this time period, and how the government was becoming even stricter than it had in decades past. However, I think it’s important to note that not all films were blatant propaganda machines– although many were. Great work!
