Putin = Stalin

[Khandro]

A headline in the Telegraph today states;

'Putin’s transformation into the new Stalin is now complete'

After the sham election, a pretty fair assessment, would you not say?

[Old_Geezer]

Probably earned the comparison way before the fixed election.

[ynnafymmi]

Stalin -a humanist socialist for a while.Putin,just a murderous aerosol.

[fender62]

i wonder how it all ends..

[davebro3]

I think Stalin killed a few more Russians - but there's time.

[Untitled]

stalin was much worse imo

[jourdain2]

OH and I talked this postulation over a bit today.  Apart from forays in WW2 we felt that Stalin had at least kept his pograms inside Russia; but then, of course he regards Ukraine and other countries as part of Russia - so that  wouldn't hold water.

Stalin didn't threaten to attack the whole of the West; but he didn't have nuclear weapons, or he probably would have done.  It's made for some interesting chats, so thanks, Khandro.

On the whole, we decided that it was 'a pretty fair assessment'. The world is now in a very dangerous place - looking back we can see so many parallels and America is trying to go back to 'Splendid Isolation' as well.  :(

[ynnafymmi]

Im not sure if" Uncle Joe "Stalin gets a fair press or not.He still seems to be the socialists socialist of joice amongst the"tankies"in the UK and across the world nowadays.

[ynnafymmi]

joice?-choice.

[jourdain2]

ynnif.  what's a 'tankie', please?

[Untitled]

A "tankie" is an apologist for the USSR... it comes from the period of the hungarian uprising after which most western leftists denounced the USSR permanently (the uprising was crushed with tanks... so USSR's defenders were called tankies) 

they are an extremely small minority of people who are totally irrelevant... you can find them on twitter or reddit posting bitter memes but they have pretty much no influence whatsoever 

[Untitled]

also stalin did have nuclear weapons albeit not for very long. 

[ynnafymmi]

A"tankie"is also a reference to any one who hates the Western or European or USA lifestyle,but keeps on living here,taking all the benefits of being living in these countries while decrying these countries at the same time.

[rowanwitch]

I think Stalin's treatment of the Poles and others earned him a few monster points,   Train after train taken to the Labour camps mostly in Siberia, but elsewhere too. You might be interested in the story of one Sybyriak family written by a member of this site 

Amazon.com User Recommendation

[ynnafymmi]

The Katyn massacre was always laid at Stalins door,whether he was aware of it or not is anyones guess.

[Khandro]

 Joseph Stalin Starved Millions in the Ukrainian Famine. Cruel efforts under him to impose collectivism and tamp down Ukrainian nationalism left an estimated 3.9 million dead, so Putin has some way to go, but he's working on it.

This war has killed or injured about 500,000 Ukrainian & Russian troops & more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have died (at least).

I'm reading a review of a new book by Yaroslav Tromfimov, himself a Ukrainian who writes for the Wall Street Journal who was present at Bucha when Zelensky arrived to witness the atrocities. He suggests that Z. had then a naive belief that if Putin could 'peer down at the bodies, the war would stop'... 'inevitably all that came from Moscow was denials & claims that the atrocities were staged'.

Negotiations carried on for a couple of weeks, but in effect they died at Bucha, "No Ukrainian government could agree that any of its citizens should be abandoned to live under such a regime."

 

[ichkeria]

I prefer the more general term "vatnik"

But the short book "How to Tankie" by the anonymous Darth Putin of Twitter fame is worth a read. Very amusing and sums up the mentality of these people. 
I dislike these comparisons: two evil dictators. 

[ynnafymmi]

Believe it or not,ichy,but i reckon that there are at least three or four on here who are on Putins side rather than the Ukrainians side.I could even name them if you like.

[Untitled]

"The Katyn massacre was always laid at Stalins door,whether he was aware of it or not is anyones guess."

beria reported to him about it several times... he definitely knew 

[jourdain2]

Thanks for the clarification innafy..

[Khandro]

I think Bill Browder who knew Putin, has him well summed up here;