This is a valiant (and useful) attempt by the author to dispell traditional understanding about the Gulags and how many prisoners and deaths took place during the Soviet Empire between 1929-1953.
While much that is mentioned may be accurate (the Nazi angle and how media integrates itself through manipulation of information for example) - if not interesting - it still doesn't sufficiently debunk fully the inherent injustice of the Gulags. Blaming economic conditions alone may not be enough. In the end, it becomes a game of statistical semantics. No matter how you dice it, many people were taken to the Gulags and millions (about a million according to the Soviets) did die. What's a million here or there in a revolution and in times of war?
Speaking of Soviet historiography (by way of the Central Committee), the fact remains some (if not most) of it is dubious as to the nature (ie. to conform to ideological bias with the state) of how they collected and reported information to be transferred into historical accounts.
The Soviet system was all about lies, submitting to lies and Westerners accepting their lies.
ReplyDeleteThe gulag system was a part of a much larger system of inhumanity that included forced labor in cities, mass executions, penal battalions in the military, and the use of man made famine to kill millions.
They're grasping at straws trying to clean up the 'lags.
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