this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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USSR and PRC had really bad checks and balances since they let dictators consolidate power and form cults of personality. You really think those are good examples of your point? Have you read entirely different histories than I have? Which books do you recommend then?
I was going to say something like This Soviet World or Russian Justice, but they are not actually history books. They are written from a contemporary standpoint. Pat Sloans Soviet Democracy is another contemporary book.
I'm sure cowbee will link you to Blackshirts and reds, that is a history book.
The USSR and PRC did not have dictatorships, this is a misunderstanding of the Soviet structure and the concept of the Mass Line. Not even the CIA believed the USSR to be a dictatorship. The USSR had a more democratic structure than the US:
I recommend reading, among the other books linked, Blackshirts and Reds.
Hey. I'm the creator of ComLib, I haven't been making any EPUBs for some time, but I want to get back into it. Do you have anything you want made into an EPUB? If you don't, do you have any recommendation for what I should work on next?
Elementary Principles of Philosophy, by Georges Politzer! Extremely straightforward and fantastic introduction to Dialectical and Historical Materialism, in a manner that builds from the beginnings of Idealism, Materialism, and Dialectics, and how over time these changed and built off each other alongside science, technology, and Mode of Production.
Great work, by the way!
There was a pretty decent EPUB at https://annas-archive.org/md5/5212d271f108a89b4dbd54b658b4fbda so I modified it very slightly, https://comlib.encryptionin.space/epubs/elementary-principles-of-philosophy/
Ayyyy LET'SSS GOOOO! GREAT JOB!
Soviet Russia and China were nominally a democracies, but both were controlled by individuals without checks. Stallin and Mau respectively. Again, what history books are you reading that is saying otherwise?
Other than the sources Cowbee linked, @Awoo@hexbear.net and @Alaskaball@hexbear.net also compiled a list of transcripts of times Stalin tried to resign from his post.
Do you have any proof of this? Historical evidence is much the opposite, as the sources I have linked show you.
Stalin was not without checks, nor did he control the entire USSR, according to historical evidence including internal CIA memos. Mao was forced out of power due to his failures with the Cultural Revolution, directly proving that checks not only existed, but were used.
The ones I have linked.
Do you agree that Mau and Stallin extensively purged political opponent?
The book you linked seemed to be a explicitly Communist reexamining. I wouldn't really go to that for unbiased history. But anyway.
Do you agree that Stalin and Mau created cults of personality?
There is no such thing as unbiased
Do you agree that Stalin and Mau created cults of personality?
Wikipedia has a capitalism supporting bias and says this
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin%27s_cult_of_personality#:~:text=Stalin's%20opinion%20of%20his%20cult,-Like%20Lenin%2C%20Stalin&text=In%20the%201930s%20Stalin%20made,such%20as%20the%20working%20class.
Those are all Stalin's public statements. It looks good to downplay your cult. But he still undoubtedly had one.
Lennan for example seemed to pretty strongly oppose a cult of personality forming around him. But Stallin didn't, just some humble public statements.
Oh, do you have private statements or writings where he was secretly supportive of it? Or are you operating entirely divorced from historical research?
Also:
Ignoring this bit i see