Stalin apologetics

{{silver}}
[[File:Erbanov Markizova.JPG|thumb|right|165px|[[Think of the children|How could this nice man have done anything evil?]]]]
{{communism}}
{{cquote|Marxism says, "Eliminate class distinctions" and [[Stalinism]] does so by the simple and effective process of destructions, as Tamerlane destroyed his enemies or the Hebrew prophet <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Books of Samuel|Samuel]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> slew for the glory of [[Jehovah]].|||Walter Duranty,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20051223141150/https://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/duranty_1931_8.htm Stalinism Smashes Foes in Marx's Name] by Walter Duranty (24 June 1931) ''[[The New York Times]]'' (archived from December 23, 2005).</ref> infamous [[Holodomor]] denier and Stalin apologist}}

'''Stalin apologetics''' are [[Poe's law|actually a thing]]. Some [[Western world|Western]] [[communists]] deny that [[Joseph Stalin]] was the murderous [[dictator]] he is ''extensively'' documented<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/19990117020552/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/reps.html Repression and Terror: Stalin in Control] (01/04/96)''Library of Congress'' (archived from April 2, 2005).</ref> as having been.

Their motivation stems from standard "[[my enemy's enemy]]" logic, combined with the idea that The Revolution required and [[authoritarianism|requires a strong leader]], and Stalin fits that bill. Therefore, his flaws must be papered over, for the good of all.

[[Stalinist]]s, and similarly [[authoritarian]] [[communists]], are often referred to with the derogatory epithet '''[[#Tankies|tankies]]'''.<ref>[https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/08/what-exactly-are-trots-and-tankies What exactly are “Trots” and “Tankies”? Unpicking the latest resurgence in political name-calling on the British left.] (9 August 2016) ''The New Statesman''.</ref>

Stalin apologists call people who disagree with them [[Historical revisionism|"revisionist"]] — particularly their mortal enemies, the [[Trotskyism|Trots]] — while calling ''themselves'' "[[anti-revisionist]]", much like how [[Trans-exclusionary radical feminism|TERFs]] call themselves (and insist on being called) "gender critical", or how [[white supremacists]] call themselves "[[race realist]]s". If talking about non-communists, Stalin apologists will often use the curious phrase "right-wing liberal".{{efn|However, left-wing pejorative use of the word "liberal" is not a practice unique to Tankies: it's common for American progressives to despise "liberals" in what they see as a Democratic Party [[Hillary Clinton|that's moved too far right]].<ref>[http://www.salon.com/2015/03/23/why_the_left_hates_this_man_rahm_emanuels_sins_against_the_progressive_movement/ Why the left hates this man: Rahm Emanuel's sins against the progressive movement: With big election coming up, liberal groups have declared public enemy #1 — but it's not a Republican. Here's why] by Heather Digby Parton (March 23, 2015 3:13PM EDT) ''Salon''.</ref> Compare this to the [[Liberal Democratic Party of Russia]].}}

In [[Russia]], a [[crazification factor|worryingly large percentage]] of the modern-day population think highly of Stalin (although a rather lesser proportion would want to live in a country actually ruled by Stalin).<ref>
[http://carnegieendowment.org/files/stalin_puzzle.pdf ''The Stalin Puzzle: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion''] by Maria Lipman et al. (2013) Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.</ref> He is also quite popular in his native [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. This is best understood as a form of [[nationalism]] distinct from Western communist apologism, or perhaps a legacy of his unfathomably massive [[personality cult]] rivaling that of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s.

==Argument tropes==
[[File:RIAN archive 535278 Laying flowers and wreaths to Iosif Stalin's grave at Kremlin wall.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Russian Communist Party members visit Stalin's grave near the Kremlin.]]
The most common arguments are:
* It's all [[propaganda]]!
** [[Fascism|Fascist]] propaganda (usually [[Nazism|Nazis]])
** [[Liberalism|Liberal]] propaganda
** [[Leon Trotsky#Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] propaganda/revisionism
** Khrushchevite revisionism
** [[Anarchism|Anarchist]] propaganda/revisionism
** [[Left communism|Leftcom]] propaganda/revisionism
** Western propaganda
*** [[Europe|European]]
*** [[United States|American]]/[[CIA]]
*** [[Zionism|Zionist]] — of course, which is also [[ironic]] as Stalin initially supported Zionism.{{efn|Though he did this entirely for anti-British reasons (it was the Palestinian Mandate under the [[British Empire]]), and he quickly did a 180° turn once [[Israel]] pressed for Russian Jewish immigration to their country and allied itself with the U.S.<ref>[https://www.rbth.com/history/327040-ussr-and-israel-from-friends-to-foes Why did the USSR help to create Israel, but then became its foe] by Oleg Yegorov (Dec 15 2017) ''Russia Beyond''.</ref><ref>[https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4737624,00.html Russia's forgotten role in the creation of Israel] by Jonathan Adelman (12.12.15) ''ynetnews.com''.</ref>}} 
* Loss of central control — it was Stalin's subordinates, not him! (rehashing the "Good [[Tsar]] with evil advisors" — and "If only the Tsar knew about this" — tropes of Romanov Russia)
** NKVD acted alone — basically, this comes down to blaming the entire Great Purge on Nikolai Yezhov, though this causes problems in trying to explain the atrocities carried out by [[Lavrentiy Beria]], Genrikh Yagoda, and to an extent, Felix Dzerzhinsky (though he was active under [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]]).
* Farm collectivization totally works, but [[Lysenkoism]] is rubbish, so it failed.

Before [[World War II]] and the [[Cold War]], believing pretty much everything Stalin said about himself and the Soviet Union was completely standard among many Western progressives and even in some government circles, although {{wpl|Anti-Stalinist left|anti-Stalin leftists}} and [[Leon Trotsky|Trotskyists]] such as [[Tony Cliff]] and {{wpl|Isaac Deutscher}} were vocal in their opposition to Stalin's repressions. It became less so as the Cold War progressed and more details of what Stalin was actually doing came out, with {{wpl|Nikita Khrushchev|Nikita Khrushchev's}} {{wpl|de-Stalinization}} campaign in the 1950s causing a further schism among the Western left, and became completely untenable with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the release of extensive source documents.

==Particular atrocities==
[[File:Children affected by famine in Berdyansk, Ukraine - 1922.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Starving children during the Holodomor]]

[[Cognitive dissonance|None of these happened or will be discussed. But his victims deserved it anyway, even though it all just happened naturally]], and [[Whataboutism|WHAT ABOUT AMERICA, HEY?]] LOOK AT AMERICA'S PRISON POPULATION! [[Iraq War|IRAQ WAR]]! [[Japanese American internment|JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS]]! [[American Indian Genocide#Trail of Tears|TRAIL OF TEARS]]! {{wpl|And you are lynching Negroes|YOU LYNCHED NEGROES!}}

===Holodomor===
{{main|Holodomor}}
Stalin apologists play down or outright deny the Holodomor, the starvation of large chunks of [[Ukraine]].

The Holodomor may or may not ''technically'' qualify as an attempted [[genocide]] (though the [[UN]], [[EU]], [[Canada]], and Ukraine all regard it as one). So Stalin apologists will ride that lack of unanimity for all it's worth. Note, however, that the equation goes:

:*{{wpl|Great Famine (Ireland)|Irish Potato Famine}} (1845–1852) = genocide{{efn|This is not to deny that the British invoked [[laissez-faire]] [[capitalism]] to justify perpetuating the famine and doing nothing to prevent a million Irish deaths by starvation. "Some have classified the famine as an act of genocide (the term was not in use at the time). [John] Kelly calls this charge 'discredited,' but his portraits of some of the more insufferable English statesmen are withering… Charles Edward Trevelyan was a civil servant at the Treasury who oversaw much of the British response. [[God]] had 'sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson,' he declared, and it 'must not be too much mitigated.' Some time later he wrote that the famine was a 'direct stroke of an all-wise Providence.' [[Malthusianism]] was much in the air in those days, and men like Trevelyan saw the famine as, among other things, a means of transforming [[Ireland]] by reducing its population and the number of small farms."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/books/review/the-graves-are-walking-by-john-kelly.html Blighted: 'The Graves Are Walking,' by John Kelly] review by Isaac Chotner (October 12, 2012) ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>''The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People'' by John Kelly (2013) Picador. ISBN 1250032172.</ref>{{rp|91}}}}
:*[[Great Bengal Famine of 1943]] = genocide
:*Holodomor = [[lie]]s by [[bourgeois]] [[media]]

[[File:Голодомор в Казахстане 2.jpg|thumb|right|185px|A mother dying with her child in [[Kazakhstan]].]]

The debating tactics closely resemble those of [[Holocaust deniers]], because it's very closely analogous: denial of an extensively documented attempted genocide. You'll see attempts to minimise the numbers, with the implication that the number might be zero, or to assert that it was unintentional or entirely natural (''e.g.'' plant rust diseases that those mere peasants were too stupid to spot, being, er, farmers). Or, "best" of all, that the {{sl|Kulaks}} deserved it. Tankies usually will point to how the Kulaks in an act of disobedience and rebellion against the Soviet government engaged in a mass killing of their livestock that the Soviet government was going to steal from them at gunpoint anyway. This is also refuted by the fact that the famine in [[Kazakhstan]], where the Soviet government successfully collectivized the nomads' livestock<ref name=kazfamine>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190529051309/https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/kazakh-famine-beginnings-sedentarization The Kazakh Famine: The Beginnings of Sedentarization] by Ohayon Isabelle (28 September, 2013) ''SciencesPo'' (archived from May 29, 2019).</ref> and nomads actually fled with their cattle with them,<ref name=kazfamine/> had an even worse death toll in proportion to the population than Ukraine.<ref name=kazfamine/> (However, the Ukrainian population in Kazakhstan coincidentally fell from 859,396 to 549,859 (almost 36% of their population), which was significantly higher than other minorities in Kazakhstan who lost between 12% and 30% of their populations.<ref name=kazfamine/> This still was even less of a depopulation then the heavily Ukrainian-populated Kuban region, which was the most heavily effected area by the famine, coinciding forced relocation, and Russification policies during the period resulting in the self-identified Ukrainian population in the area being reduced from 915,000 in 1926 to 150,000 in 1939.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090122062606/http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932–33 Revisited] by Michael Ellman (2007) ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 59(4):663–693. doi:10.1080/09668130701291899.</ref>)

Robert Conquest, author of ''The Great Terror'' which sets out in detail the case for Stalin as murderous [[tyrant]]<ref name=conquest>''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' by Robert Conquest (1990) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195055802.</ref> (for the second edition, which benefited from Perestroika-era document releases, his friend Kingsley Amis suggested the title ''I Told You So, You Fucking Fools''<ref>[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/04/12/kingsley-amis-and-the-great-terror/ Kingsley Amis and ‘The Great Terror’] by Robert Conquest (April 12, 2007) ''The New York Review of Books''.</ref>) — doesn't refer to the Holodomor by the term "genocide". So this will be literally the one topic on which a tankie will decide, well, maybe Robert Conquest wasn't so bad after all. 

Holodomor denial takes many forms, the most offensive being outright [[denial]] of its existence. This is quickly debunked by some maths.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060505142016/http://www.zn.kiev.ua/ie/show/420/36833/ Скільки Нас Загинуло Під Голодомору 1933 Року?] [How Many of Us Died Under the Holodomor of 1933? ] by Станіслав Кульчицький [Stanislav Kulchytsky] (November 23 - 29, 2002) ''Дзеркало Тижня'' (archived from May 5, 2006).</ref>

Mark B. Tauger (an apologist, though an actual [[historian]]) is a popular source among apologists. He claims that the famine was an accident and unavoidable, but his data is of dubious origin and selection criteria,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080828022130/http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/2002/280205.shtml Debating the undebatable? Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933] by David Marples (July 14, 2002) ''The Ukrainian Weekly'' 70(28).</ref> and Tauger does not offer an argument as to [[Cherry picking|why his "data" is representative of ''all'' collective farms in Ukraine, not just the farms from which he got his data]].

In contrast, supporters of the view that the Holodomor was an act of genocide consider that the famine is related to the Soviet policy of {{wpl|Russification||,}} including the suppression of the Ukrainian language and Ukraine's cultural [[elite]]s after the famine. Stalin personally signed an order blockading citizens of only Ukraine and the Kuban, a heavily Ukrainian populated territory in Russia, from fleeing starving villages.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190603051836/http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/hdocuments.htm#50 Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine: Documents and Matierals. #50 Order from the USSR SNK and CC AUCP(b) on preventing the mass flight of starving villagers in search of food] by Ruslan Pyrih, translated by Stephen Bandera (2008) Kyiv Mohyla Academy Publishing House (archived from June 3, 2019).</ref> This is argued to clearly prove a genocidal intent to the famine in regards to the Ukrainians in particular.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190603050655/http://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/great-ukrainian-famine-1932-33 The Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33] by Werth Nicolas (18 April 2008) ''SciencesPo'' (archived from June 3, 2019).</ref> Tankies will defend this by saying that sealing the borders was actually meant to control the spread of famine from rural villages into cities, much like how quarantining a virus… Because that's totally how famines work.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20191110183617/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em2XwKLavNc Holodomor Debate] (Oct 7, 2017) ''YouTube'' (archived from November 10, 2019).</ref> However, 600,000 starving Kazakh refugees were able to flee their famine successfully.<ref name=kazfamine/> That's almost three times the number of Ukrainians stopped at the border and deported back to their villages to die,<ref>''The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression'' by Nicolas Werth et al. (1999) Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674076087.</ref> and it didn't seem to make the famine into a national rather than regional catastrophe as the tankies moan on about. Also, most of the refugees survived, proving migration would have saved those locked in their villages. Though there were some vagrants among the refugees,<ref name=kazfamine/> that hardly justifies letting them just die. Also, you gotta love how communists, people who are supposed to fight for the poor and marginalized, will defend letting millions of peasants starve so a bunch of city slickers don't have to get their apples nabbed by starving homeless people.

The anti-Ukrainian nationalist sentiment in the Soviet leadership is evidenced by the General of the Joint State Political Directorate (later succeeded by the NKVD), Vsevolod Balyts'kyi, who believed that armed uprising would take place in the spring of 1933 to overthrow the Soviet government in order to create a new capitalist nation of Ukraine.<ref>Archive of the Directorate of Internal Affairs of Kharkiv Oblast (Arkhiv Upravlinnia vnutrishnikh sprav Kharkiv'skoi oblasti) fond 48, list 1, file 1, vol 3, fols. 3-4</ref> Affirming this view, the secretary of the Kharkiv Oblast in Ukraine referred to the "bourgeois nationalists" as "class enemies" that must continue to be fought near the end of the famine, implying that the "battle" had already started.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160840/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=20&doc=334 Evidences.Documents.] (09.04.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> Coincidentally, the Kharkiv Oblast was the one most affected by the famine in Ukraine, losing around a fifth of its population.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20160105001922/http://www.unian.info:80/society/1194991-kyiv-and-kharkiv-regions-most-affected-by-holodomor-of-1932-33-study.html Kyiv and Kharkiv regions most affected by Holodomor of 1932-33: Study] (26.11.2015) ''UNIAN Information Society'' (archived from January 5, 2016).</ref> Since then, more than 800 documents<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180711060117/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?lang=en Evidences.Documents.] ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from July 11, 2018).</ref> have been discovered in the Oblast documenting administrators condemning state farms for encouraging "the behaviour of class aliens" (which, again, Ukrainian Nationalists were considered to be),<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160238/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=16&doc=251 Evidences.Documents.] (04.13.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> ordering administrators to confiscate grain<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160855/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=20&doc=338 Evidences.Documents.] (09.12.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> and to deny food aid to villages who failed to meet grain procurement quotas.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160915/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=20&doc=347 Evidences.Documents.] (11.22.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> There was also wholesale blockading of villages on the "Blackboard",<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901155905/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=14&doc=756 Evidences.Documents.] (02.17.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901155900/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=14&doc=209 Evidences.Documents.] (02.16.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> prosecution of those who tried to take state property such as spikelets to use for farming,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160959/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=20&doc=558 Evidences.Documents.] (12.23.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref> and migration of starving villagers was restricted through the internal passports system.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100901160820/http://www.golodomor.kharkov.ua/docs.php?pagep=20&doc=589 Evidences.Documents.] (08.17.1933) ''Golodomor of 1932 - 1933: Kharkiv oblast'' (archived from September 1, 2010).</ref>

In this vein, the first wave of political purges in Ukraine, which took place between 1929 and 1934, was aimed at the revolutionary generation of the Party, which in Ukraine included many supporters of Ukrainianization. On February 23, 1933, Andrii Khvylia was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Education in Ukraine. He advocated destroying nationalist sentiments in Ukraine on the battlefield of language.<ref> A. Khvylia "Vykorinyty, zbyshchyty natsionalistychne korinnia na movnomu. Fronti," Bil'shovyk Ukraïny. us. 7-8 (1933): 55</ref> The Soviet authorities specifically targeted the Commissioner of Education in Ukraine, Mykola Skrýpnyk, for promoting Ukrainian language reforms that were seen as dangerous and counterrevolutionary; due to this Skrýpnyk committed [[suicide]] in 1933. The next wave of political purges, which took place between 1936 and 1938, eliminated a large part of the new generation of politicians who had replaced those who perished in the first wave. The purges halved the number of members of the Ukrainian Communist Party, and the purged Ukrainian political commissars were largely replaced by cadres sent from Russia, who also suffered many "rotations" due to Stalin's purges.<ref>''History of Ukraine: The Land And Its Peoples'' by Paul Robert Magocsi (2010) University of Toronto Press. 2<sup>nd</sup> ISBN 9781442698796.</ref>{{rp|496-497}} The Russification policy was more intense in Ukraine than in other parts of the Soviet Union, so much so that the country now contains the largest group of Russian speakers who are not ethnic Russians: in 2009 there were around 5.5 million Ukrainians whose mother tongue was Russian. Russian speakers are more numerous in the southeastern half of the country, while both Russian and Ukrainian are used equally in the center, and Ukrainian is the dominant language in the west. In addition, hundreds of Ukrainian writers were killed in the {{wpl|Executed Renaissance|"Executed Renaissance"}}<ref>''Language Policy and Language Situation in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations'' by Juliane Besters-Dilger (2009) Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631583890.</ref>{{rp|7-8}} and musicians were killed in the same way, becoming known as the {{wpl|Persecuted bandurists||.}}

Also, the Soviet Union unambiguously ''did'' persecute entire national and ethnic minorities regardless of the Holodomor — more than a dozen, actually. They did it frequently. Sure, maybe one or two [[ethnic cleansing]]s once in a while to spice things up, but ten? Come on, you're just an addict at that point; see {{wpl|Population transfer in the Soviet Union||,}} {{wpl|Mass operations of the NKVD||.}} Why, then, does the idea that Ukrainians would be one of the targeted groups seem so absurd? Especially coming from a regime that literally went door-to-door and deported ''every single person'' of the Chechen nationality to work for food coupons in inhospitable mines<ref>"The Crimes of the Stalin Regime: Outline for an Inventory and Classification" by Nicholas Werth (2008) In: ''The Historiography of Genocide'', edited by Dan Stone. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230297784.</ref>{{rp|412}} where Chechen children were beaten to death for not complying.<ref>''The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy'' by Masha Gessen (2015) Penguin. ISBN 9781594632648.</ref>{{rp|18}} Who would suspect such an innocuous regime of committing genocide (as if what we just said wasn't already genocide)? So unthinkable! Come on guys; come on.

===Kulaks===
[[File:Forced collectivization USSR.jpg|thumb|right|225px|Requisition of grains from kulaks during the forced collectivization of 1933]]
The kulaks were originally the richest independent farmers, risen from the peasantry. Lenin had condemned them as class enemies, "bloodsuckers, [[vampire]]s, plunderers of the people and profiteers, who fatten on famine."<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/aug/x01.htm Comrade Workers, Forward To The Last, Decisive Fight!] by Vladimir Lenin (17 January 1925) ''Rabochaya Moahva'' 14. Reprinted by Marxists Internet Archives.</ref>

Stalin, wishing to collectivise, expanded the official definition of "kulak" to any peasant owning land or livestock; any peasant even selling surplus goods on the market could be labeled a kulak. In practice, any peasant who did not provide grain to quota, particularly the artificially high quotas of 1929-1933, was labeled a kulak. Not appearing to be starving was taken as evidence of hoarding.

On January 30, 1930, the Politburo approved the extermination of kulaks as a class. Soviet archives published in 1990 show 1,803,392 people being sent to labour colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931, with 1,317,022 actually reaching the destinations. 389,521 "kulaks" and their relatives died in labour colonies from 1932 to 1940.<ref>{{wpa|Nazino tragedy}}</ref>

A serious Stalin apologist will, at some point, come out with "the kulaks deserved it". When humans with any sense of proportion react with outrage and disgust, they will often then try to justify Stalin's actions, deny them, or [[George Orwell#"Doublethink"|both simultaneously]].

===The gulags===
[[File:V.M. Doroshevich-Sakhalin. Part I. Prisoners on Steamship of Voluntary Fleet.png|thumb|right|Prisoners at a gulag on Sakhalin Island]]
The Stalin Society maintained that the [[gulag]]s were only for offenders who had committed serious crimes ("homicide, robbery, [[rape]], economic crimes, etc.")<ref name=stalinsociety>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050818143503/http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/lies.html Lies concerning the history of the Soviet Union] by Mario Sousa, translated by Ella Rule (March 1999) ''The Stalin Society (UK)'' (archived from August 18, 2005).</ref> — perfectly ordinary prisons for deserving criminals, not forced labor camps that dissenters were shipped off to arbitrarily. In reality, people could be sent to the gulags for even minor offenses.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071112192706/http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/crimes.php What Were Their Crimes?] ''Gulag History, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University''.</ref>

The current estimate of the gulags' death toll is 1,258,537 from 1934 to 1953, and roughly 1.6 million from 1929 to 1953.<ref name=rosenfielde>''Red Holocaust'' by Steven Rosefielde (2010) Routledge, 2009. ISBN 0415777569. f"…more complete archival data increases camp deaths by 19.4 percent to 1,258,537";{{rp|67}} "The best archivally based estimate of Gulag excess deaths at present is 1.6 million from 1929 to 1953."{{rp|77}}</ref> Some modern estimates have pushed figures as high as 6 million.<ref name=alexopoulos>''Illness and Inhumanity in Stalin's Gulag'' by Golfo Alexopoulos (2017) Yale University Press. ISBN 0300227531.</ref>

===The Great Purge===
The Stalin Society claims only (''only!'') 100,000 people were executed during the Great Purge.<ref name=stalinsociety/> The actual number is 681,692,<ref name=pipes>''Communism: A History'' by Richard Pipes (2003) Modern Library. ISBN 0812968646.</ref>{{rp|67}} but that's just Western bourgeois propaganda.

Stalin ''personally'' signed 357 execution warrants that authorized the execution of 40,000 individuals, 90% having been confirmed executed.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090122062606/http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1933.pdf Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932 – 33 Revisited] by Michael Ellman (2007) ''Europe-Asia Studies'' 59(4):663–693. doi:10.1080/09668130701291899.</ref> Historian Oleg V. Khlevniuk said in his book ''Master of the House: Stalin and His Inner Circle'' regarding the Great Purge, "… theories about the elemental, spontaneous nature of the terror, about a loss of central control over the course of mass repression, and about the role of regional leaders in initiating the terror are simply not supported by the historical record."<ref>''Master of the House: Stalin and His Inner Circle'' by Oleg V. Khlevniuk (2008) Yale University Press. ISBN 0300110669.</ref>{{rp|xix}}

Stalin hand-picked Nikolai Yezhov to accomplish what Yagoda could not. Yezhov carried out his new position with ruthless efficacy.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120925080946/https://www.haciendapub.com/articles/stalins-loyal-executioner-peoples-commissar-nikolai-ezhov-1895-1940-marc-jansen-and-nikita- Book Review of Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940 by Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov] by Miguel A. Faria (December 29, 2011) ''Hacienda Publishing''.</ref><ref>''Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940'' by Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov (2002) Hoover Institution Press. ISBN 0817929088.</ref> 

Stalin apologists blame the NKVD being out of control.

===Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg|thumb|right|195px|Stalin and Ribbentrop greet each other in the Kremlin. A toast to our Nazi comrades!]]
The more sophisticated Stalin apologists will argue that while he ''may'' have done some nasty things, it's alright because he was an anti-[[fascist]] and the Soviet Union was vital in taking down [[Hitler]]. This will often be contrasted with the policy of [[appeasement]] {{wpl|Munich Agreement|pursued by Western bourgeois powers|,}} and whataboutist comparisons with other non-aggression pacts signed with Nazi Germany, such as the {{wpl|German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact||.}}

But while Stalin clashed with Hitler during the [[Spanish Civil War]], he didn't let this get in the way of making a deal with the Nazis when it suited him. Having first ordered his subordinates to "purge the ministry of [[Jews]],"<ref>''The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust'' by Jeffrey Herf (2006) Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674021754.</ref>{{rp|97-98}} Stalin got down to business. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939. Less than three weeks later, Germany invaded [[Poland]] and the much-maligned [[Neville Chamberlain]] promptly declared war on Hitler. Stalin waited a few more weeks before also invading Poland. In celebration of their victory, the Wehrmacht and Red Army held a joint parade in Brest-Litovsk in [[Belarus]]. As a further show of solidarity, Stalin handed over some German communist exiles to Hitler, who promptly sent them to the [[concentration camps]].<ref>[https://euvsdisinfo.eu/figure-of-the-week-80/ 80 years ago Stalin deported German anti-fascist, communist, Jewish refugees to Hitler] (February 25, 2020) ''EUvsDisinfo''.</ref>

[[File:WWII in Europe 1939-1941-en.svg|thumb|left|275px|Soviet and German expansion between 1939 and 1940, as planned by both parties.]]

The pact contained secret protocols<ref>[https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110994.pdf?v=61e7656de6c925c23144a7f96330517d Secret Supplementary Protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact, 1939] (September, 1939) ''History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Published in Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939-1941: Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office''.</ref> which divided Europe into spheres of influence between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In practice, it allowed Stalin to pursue [[Imperialism|imperialistic]] policies without any objections from the Nazis, including the aforementioned invasion of eastern Poland,<ref>[https://enrs.eu/en/news/882-17-september-1939-the-soviet-invasion-of-poland Soviet invasion of Poland 1939] by Andrzej Włusek (21 August 2015) ''European Network Remembrance and Solidarity''.</ref> occupation of the Baltic states,<ref>[https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=283 Annexation of the Baltic States, 15 Jun 1940 - 9 Aug 1940] by C. Peter Chen (Jan 2012) ''The World War II Database''.</ref> a disastrous invasion of [[Finland]],<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Russo-Finnish-War Russo-Finnish War] ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''.</ref> and the takeover of Bessarabia.<ref>[https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/the-soviet-occupation-of-bessarabia-and-northern-bukovina The Soviet Occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina] by Eric Victor, ''Historia''.</ref> Stalin apologists tend to justify his imperialism by saying that he wanted to spread the communist revolution to neighboring countries.

Stalin stuck to his agreement with Hitler, to the extent that he refused to mobilize the Red Army even when it was apparent to everyone else that Operation Barbarossa was in the making. [[French]] communists, who after Barbarossa became the backbone of the Resistance, were ordered at the time not to resist the Germans in the portion of [[France]] they occupied or the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]] elsewhere (temporarily) in France.<ref>''French Resistance Fighter: France's Secret Army'' by Terry Crowdy (2007) Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781846030765.</ref>{{rp|10}}<ref>''France: The Dark Years, 1940–1944'' by Julian Jackson (2003) Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199254576.</ref>{{rp|115}} Similarly, other communist parties in Nazi-occupied Europe had been ordered to work with the Nazis, but then had to go underground at the beginning of Barbarossa when all communist parties were outlawed and their members risked being sent to concentration camps if caught by the Nazis.

The Stalin apologist line is typically either that Stalin knew that Hitler would eventually attack and that it bought the USSR some time (this is the [[Hindsight bias|20/20 hindsight]] version; it glosses over the fact that Stalin refused to acknowledge that Hitler had actually broken the pact during the first hours after the invasion had begun and was furious at army officers who reported the massive onslaught). Another excuse stems from the Soviet propaganda of the time, which claimed that the pact had preempted a sinister capitalist/imperialist [[Conspiracy theory|plot]] that had tried to get the USSR and the Third Reich into a war with each other to weaken both to the benefit of especially Britain and France. While it's undoubtedly true that the leaders of Britain and France would have been more than happy to watch the two [[totalitarian]] regimes slug it out, how this wishful thinking would actually have ''led'' to a Russo-German war in the absence of the pact is [[PIDOOMA|unclear]]. Another apologist line was that Poland had occupied Belarusian territory as a result of the {{wpl|Peace of Riga}} and therefore [[blaming the victim|deserved the invasion]]. Even ignoring the callousness of this argument,<ref group=note>Many tankies claim that Stalin had to have known that Hitler was planning on committing a mass genocide against Slavs. If that is true, then it would mean Stalin was fully aware of what would happen when Hitler took control of Poland, and yet he enabled Hitler's invasion anyway.</ref> Stalin was committing massacres against Belarusians in the years leading up to the war, showing that Stalin's intentions weren't actually helping Belarusians.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47816897 Belarus demolishes crosses at Soviet-era execution site], ''BBC'' 4 April 2019</ref>

The best [[spin]] to put on the sordid affair that was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is to view it as Stalin's recognition that collective security and trying to build a common anti-Nazi front was unrealistic in the wake of appeasement. However, at best the pact was a [[Ad hoc|temporary]] measure, resting on several rather optimistic assumptions, e.g. that the Wehrmacht would not be able to defeat the Western Allies (a prospect made less likely by the removal of the risk of a two-front war involving the USSR), or that if the Third Reich did manage to pull this off, it wouldn't turn on the Soviets next. While the pact did buy Stalin time and a buffer zone in Poland, he squandered both in the disastrous war with [[Finland]],{{efn|The poor performance of the Red Army was largely due to Stalin having had large numbers of its officers executed or sent to the gulags.}} and lack of preparations for a Nazi invasion. Even worse, as a consequence of the pact, the USSR would end up on its own, facing the vast majority of the Nazi war machine after it had been honed in the Polish, Scandinavian, Benelux and French campaigns, by which time it was also backed by the resources of the Nazi-occupied countries.

===Psikhushkas===
To put it simply: [[w:psikhushka|torture chambers]] disguised as [[psychiatry|psychiatric hospitals]]. The ''logic'' was that no sane person would oppose socialism or communism, so they were detained, beaten to death, [[gaslighting|gaslit]] and talked at until they developed [[w:authoritarian personality|authoritarian personality]] or literally begged their ''doctors'' to kill them. Explains the commonplace [[Anti-psychiatry|aversion to actual mental health facilities and negative attitude towards scientific treatment of mental health issues]] in former Eastern Bloc countries, as well as prevalence of discrimination towards those who are actually suffering from personality disorders or mental illnesses (like schizophrenia) and misinformation about actual mental health issues. Entire generations were deprived the right to receive proper care, instead being forced to cope with everything from suicidality, through anger issues to panic attacks by drinking themselves to death (which often happened quite literally).

===Katyn massacre===
[[File:Katyn Massacre - Mass Graves 2.jpg|thumb|right|165px|The 1943 exhumation at the site of the Katyn Massacre]]
In 1940, the Soviets murdered an estimated 22,000 Polish military officers they had captured after invading the eastern part of Poland at the start of the [[Second World War]]. The Katyn massacre — so called because it took place in the forest of the same name — was authorized by Stalin and five other members of the Politburo in an order to execute 27,500 Polish "nationalists and counterrevolutionaries" created at the request of Beria.<ref>''The Rise and Fall of Communism'' by Archie Brown (2009) HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061138799.</ref>{{rp|140}}<ref name=remembrance>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130620070144/http://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/2006/decision-to-commence-investigation-into-katyn-massacre Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre] (20 June 2013) ''The Institute of National Remembrance'' (archived from June 20, 2013).</ref> The executions were carried out by the NKVD; Vasili Blohkin, the NKVD chief executioner, shot 7,000 of the prisoners himself. Documents coming to light since the dissolution of the USSR undeniably confirm Stalin's involvement with the Katyn Massacre.<ref>''Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'' by David Remnick (1994) Random House. ISBN 9780679751250.</ref>{{rp|5-}}

When the mass graves in Katyn were discovered by Nazi occupation forces, they were used by the Nazis as a propaganda tool against the USSR. The Soviets, in turn, appointed a commission that blamed the incident on the Nazis.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210119223631/https://www.cia.gov/static/5a3e46e77b3c417a15bcf927e7b049cc/Stalins-Killing-Field.pdf "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field"] by Benjamin B. Fischer (Winter 1999–2000)''Studies in Intelligence'' (CIA).</ref>

Stalin apologists ignore questions on the topic, blame the NKVD for being out of control, or blame the Nazis. Both these objections are absurd: Stalin knowingly signed the orders,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060514053850/http://katyn.ru/index.php?go=Pages&in=view&id=6 Записка НКВД СССР написанная не позднее 5 марта 1940 г. о польских военнопленных, подписанная Л.П. Берия] [A note by the NKVD of the USSR written no later than March 5, 1940 about Polish prisoners of war, signed by L.P. Beria] товарищу Сталину [comrade Stalin] (March 1940) ''Правда о Катыни''. (archived from May 14, 2006) </ref> which undermines the argument that the NKVD acted alone or that the Nazis were responsible for the Katyn massacre.

The Stalin Society attempted to cast doubt upon the authenticity of documents implicating Stalin in the massacre.<ref name=stalinsociety-katyn>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050820000927/http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/katyn.html The Katyn Massacre] by Ella Rule (July 2002) ''The Stalin Society (UK)'' (archived from August 20, 2005).</ref> They offer unsourced "eyewitness" testimony of locals seeing German soldiers at the scene or being pressured by German soldiers to blame the shootings on the Soviets.<ref name=stalinsociety-katyn/> They then claim:<ref name=stalinsociety-katyn/>
{{quotebox|Moreover, pathologists who examined the bodies in 1943 concluded that they could not have been dead longer than two years. Furthermore, documents were found on some of the bodies which had obviously been missed by the Germans when they doctored the evidence. These included a letter dated September 1940, a postcard dated 12 November 1940, a pawn ticket receipted 14 March 1941 and another receipted 25 March 1941. Receipts dated 6 April 1941, 5 May 1941, 15 May 1941 and an unmailed postcard in Polish dated 20 June 1941. Although all these dates pre-date Soviet withdrawal, they all postdate the time of the alleged murder of the prisoners by the Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940, the time given as the date of the supposed massacre by all those whom the Germans were able to bully into giving false testimony.}}

No citation is given to these supposed items or their discovery.

===Murder and deportation of ethnic groups===
Some 1 to 1.5 million were killed, often deliberately, as a result of mass deportations of ethnic minorities under Stalin — of those deaths, the deportation of Crimean Tatars and the deportation of Chechens were recognized as genocides by Ukraine and the European Parliament, respectively.<ref>[https://unpo.org/chechnya-european-parliament-recognises-the-genocide-of-the-chechen-people-in-1944/ UNPO: Chechnya: European Parliament recognizes the genocide of the Chechen People in 1944] (Feb 27, 2004) ''Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization''.</ref><ref name=naimark>''Stalin's Genocides'' by Norman M. Naimark (2010) Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691147841.</ref>{{rp|131}}<ref name=rosenfielde/>{{rp|84}}<ref>[https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-tatar-deportation-parliament-genocide/27360343.html Ukraine's Parliament Recognizes 1944 'Genocide' Of Crimean Tatars] (November 12, 2015 13:52 GMT) ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty''.</ref> For example, in the deportations of Chechens, everyone was rounded up, and anyone resisting, or anyone physically unfit to withstand the deportation — the sick, the elderly, pregnant women — were unceremoniously shot on the spot. Their villages were burned to the ground, and in some cases, there were atrocious mass murders, such as the burning of 700 people alive in Haibah in Chechnya on the orders of NKVD generals. As many as 60% of the "deported" Chechens perished, in part due to deliberate poisoning of food rations.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20021027043323/http://www.kolumbus.fi/suomi-tshetshenia-seura/historia.htm#_ftn16 Katsaus Tšetšenian ja Kaukasuksen historiaan] ''Finland-Chechnya Society''.</ref> This represents a ''per capita'' death toll almost as high as that inflicted on Europe's Jews during the [[Holocaust]].

Stalin's apologists sometimes go as far as to say that the ethnic groups in question deserved the deportations for their collaboration with Nazis and opposition to the Soviet state and of course downplay the number killed.<ref name=furr1>[https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/deportations_GT1110_eng.pdf Interview. Grover Furr: "The Deportation of Nationalities was Excusable"] (11/10/2010 10:21 AM) ''The Georgian Times''.</ref>

===NKVD National Operations===
[[File:Nikolai Yezhov conferring with Stalin19371220.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Yezhov and Stalin sharing insights, USSR, 1937]]
Stalin was fond of shifting around, or just killing, entire ethnic groups in the Soviet Union that he considered "[[reactionary]]" rather than "progressive". Operations included the [[Greek]] Operation (an organised mass persecution that Greeks considered a "[[pogrom]]"), the [[Korea]]n Operation (in which ethnic Koreans were moved from the far east to [[Kazakhstan]]), the German operation (1937-38), and the Polish Operation.

The Polish Operation, implemented by NKVD Order No. 00485,<ref>[https://archive.fo/RddV «Польская операция» НКВД 1937–1938 гг.] ("Polish operation" of the NKVD 1937-1938.) by Н.В.Петров &  А.Б.Рогинский (N.V. Petrov & A.B. Roginsky), ''Мемориал'' (Memorial) (archived from 25 May 2012 09:39:48 UTC).</ref> was probably the worst. It led to the execution of 111,901 Poles resident in the Soviet Union. The original text of the order appears to target Polish spies but was interpreted by the NKVD as "absolutely all Poles" — a straight-up [[ethnic cleansing]]. Timothy Snyder estimates (conservatively) that 85,000 of the executed individuals were ethnically Polish,<ref name=snyder/>{{rp|103-104}} and the rest were suspected Poles. 

Stalin himself even said, “Very good! Keep on digging up and cleaning out this Polish filth. Eliminate it in the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref name=snyder>''Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin'' by Timothy Snyder (2010) Basic Books. ISBN 9780465002399.</ref>{{rp|96}}

Apologists don't mention the Polish, Greek, or Korean Operations and tend to claim not to have heard of it, with the default excuse being how totally out-of-control the NKVD was, and a second one of claiming that the idea that Stalin was targeting Poles, Greeks and Koreans is ludicrous. In most cases Stalin's apologists just shift the entire blame on either Lavrentiy Beria<ref>[https://espressostalinist.com/2011/12/25/enver-hoxha-on-beria/ Enver Hoxha on Beria]  by Victor Vaughn (December 25, 2011) ''The Espresso Stalinist''.</ref> or Nikolay Yezhov.<ref>[https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/yvs_jls2017.pdf Yezhov vs. Stalin: The Causes of the Mass Repressions of 1937-1938 in the USSR] by Grover Furr (2017) ''Journal of Labor and Society'' 20:325–347.</ref>

===Estimating total deaths===
{{cquote|It will probably never be possible to calculate the human cost of Russia's iron decades adequately, since even such official statistics of execution and Gulag populations as exist or might become available cannot cover all the losses, and estimates vary enormously depending on the assumption made by the estimators. 'By a sinister paradox' it has been said, 'we are better informed as to losses to Soviet livestock in this period than about the number of the regime's opponents who were exterminated' (Kerblay, 1983, p. 26). The suppression of the 1937 census alone introduces almost insuperable obstacles. Still, whatever assumptions are made, the number of direct and indirect victims must be measured in eight rather than seven digits. In these circumstances it does not much matter whether we opt for a 'conservative' estimate nearer to ten than to twenty millions or a larger figure: none can be anything but shameful and beyond palliation, let alone justification.|||British historian Eric Hobsbawm finally giving in to the [[real world]] after decades of recalcitrant support for the Soviet Union.<ref>''Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991'' by Eric Hobsbawm (1995) Abacus. ISBN 0349106711.</ref>{{rp|392-393}}}}

Some apologists argue that the total number of Stalin's victims is unknown (which is true as the documentation is lacking for some areas) or that the total estimated number is shrinking (which it has been). They use this in their attempts to discredit the academic consensus, which places the death toll at around 20 million,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Strauss |first=Julia |date=2014-01-01 |title=Communist Revolution and Political Terror |url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199602056-e-020 |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602056.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199602056-e-020}}</ref> not including deaths from World War II, and try to imply that a decreasing or foggy estimate might reasonably end at a trivial number. (100,000 is apparently a trivial number, as noted above.)

*Famine / Holodomor 4.3 to 9.1 million
**1.8<ref>"Towards Explaining the Soviet Famine of 1931–1933: Political and Natural Factors in Perspective" by Stephen G. Wheatcroft (2004) ''Food and Foodways'' 12(2–3):107–136. doi:10.1080/07409710490491447.</ref> to 4.8 million<ref>[https://zn.ua/ukr/SOCIUM/skilki_nas_zaginulo_pid_golodomoru_1933_roku.html Скільки нас загинуло від Голодомору 1933 року?] [How many of us perished in Holodomor in 1933] by Станіслав Кульчицький [Stanislav Kulchytsky] (November 22, 2002) ''Дзеркало тижня''.</ref> Ukraine<br>(Kiev Appeal court for genocide put the dead at 3.9 million)<ref>[http://lb.ua/news/2010/01/14/19793_nalivaychenko_nazval_kolichestvo_zh.html Наливайченко назвал количество жертв голодомора в Украине] [Nalivaychenko named the number of victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine] (January 14, 2010) ''LB.ua''.</ref> 
**1.5 to 2.3 million<ref>[https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-kazakh-famine-1930-33-and-the-politics-history-the-post-soviet-space "The Kazakh Famine of 1930–33 and the Politics of History in the Post-Soviet Space"] by Elena Volkava (26 March 2012) ''Wilson Center''.</ref> Kazakhstan (This would have been over 1/3 of Kazkhstan's population) 
[[File:Katyn Massacre - Mass Graves.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Exhumation of victims of the Katyn massacre.]]
**1<ref name=snyder/>{{rp|42-}} to 2 million<ref>''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'' by Robert Conquest (1986) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195051807.</ref>{{rp|306}} The north Caucasus and elsewhere has been understudied
*{{wpl|Soviet famine of 1946–47}} 1/2 to 1.5 million<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090122062608/http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman1947.pdf The 1947 Soviet famine and the entitlement approach to famines] by Michael Ellman (2000) ''Cambridge Journal of Economics'' 24:603–630.</ref>
*Forced Labor 1,634,896 to 7.2 million
**Gulag 1,053,829<ref name=pohl>''The Stalinist Penal System: A Statistical History of Soviet Repression and Terror, 1930-1953'' by J. Otto Pohl (1997) McFarland Publishing. ISBN 0786403365.</ref>{{rp|131}} to 6 million<ref name=alexopoulos/>
**German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union 381,067{{efn|In his revised Russian language edition of Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses, Krivosheev put the number of German military POWs at 2,733,739 and dead at 381,067 (356,700 German nationals and 24,367 from other nations).<ref>''Россия и СССР в войнах XX века: потери вооруженных сил : статистическое исследование'' [Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century: Losses of the Armed Forces. A Statistical Study] by Г. Ф. Кривошеев [G. F. Krivosheev] (2001) ОЛМА-Пресс. ISBN 5224015154.</ref>}} to 1 million<ref>''Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht: Deutsche Kriegsgefangene des Zweiten Weltkriege'' by Rüdiger Overmans (2000) Propylän Verlag. Page 246 ISBN 33549071213.</ref>{{rp|246}}
**Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union 200,000<ref>[http://www.epa.hu/00400/00463/00007/pdf/155_stark.pdf "Malenki Robot": Hungarian Forced Labourers in the Soviet Union (1944–1955)] by Tamás Stark (2011) ''Minorities Research'' 7:155-167.</ref>
*Great Purge 681,692<ref name=pipes/>{{rp|67}} to 1 million<ref>[https://www.scaruffi.com/politics/ray.html The worst genocides of the 20th and 21st Centuries: Appendix] by Matt Ray (2016) ''Piero Scaruffi''.</ref>
*Population Transfers (Genocide by deportation) 790,000<{{efn|Pohl cites Russian archival sources for the death toll in the special settlements from 1941-1949.<ref name=pohl/>{{rp|58,148}}}} to 1.5 million<ref name=naimark/>{{rp|131}}<ref name=rosenfielde/>{{rp|84}}
*Occupation of Poland 150,000<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200501181201/https://www.expatica.com/de/uncategorized/polish-experts-lower-nations-wwii-death-toll-92052/ Polish experts lower nation's WWII death toll] (August 30, 2009) ''AFP'' via ''Expatica''.</ref> to 500,000<ref>[https://ipn.gov.pl/pl/publikacje/ksiazki/12600,Polska-19391945-Straty-osobowe-i-ofiary-represji-pod-dwiema-okupacjami.html ''Polska 1939–1945. Straty osobowe i ofiary represji pod dwiema okupacjami''] by Wojciech Materski (2009) Institute of National Remembrance, ISBN 8376290673.</ref>
*Women raped to death during the occupation of Germany 240,000 (Yes, literally fucking raped to death)<ref>''BeFreier und Befreite : Krieg, Vergewaltigungen, Kinder'' by Helke Sander & Barbara Johr (2005) Fischer Taschenbuch. ISBN 3596163056.</ref><ref>''Kriegsverbrechen in Europa und im Nahen Osten im 20. Jahrhundert'' by Franz W. Seidler (2002) Mittler. ISBN 3813207021.</ref>
*Civilians killed in Siege of Budapest 23,000<ref>''Battle for Budapest: One Hundred Days in World War II'' by Kristián Ungváry (2003) I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1860647278.</ref>
*Civilians killed in Battle of Berlin 125,000<ref>''Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1500–2000'' by Michael Clodfelter (2002)  McFarland & Company, 2<sup>nd</sup> edition. ISBN 9780786412044.</ref>
*NKVD prisoner massacres 100,000<ref>''Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe'' by Robert Gellately (2007) Knopf. ISBN 1400040051.</ref>{{rp|391}}

Total: 9,544,588 to 21,288,000 

The total may be greater then this due to missed events and lack or recording or lower due to overlapping systems of repression and some of the higher estimates being from understudied events. This estimate roughly falls within Snyder's range of 6 to 9 million deaths<ref name=snyder/>{{rp|384}}{{efn|{{blockquote|The total number of noncombatants killed by the Germans—about 11 million—is roughly what we had thought. The total number of civilians killed by the Soviets, however, is considerably less than we had believed. We know now that the Germans killed more people than the Soviets did … All in all, the Germans deliberately killed about 11 million noncombatants, a figure that rises to more than 12 million if foreseeable deaths from deportation, hunger, and sentences in concentration camps are included. For the Soviets during the Stalin period, the analogous figures are approximately six million and nine million. These figures are of course subject to revision, but it is very unlikely that the consensus will change again as radically as it has since the opening of Eastern European archives in the 1990s.<ref>[https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/ "Hitler vs. Stalin: Who Was Worse?"] by Timothy Snyder (January 27, 2011) ''The New York Review of Books''</ref>}}}} for the minimum and Conquest's claim that the deaths can 15 million, "Exact numbers may never be known with complete certainty, but the total of deaths caused by the whole range of Soviet regime's terrors can hardly be lower than some fifteen million."<ref name=conquest/>{{rp|xvi}}

Some of the less reality-based anti-communists, usually those who are bringing up a list of Stalin's crimes in some attempt to absolve [[Adolf Hitler]] of his, will include deaths in World War II in their estimate of people who were killed by Stalin. This distortion ranges from including Nazi troops killed by Stalin's forces, all the way up to attributing every death of any side to Stalin, as well as the "Hitler didn't kill his own people" argument, with some more explicit [[neo-Nazis]] even going so far as to include all the victims of [[the Holocaust]] in that count. Criticism of this [[pseudohistory|pseudohistorical]] practice is reasonable and, in and of itself, is not the same as Stalin apologetics. However, this isn't to say that Stalin apologists don't have a habit of trashing distorted death counts from [[Nutpicking|niche fascists with no platform]] as a form of [[Just asking questions|bad faith questioning]] of the validity of the accurate death counts.

==Other apologetics==
===Industrialization===
Some apologists will defend the atrocities by arguing that the gulags, purges, and so forth were all necessary for industrialization: that mass collectivization and escalation of the class conflict with the Kulaks (which ironically was supported by [[Leon Trotsky]] and the Left Opposition) was necessary to defeat Hitler and industrialize the USSR.

Robert Service argued that continuation of the New Economic Policy (NEP), with the exception of Grain Procurement Crisis of 1928, would have brought about the same level of production in its mines and factories as was brought about by collectivization and rapid industrialization.{{efn|"Nor can it be wholly discounted that the USSR would have been able to achieve about the same volume of output from its factories and mines if the New Economic Policy had been maintained."<ref>''The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-First Century'' by Robert Service (2009) Penguin. ISBN 0141037970.</ref>{{rp|275}}}} Other historians have concurred that, had the NEP been maintained, higher living standards and the ability to withstand invasion would have been possible.<ref>''Faulty Foundations: Soviet Economic Policies, 1928-1940.'' by Holland Hunter & Janusz M. Szyrme (2015) Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691600802.</ref> If only they had listened to Bukharin.

==Apologists==
===Kerry Bolton===
{{wpl|Kerry Bolton}} {{lived|1956}}, a [[New Zealand]] neo-Nazi, wrote a book claiming that Stalin was good since he "fought" Marxism.<ref name=bolton>''Stalin: The Enduring Legacy'' by Kerry Bolton (2017) Black House Publishing. ISBN 1910881848.</ref>

===E. H. Carr===
Edward Hallett Carr {{lived|1892|1982}} was an English journalist and historian with the interesting distinction of being an apologist for Stalin, [[Mao]] ''and Hitler''. Although he later regretted defending Hitler in the 1930s, he remained a staunch supporter of Stalin until his death in 1982. Among other things, he declared that the Kulaks deserved it, that Stalin's success in making the Soviet Union outweighed any misdeeds, attacked the Polish Government-in-Exile for asking that the Red Cross investigate the Katyn Massacre, and claimed that Stalin did not want a [[Puppet state|puppet government]] in Poland.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183804/mode/2up ''The Soviet Impact on the Western World''] by Edward Hallett Carr (1946) Macmillan & Co.</ref>{{rp|2}}
{{quotebox|It was Marshal Stalin who, consciously or unconsciously usurping [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s role in the previous war, once more placed [[democracy]] in the forefront of Allied war aims.}}

Despite being an unabashed groupie for murderous autocrats, Carr enjoyed considerable acclaim during his lifetime.

===Joseph E. Davies===
Joseph E. Davies {{lived|1876|1958}} was the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1936-1938. His 1941 book ''Mission to Moscow''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.209203 ''Mission to Moscow''] by Joseph E. Davies (1942) Victor Gollancz.</ref>  was made into the 1943 film of the same name<ref>[https://archive.org/details/missiontomoscow1943 ''Mission to Moscow'' 1943] ''Internet Archive''.</ref> ''at the behest of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (!)'' because World War II. Stalin is a kindly grandfatherly sort who only wants world [[peace]], Finland was invaded because Stalin really cared about the Finns and wanted only to protect them from the imminent Nazi invasion, and the Great Purge victims were all guilty as charged of plotting to break up the Soviet Union in a plot instigated by Germany and [[Japan]] and led by Trotsky. The only thing that can be said in defense of Davies' apologism is that it stemmed from the apparent fact he was ''really just that naive'' — which is an extremely poor excuse for a diplomat. To add insult to injury the [[Hollywood blacklist|House Un-American Activities Committee blacklisted]] the scriptwriter and others involved in that film during the darkest years of the 1950s, even though they had made the film as a [[patriotic]] act of World War II propaganda — [[Horseshoe theory|exactly the sort of thing Stalin would have done]].

===Aleksandr Dugin===
{{main|Aleksandr Dugin}}
The far-right Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin has said that he "favors Stalin and the USSR".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Александр Дугин: Уроки религии - это великая победа над русофобами |url=https://www.nakanune.ru/articles/16845/ |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=www.nakanune.ru |language=ru}}</ref> Dugin even claimed that Stalin is the "greatest personality in Russian history”, also claiming that all the bloodshed during his government was justified because “all great historical achievements are built on blood.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Khapaeva |first=Dina |date=2016-03-01 |title=Triumphant memory of the perpetrators: Putin's politics of re-Stalinization |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967067X15000665 |journal=Communist and Post-Communist Studies |series=Special Issue: Between Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and Fascism in Russia: Exploring Vladimir Putin’s Regime |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=61–73 |doi=10.1016/j.postcomstud.2015.12.007 |issn=0967-067X}}</ref>

===Walter Duranty===
Walter Duranty {{lived|1884|1957}} was a ''New York Times'' correspondent in Stalin's day. He was very into being feted in Moscow. He called anyone reporting on the Holodomor a fascist.

===Grover Furr===
Grover Carr Furr III {{lived|1944}} is a Stalin apologist ''par excellence''. He is a professor of medieval English literature (read: not Soviet history) at Montclair State University,<ref>[https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=furrg Grover Furr] ''Montclair State University''.</ref> he has written many books about Russian history, some of which bear a resemblance to actual events, and are published by small left-wing presses rather than any sort of academic publisher. Furr has no credentials as a historian.

Furr also accepts admissions of guilt (and fascist conspiracy) made during the Purge [[show trial]]s as ''actual evidence'', then asserts some massive fascist conspiracy to undermine the USSR without providing any historical documentation from Nazi Germany that would support his assertion.

Furr believes that the Stalinist deportations of ethnic minorities was justified due to his belief in the Stalinist myth that most members of these ethnicities collaborated with the Nazis.<ref name=furr1/> His claims regarding Soviet deportations have been thoroughly debunked.<ref>[https://standupforhistory.blogspot.com/2021/10/rebuttal-to-grover-furr-on-soviet.html Rebuttal to Grover Furr on Soviet deportations] by Josiah Selednik (October 10, 2021) ''Stand Up For History''.</ref>

Grover [[cherry pick]]s [[evidence]] which supports his agenda and ignores/denounces as propaganda anything that makes Stalin look bad, even if it comes directly from the Soviet archives or Stalin's close associates like Vyacheslav Molotov.<ref>[https://np.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3idnj0/video_of_a_college_professor_saying_that_he_has/cufpcon Video of a college professor saying that he has not found "evidence of ONE crime committed by Stalin" is gaining steam on /r/videos. There is a ton of really bad history being spread in the comments there so can you all provide some of the sources that give evidence for Stalin's atrocities?] (c. 2016) ''Reddit''.</ref> He also likes citing documents that do not even exist.<ref>[https://np.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6ya9zv/to_what_extent_is_grover_furrs_account_of_the To what extent is Grover Furr's account of the Moscow Trials supported by third party research?] (c. 2018) ''Reddit''.</ref> His Katyn denial has been debunked and his deep incompetence on the issue demonstrated.<ref>[http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2023/02/debunking-grover-furrs-katyn-screed.html Debunking Grover Furr's Katyn screed.] (February 14, 2023) ''Holocaust Controversies''.</ref><ref>[http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2020/01/looking-for-katyn-lighthouses.html Looking for the Katyn lighthouses] (January 26, 2020) ''Holocaust Controversies''.</ref><ref>[http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2007/03/and-now-for-something-not-completely.html And now for something not completely different…] (March 15, 2007) ''Holocaust Controversies''.</ref> His notion that Stalin's Moscow trials were not staged was also thoroughly rebutted.<ref>[http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.com/2019/08/again-about-stalinist-deniers-yes.html Again about the Stalinist deniers: yes, the Moscow trials were staged, duh.] (August 25, 2019) ''Holocaust Controversies''.</ref>

Stalinists will cite Furr as [[Credentialism|academic credibility]] &mdash; look, a ''professor!'' &mdash; for their views, and try to get you to debate the quality of Furr's scholarship (as if that determines the truth of the historical consensus on Stalin), ignoring that he is a minor fringe academic whose historical work is outside any [[peer review]] and, when he does manage to publish it in scholarly venues, does so in some of the lowest ranked and least impactful ones.

There was some controversy in 2012<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121216060552/http://www.themontclarion.org/archives/3747557 The Defamation of Grover Furr] by Jack Smith IV (12-13-2012) ''The Montclarion'' (archived from December 16, 2012).</ref> when some 
Trotskyist revisionists
 [[libertarian]]s recorded him telling a class that Stalin murdered nobody whomsoever and committed no crimes.{{efn|{{blockquote|I'm gonna answer you, I'm gonna answer you, I'm gonna answer you, I'm gonna answer you. What you said is bullshit! It's wrong, it's a lie! The history of the Soviet Union is the most falsified! American history is falsified. Alright, I lived in Canada for a number of years, the Canadian school system falsifies Canadian history. But of all the falsifications that go on in the school systems of this world, Soviet history is falsified the most. I have spent many years researching this, and similar questions and I have yet to find one crime! Yet to find one crime! That Stalin committed. I know they all say he killed 20 to 30 to 40 million people, Its bullshit!"<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRPTZF5zSLQ Mad college professor claims nobody murdered by Stalin] (Oct 26, 2012) ''YouTube''.</ref>}}}} (For that last, it helps if you're the dictator and get to define "crime".) The libertarians were baiting him, but he said it. The libertarians were attempting to use this as evidence of [[liberal bias]] in the [[political beliefs of academics]], and never mind that [[Political spectrum|liberalism and libertarianism are near-twins compared to Stalinism]].

In any discussion involving communism or the USSR, citing Grover Furr as a credible source [[Scopie's Law|loses you the argument immediately and gets you laughed out of the room]].

===Annie Lacroix-Riz===
{{wpl|Annie Lacroix-Riz}} {{lived|1947}} is a French historian. She is a believer in the {{wpl|Synarchism}} [[conspiracy theory]].<ref>[http://www.liberation.fr/france-archive/1997/03/18/un-probleme-de-sources-robert-paxton-ne-partage-pas-la-these-d-annie-lacroix-riz_199608 Interview: «Un problème de sources». Robert Paxton ne partage pas la thèse d'Annie Lacroix-Riz] by Annette Levy-Willard (18 March 1997) ''Libération''.</ref> She also belives that the Holodomor is in fact Nazi propaganda.<ref>{{Cite web |title=HistoQuiz/l’Holodomor, nouvel avatar de l’anticommunisme « européen » |url=https://www.histoquiz-contemporain.com/Histoquiz/Lesdossiers/LaFrance19391945/holodomor/Dossiers.htm |access-date=2022-10-17 |website=www.histoquiz-contemporain.com}}</ref> She believes that schools are too harsh on Stalin.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080703172724/http://www.northstarcompass.org/french/nscfr55/tyranrouge.htm  Staline, le tyran rouge »: Un nouveau croquemitaine pour effrayer les jeunes] by Annie Lacroix-Riz (13 March 2007) ''Northstar Compass''.</ref>

===Domenico Losurdo===
{{wpl|Domenico Losurdo}} {{lived|1941|2018}} was an [[Italian]] [[philosopher]] known for his defense of Stalin and other communist regimes. His book about Stalin<ref>''Staline, Histoire et Critique d’une Légende Noire'' by Domenico Losurdo (2011) Aden. ISBN 2805900634.</ref> has more mistakes than pages, quite literally.<ref>[https://www.nouvelle-quinzaine-litteraire.fr/mode-lecture/le-socialisme-du-goulag-164 Le socialisme du goulag!] by Jean-Jacques Marie (16 March 2011) ''Quinzaines'' 1034.</ref> He claims, for instance, that the Great Purges were "Stalin’s reaction during an acute political struggle" and that the reason for Stalin's unpopularity is merely the Khrushchev Report. The book also shows that Losurdo's ignorance goes beyond history as he massacrates [[logic]] iself, despite being a philosopher: When he's not denying Stalin's crimes, he's trying to justify them by arguing that [[whataboutism|other countries did also commit crimes]]. For instance, the Katyn Massacre is downplayed in his book because the Americans are responsible for the {{wpl|No Gun Ri massacre}}. Losurdo was also close to Grover Furr, attending his lectures, helping him to publish his books in Europe and writing forewards to them. His "firm defense of Stalin" has been praised by Furr, who called Losurdo a "fighter for the truth".<ref>{{Cite web |title=In Memoriam Domenico Losurdo |url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/research/losurdo_furr070118.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |website=msuweb.montclair.edu}}</ref>

Losurdo [[stopped clock|does admit]] that many of the victims of collectivization were the same oppressed people on whose behalf the ideology supposedly spoke.<ref>''War and Revolution: Rethinking the Twentieth Century'' by Domenico Losurdo (20200 Verso Books. ISBN 1788736664.</ref>{{rp|59}}
{{blockquote|In a tragic irony, the millions of victims of the ruthless 'revolution from above' that was collectivization mainly came from the USSR's Asiatic populations, discrimination against whom on naturalistic and tendentially racist criteria had aroused such eloquent moral indignation.}}
Dissatisfied with defending only Stalinism, Losurdo had a long record of praising the [[Chinese Communist Party]] and [[Mao Zedong]], as well as denying the  [[Tiananmen Square Massacre]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-31 |title=Domenico Losurdo: Le rivoluzioni colorate e la Cina: da Tienanmen a H… |url=https://archive.ph/yVBJ0 |access-date=2025-01-31 |website=archive.ph}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-31 |title=Tienanmen 20 ans après |url=https://archive.ph/a8pdS |access-date=2025-01-31 |website=archive.ph}}</ref> According to Losurdo, the "Chinese market socialism has achieved extraordinary success", an analysis the ignores that China only started to grow ''after'' Mao's death, when [[Deng Xiaoping]] liberalized much of the Chinese economy.<ref>{{wpa|Chinese economic reform}}</ref> Losurdo believed that the Chinese Revolution was "the greatest anti-colonial revolution in history", strangely ignoring that China annexed [[Tibet]] only a year after the rise of Mao to power,<ref>{{wpa|Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China}}</ref> that [[China]] hstill wants to annex [[Taiwan]] after all these years, as well as China's neo-colonial tendencies in [[Africa]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mead |first=Nick Van |date=2018-07-31 |title=China in Africa: win-win development, or a new colonialism? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/31/china-in-africa-win-win-development-or-a-new-colonialism |access-date=2025-01-31 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-07-19 |title=Chinese colonialism? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-18901656 |access-date=2025-01-31 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> Losurdo also thinks that asking for democratic reforms in China is in fact asking for a [[plutocracy]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-03-20 |title=Has China Turned to Capitalism? Reflections on the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism |url=https://redsails.org/losurdo-on-china/ |access-date=2025-01-31 |website=redsails.org}}</ref>

===Ludo Martens===
{{wpl|Ludo Martens}} {{lived|1946|2011}} was a [[Belgian]] activist and president of the {{wpl|Workers' Party of Belgium||.}} He wrote a Stalin [[hagiography]] that argued that "Defending Stalin's work, essentially defending Marxism-Leninism, is an important, urgent task in preparing ourselves for class struggle under the [[New World Order]]". He argued that the Holodomor was in fact a result of "class struggle".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100128115437/http://www.plp.org/books/ ''Another View of Stalin''] by Ludo Martens, translated by John Plaice (1996) ''Département dʹInformatique, Université Laval''. ISBN 2872620818.</ref>

===Austin Murphy===
{{distinguish|[[Paul Austin Murphy]]}}
Austin Murphy  is an American writer, who wrote the book ''The Triumph of Evil''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murphy |first=Austin |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/45434980 |title=The triumph of evil : the reality of the USA's cold war victory |date=2000 |publisher=European Press Academic Pub |isbn=88-8398-002-6 |location=Fucecchio (Firenze), Italy |oclc=45434980}}</ref> On this book, he claims that  Stalin "saved the lives of millions of people" during the Holodomor.{{rp|85}} He also believes that the Purges killed far less than every historian actually believe (and those that die actually deserve it).{{rp|73-82}} Has similar opinions on [[Mao Tse-Tung]], who he believes, saved 10 million lives per year.{{rp|57}}

===Michael Parenti===
{{wpl|Michael Parenti}} {{lived|1933|2026}} was an American [[Politics|political scientist]], historian, speaker, and Bosnian genocide denier.<ref>https://bosniak.org/2012/05/01/protest-letter-regarding-genocide-denier-michael-parenti/</ref> He has written a book titled "Blackshirts and Reds",<ref>''Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism'' by Michael Parenti (1997) City Lights Books. ISBN 0872863298.</ref> where he attempted to debunk [[Horseshoe theory|comparisons of Nazism to Stalinism]]. However, in doing so he made dubious claims in his book that deny Stalinist [[crimes against humanity]] to make him seem [[Not as bad as|not as bad compared]] to Hitler, especially in chapter 5 of his book titled "Stalin's Fingers" about the gulags. His book had almost no citations, only the occasional reference to another document in a footnote, and has been called "ahistorical" and a "political essay".<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ijho04/is_michael_parenti_a_reputable_source/g3gr1rl/ Is Michael Parenti a reputable source?] by Kochevnik81 (2020) ''Reddit''.</ref> Michael Parenti and this book along with other works are frequently cited by Stalinists in arguments and discussions.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220109213000/https://www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/search/?q=parenti&restrict_sr=1 Search: r/DebateCommunism parenti] ''Reddit'' (archived from January 9, 2022).</ref> In his later years he also attended lectures by another [[pseudohistorian]], {{sl|Grover Furr}}.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-BrMnPV8VY&t=1007s Grover Furr: Blood Lies, a response to Timothy Snyder's book titled 'Bloodlands'; Part 3 of 3] by ICSS Marxist (Jul 25, 2014) ''YouTube''.</ref>

===Paul Robeson===
In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, {{wpl|Paul Robeson}} {{lived|1898|1976}} wrote a eulogy entitled ''To You Beloved Comrade'',<ref name=robeson>[https://web.archive.org/web/19991012202929/http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9804/robeson.htm To You Beloved Comrade] by by Paul Robeson (March 5, 1953) republished by ''Northstar Compass''.</ref> which included these sentiments: 
{{quotebox|Forever will his name be honored and beloved in all lands. In all spheres of modern life, the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. … his contributions to the science of our world society remains invaluable. One reverently speaks of [[Marx]], [[Engels]], Lenin, and Stalin — the shapers of humanity's richest present and future. … Yes, through his [Stalin's] deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage. … How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom.<ref name=robeson/>}}
Film critic {{wpl|Richard Corliss}} in 1998 called Robeson "a stubborn apologist for communism, Stalin-style… He could sell sand to Saharans, but he couldn't peddle Stalin to America… If Robeson rejected a homegrown system of oppression to embrace another, more toxic one, that was his right."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010119115400/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980420/appreciation.ol_man_char25.html Ol' Man Charisma, Paul Robeson: 1898-1976] by Richard Corliss (April 20, 1998) ''Time'' 151(16).</ref>

===Robert Thurston===
{{wpl|Robert W. Thurston}} {{lived|1949}} is an American historian. Despite spending most of his career studying [[coffee]] at a mediocre college, he wrote a book arguing that life under Stalinism was actually not that bad. Thurston said that Stalin never terrorized the people of the Soviet Union, and was in fact a very popular figure. According to Thurston, those who died were actually Trotskysts and, since the population (allegedly) [[mobocracy|supported]] the persecutions, they were fair.<ref>''Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934-1941'' by  Robert W. Thurston. (1996) Yale University Press. ISBN 0300064012.</ref> A review in ''Publisher's Weekly'' stated:<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-300-06401-8  Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934-1941] (03/04/1996) reviewed in ''Publisher's Weekly''.</ref>
{{blockquote|Stalin was also a paranoid monster who stage-managed the twists and turns of Soviet policy that made him supreme leader. In this strongly revisionist work, Thurston, associate professor of history at Miami University, tries to refute that conception, arguing that Stalin was largely reacting to events around him. The author goes so far as to claim that, though terror existed as part of the Soviet system, Stalin never meant it to be a primary instrument for ruling.}}

===Douglas Tottle===
{{wpl|Douglas Tottle}} was Canadian trade union activist. Wrote an entire book arguing that the Holodomor is, in fact, Nazi propaganda.<ref>''Fraud, famine, and fascism: The Ukrainian genocide myth from Hitler to Harvard'' by Douglas Tottle (1987) Toronto: Progress Books. ISBN 0919396518.</ref>{{rp|167}}

==Types of apologists==
[[File:Red Guards Austin.png|thumb|right|365px|Even [[Texas]] has tankies.]]
===Tankies===
{{main|Tankies}}
Serious devotees of authoritarian regimes apologetics are often referred to by the derogatory epithet '''tankies''', after the tanks that rolled into [[Hungary]] when {{wpl|Hungarian Revolution of 1956|they dared to leave}} the Soviet Union's loving hugs (through this happened under [[Nikita Khrushchev]] rather than Stalin). This term was coined by other communists who didn't agree with such actions and it was as a term for the [[Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)]] when they followed the Kremlin line.

The term first appeared in print in a May 1985 article in ''[[The Guardian]]'' in reference to the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]'s official organ ''Morning Star'':<ref>tanky, ''n.2'', ''Oxford English Dictionary''.</ref><ref>[https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/08/what-exactly-are-trots-and-tankies What exactly are “Trots” and “Tankies”? Unpicking the latest resurgence in political name-calling on the British left.] (9 August 2016) ''The New Statesman''.</ref>
{{cquote|The minority who are grouped around the Morning Star (and are variously referred to as traditionalists, hardliners, fundamentalists, Stalinists, or ‘tankies’ — this last a reference to the uncritical support that some of them gave to the [[Soviet-Afghanistan War|Soviet ‘intervention’ in Afghanistan)]].}}

The term is routinely used concerning Stalin apologists. Because he was dead by the time the tanks rolled, tankies will often claim that the word ''properly'' refers to someone other than them — though approximately nobody goes along with this. You'll also see it being used for [[Berlin Wall]] apologists, [[North Korea]] apologists, [[Enver Hoxha]] apologists, [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] apologists, [[Pol Pot]]/[[Khmer Rouge]] apologists, [[Mao Zedong]] apologists, and those who cheered on the 
June Fourth Incident
 [[Tiananmen Square Massacre]]. Other groups get called "tankies" if they take an authoritarian line. There are actually tiny Trotskyist groups that supported military "intervention" in Hungary, such as the Marcyites who argued that Stalinist repression is a [[not as bad as|lesser evil]] compared to Western imperialism. Tankies also support non-socialist regimes like [[Iran]] and the [[Russian Federation]] because the regimes are anti-American.

Ironically enough, most actual tankies despise Nikita Khrushchev, who sent the tanks into Hungary in 1956, as being "revisionist" as he denounced Stalin and his policies (despite having [[Hypocrisy|participated in them heavily]]).

A similar term to ''"tankie"'' is "''{{wiktl|campist}}"'', which Wiktionary defines as: "A leftist who supports any country/organization simply for being opposed to the United States or the West, including authoritarian governments who would otherwise not follow leftist beliefs." Strangely enough, it also defines a somewhat ''opposite'' sense of the term "campist": a believer in "{{wpl|third camp socialism||".}} That is a socialist who believes that siding with imperialists against imperialists is a bad idea, and that socialists should rather be a "third camp", opposed to any two camps of imperial-capitalists who happen to be contending at once.<ref>Sean Matgamna (October 25, 2006). [https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2017-07-26/what-third-camp "What is the Third Camp?"]. ''Workers' Liberty''.</ref>

===Modern Russian Stalin apologists===
Quite a lot of modern-day non-communist Russians — and not just Russian nationalists — are disconcertingly apologetic toward Stalin: he was a strong leader, he won World War II, shit happens along the way, [[nostalgia]], [[crazification factor]]. Stalin is most popular among older Russians, who have personal connections to memories of World War II, when 27 million war deaths dwarfed the human toll of Stalin's repression.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130306032739/http://theweek.com/article/index/240921/why-so-many-russians-still-love-stalin Why so many Russians still love Stalin] by Keith Wagstaff (January 8, 2015) ''The Week''.</ref> Older Russians also experienced privations resulting from the end of Soviet communism and its replacement with [[Yeltsin]]-era [[neoliberal]] looting, tending to view the Soviet era as a time of relative stability and security. Some older Chinese who experienced the short-end of the Chinese economic reform stick also regard Mao Zedong the same way, as do Romanians who support Nicolae Ceaușescu due to the relative lack of economic prosperity following the end of communism.<ref>[https://transylvanianow.com/ceausescu-still-most-beloved-president-of-romania/ Ceaușescu still most beloved President of Romania]  by Dénes Albert (December 27, 2018) ''Transylvania Now''.</ref>

If you can read Russian, the ''Encyclopedia of Russian Civilisation''<ref>[http://www.rus-sky.com/rc/ Энциклопедический словарь русской цивилизации]</ref> is an amazing window into the thought processes involved in modern-day Russian quasi-fascism — pro-[[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern-Orthodox]], antisemitism, anti-[[Masonic]], anti-communist and anti-[[democratic]]. There are no articles about any Soviet leader other than Stalin;<ref name=erc>[http://www.rus-sky.com/rc/s1.htm Сн-Ся] (Энциклопедический словарь русской цивилизации)</ref> even Vladimir Lenin is mentioned only in passing as a [[Judaism|Jewish]], anti-Russian (!) and anti-[[Christian]] criminal, and Stalin's purges of the old Bolsheviks are celebrated. Such nationalists generally prefer to associate Stalin with the other Vladimir, [[Vladimir Putin|Putin]], in their pantheon of "great" Russian leaders.
{{quotebox|Stalin, Iosif Vissarionovich, a Georgian Bolshevik. From late 1930s &mdash; a Russian statesman, and the military leader of the Russian people during the Great Patriotic War … The mighty Russian civilization spiritually subjugated itself to the Bolshevik leader and sanctified his activity with positive content … By eliminating the Bolshevik old guard, Stalin did not only struggle for power but also redeemed his guilt in front of the Russian people…<ref name=erc/>}}

[[Irony|Curiously]], given his status among Russian nationalists, Stalin (unlike Lenin) was not Russian, but [[Georgia#Other uses|Georgian]].

For non-Russian readers, Timothy Snyder gives a good overview of Putin-era thought processes that are consistent with the encyclopedia.<ref>''The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America'' by Timothy Snyder (2018) Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 0525574468.</ref>

===Vladimir Putin===
[[Vladimir Putin]] "has described Stalin as an 'effective manager', and "told teachers to avoid history that 'makes your hair stand up' — meaning no mention of executions, [[Holodomor|starvation from forced agrarian collectivization]], purges, mass deportations and [[Gulag|gulags]]."<ref>[http://www.sfchronicle.com/world/article/In-1-country-a-Josef-Stalin-revival-is-under-way-6248871.php In one country, a Josef Stalin revival is under way] by Jack Epstein (May 7, 2015 Updated: May 8, 2015 11:07am) ''San Francisco Chronicle''</ref> This is not a surprise given Stalin's popularity among Putin's own [[Nationalism|nationalistic]] support base.

In a rare [[stopped clock]] moment, during a 2010 visit to Poland, Putin provided documentation related to the NKVD's role in the Katyn massacre and paid tribute to its victims, stating that "this crime cannot be justified in any way." Putin also condemned Stalin's claims that the missing officers had "fled to Manchuria" as "cynical lies."<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/remembering-the-katyn-massacre-putin-gesture-heralds-new-era-in-russian-polish-relations-a-687819.html Putin Gesture Heralds New Era in Russian-Polish Relations] by Benjamin Bidder (April 08, 2010  10:25 AM) ''Der Spiegel''.</ref> This would have managed to repair Polish-Russian relations for a short while, had it not been for [[Poland|the Smolensk disaster of the same year.]]

In 2023, a new statue of Stalin was unveiled in Volgograd (ex-Stalingrad) to commemorate 80<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the World War II Battle of Stalingrad;<ref>[https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-volgograd-stalin-bust-putin-visit-stalingrad/32251951.html Bust Of Stalin Erected In Volgograd Ahead Of Putin Visit To Mark Anniversary Of WWII Victory] (February 02, 2023) ''Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty''.</ref> the unveiling also coincided with Putin's ongoing genocidal invasion of Ukraine. "…at least 95 of the 110 monuments in Russia erected during Putin’s time as leader." This, as well as other changes to Russian society under Putin, effectively makes [[Putinism]] co-ideological with Stalinism.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2024/putin-values-russian-society-conservatism/ Under Putin, a militarized new Russia rises to challenge U.S. and the West] by Robyn Dixon (May 6, 2024 at 6:35 a.m.) ''The Washington Post''.</ref>

An overwhelming amount of tankies support Putin’s 2022 invasion of [[Ukraine]].

===Nazbols===
{{main|National Bolshevism}}

…

"[[Alt-right]] Tankie."

…

That's all we need to say about that...
''(P.S., [[Richard Spencer]] denies the Holodomor was a genocide, so you know for those calling the Holodomor a "Nazi lie," uh… yeah…)''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181106093943/https://twitter.com/richardbspencer/status/860723044909801473?lang=en Not "Ukrainian genocide" but a famine caused by collectivization *and* natural factors also affecting other areas (Russia, Caucasus, etc).] by Richard Spencer (10:09 PM - 5 May 2017) ''Twitter'' (archived from November 6, 2018).</ref>

===Stalin apologist organizations===
[[File:CPGB-MLmayday.jpg|thumb|CPGB (ML) on a May Day march in 2011. A great big banner of Uncle Joe will convince the proletariat, no worries!]]
* [[Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)]] (not the other three CPGBs). Also [[North Korea]] apologists. Reporter Johann Hari attended a meeting and noted about 30 people attending who were primarily "elderly to the point of decrepitude."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110420130353/http://johannhari.com/2002/06/10/the-horrors-of-the-british-stalin-society/ The horrors of the British Stalin Society] by ''Johann Hari'' (6/9/2002) (archived from April 20, 2011).</ref>
* [[New Communist Party of Britain]], who left the original Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1970s for not being quite tankie enough, have a whole series of tributes to Stalin on their website.<ref>[http://www.newworker.org/ncpcentral/JVS.html J V Stalin] ''New Communist Party of Britain''.</ref>
*  Maoist Rebel News (Jason Unruhe), who (besides whitewashing Stalin) pushes the envelope all the way to overt [[North Korea]] and [[Pol Pot]] apologism.<ref>[https://maoistrebelnews.wordpress.com/category/north-korea/ North Korea] ''Maoist Rebel News''.</ref> Amusingly enough, Unruhe despises the current leadership of the  Chinese Communist Party and has accused it of imperialism in Africa.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181227004529/https://maoistrebelnews.com/2018/12/22/chinese-imperialism-in-africa-is-here/ Chinese Imperialism in Africa is Here]</ref>
* Stalin Society (UK) "The Stalin Society was formed in 1991 to defend Stalin and his work on the basis of fact and to refute capitalist, revisionist, opportunist, and Trotskyist propaganda directed against him."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110716085547/http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/ The Stalin Society] (archived from July 16, 2011).</ref>
* Stalin Society Pakistan — "Refuting anti-Stalin propaganda & lies through Research & Advocacy"<ref>[http://stalinsocietypk.wordpress.com/ Stalin Society of Pakistan]</ref>
<gallery mode=packed>
File:Ssna-banner-first.jpg|Confusing the man with the myth from 2014 until deportation to Siberia in 2017
File:The Treachery of Images.jpg|René Magritte, [[mistaking the map for the territory]] since 1929
</gallery>
* Stalin Society of North America — The Society "serves as an educational and research organization devoted to studying and popularizing the life, work, and legacy of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin."<ref name=ssna>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161017162823/http://www.stalinsociety.org/about/ About SSNA] ''Stalin Society of North America'' (archived from October 17, 2016).</ref>{{efn|Ironically, their icon was a pipe<ref name=ssna/> — not Stalin's famous pipe, but the famous pipe of surrealist painter René Magritte's "The Treachery of Images" (''Ceci n'est pas une pipe'') painting.<ref>[https://collections.lacma.org/node/239578 The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe])] by ''René Magritte'' (1929) ''Los Angeles County Museum of Art''.</ref> Was SSNA a [[Poe]] or just self-[[trolling]]?}}
* The U.S. [[Revolutionary Communist Party (US)|Revolutionary Communist Party]], a [[Maoism|Maoist]] party led by "Chairman Bob" Avakian, says that their vision of a future society is based on all the good things about the Soviet Union, with the side note that they want to forgo whatever bad things arose from the Soviet system. In effect, this is a [[rhetorical]] strategy to get your mind to think that there were enough really great things about the Soviet system and that the bad things were very few (and possibly just amoral mistakes, even unrelated to mass murder and mass [[torture]]). Chairman Bob is currently living in self-imposed exile in France, after fleeing the U.S. following a violent protest against the revisionist {{wpl|Deng Xiaoping||.}}
* The U.S. [[Party for Socialism and Liberation]], heavily {{wpl|Sam Marcy}}-influenced, insists that the bad stuff associated with the Soviet Union is actually just Western propaganda.<ref>[https://archive.fo/VS2vG How does PSL view Trotskyism and Maoism?] ''Revleft'' (archived from 17 Jun 2016 14:10:01 UTC).</ref> Which, to be fair, [[stopped clock|a share of it is]].
* Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany,<ref>[https://www.mlpd.de/english Marxistische-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands]</ref> the first party to have erected a Lenin statue in what was West Germany.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLSEQANCG3Q Lenin Statue in Gelsenkirchen! - Ceremony for the unveiling on 20 June 2020] by mpld.de (Jun 21, 2020) ''YouTube''.</ref> Undoubtedly Stalinist and uncompromising, a creepy uncle of other leftist parties. The party believes that the USSR practiced ''true socialism'', and that a dictatorship of the proletariat coupled with fresh and improved democratic centralism is mandatory to solve current societal problems, which capitalist system is too inadequate to solve. ''Join the fun!'' or not.
* The Stalin Society of Australia, currently with a defunct website and reduced to a Facebook page with a few hundred likes.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/StalinSociety.Au Stalin Society Of Australia]</ref> How the mighty has fallen!
* Delga éditions: A French publisher. They have books praising virtually any vaguely "left-wing" modern dictatorship (Belarus, [[Libya]], and even ''North Korea'', of all things!), many books have been written by aforementioned Stalin apologists, as well as some anti-Trotskyist material.<ref>[https://editionsdelga.fr/ Les éditions Delga]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Anti-revisionism]]
*[[Maoism]]
*[[Neo Nazism]]
*[[RevLeft]]
*[[China apologetics]]
*[[:Fun:Tankie argument bingo]]
*[[:Fun:Tankie argument bingo: China edition]]
*[[:Fun:Vatnik argument bingo: Ukraine edition]]

==External links==
* [https://www.iwp.edu/articles/2011/02/22/average-joe-the-return-of-stalin-apologists/ Average Joe: The Return of Stalin Apologists]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150414155112/https://www.facebook.com/tankie1968?fref=ts Shit Tankies Say] (Facebook)
* [https://twitter.com/HotTankie Tankie Takes] (Twitter)
* [https://youtu.be/7MG1-s9GyCM] (Centre-right Youtube video on the Holodomor)

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Anti-Christian bigotry]]
[[Category:Anti-intellectualism]]
[[Category:Anti-Western]]
[[Category:Antisemitism]]
[[Category:Authoritarianism]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Denialism]]
[[Category:Genocide]]
[[Category:Genocide denial]]
[[Category:History of communism]]
[[Category:Internet kooks]]
[[Category:Islamophobia]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory promoters]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Totalitarianism]]
[[Category:Tankies]]
[[Category:Vatniks]]
[[Category:Whataboutism]]

Categories: Anti-Christian bigotry, Anti-intellectualism, Anti-Western, Antisemitism, Authoritarianism, Crimes against humanity, Conspiracy theorists, Denialism, Genocide, Genocide denial, History of communism, Internet kooks, Islamophobia, Pseudohistory, Pseudohistory promoters, Racism, Totalitarianism, Tankies, Vatniks, Whataboutism