iâm struggling so hard to find sources regarding the soviet union and stalin that arenât straight propaganda, iâm just lost through and through. any recommendations or tips?
michael parenti's blackshirts and reds is a good book to start off with (though it is not specifically about the stalin administration ussr, also wrong about china, rare L). despite his and his party's bourgeois-nationalist tailing, vijay prashad's red star over the third world is still very important to understand the ussr as an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist force. and for stalin specifically, losurdo's stalin: history and critique of a black legend and ludo marten's another view of stalin are pretty dense and very detailed about specific claims made about stalin & the ussr.
for something more personal, anne louise strong's the stalin era is her firsthand reporting of the early ussr.
The following books/files have been added to the soviet library:
{Eastern Europe}
Drawing The Line: The American Decision to divide Germany, 1944-1949 *â Carolyn Woods Eisenberg
The Foreign Policy of the GDR in Africa â Gareth M. Winrow
East Germany in Comparative Perspective â David Childs, Thomas A. Baylis, Marilyn Rueschemeyer
Socialism with a German Face: the state that came from the cold **â Jonathan Steele
The New Lithuania â Anna Louise Strong
Soviet Russia and the Baltic Republics â Philip Farr
Rumanian Summer, A View of the Rumanian Peopleâs Republic â Jack Lindsay, Maurice Cornforth
* Concerns origins, and what led to the formation of a divided Germany
** A sympathetic take on the German Democratic Republic, goes into social, economic, and political details.
{Albania}
The History of the Socialist Construction of Albania (1944-1975)
History of the Party of Labour of Albania
{Soviet Union}
The Peoples of the Soviet Union â Corliss Lamont
A People Reborn, The Story of North Ossetia â Andrew Rothstein
Peaceful Coexistence â Andrew Rothstein
A Visit to Russia, A Report of Durham Miners on their Visit to the U.S.S.R
The Population of the Soviet Union: History and Prospects â Frank Lorimer
The New Soviet Elections - Rose Somerville
October 1917 in Russia â I. Mintz
The Pattern of Soviet Power â Edgar Snow
Lenin and the Russian Revolution â Christopher Hill
We Didnât Ask Utopia, A Quaker Family in Soviet Russia â Harry and Rebecca Timbres
Do you happen to have reliable sources on the DPRK and their history? I would like to learn about them from a non-USA perspective but Iâm not sure where to start.
books:
Book recommendations about Korea from the Twitter account @stopTHAAD, a Korean nationalist and proletarian feminist.
also
Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 by Suzy Kim
In North Korea: First Eyewitness Report by Anna Louise Strong
non books:
Important sources about the DPRK (North Korea) aiming to debunk the endless stream of imperialist propaganda from the bourgeois media used t
Part of the problem with interpreting Soviet history properly, is that nowadays there are Russian academics who accept the US Cold War disin
The mythology of Red Army mass rapes in Berlin (and elsewhere throughout Germany) was slow to development in the post-WWII anti-Soviet climate. Even in 1945, as the Soviets and US collaborated to secure and rebuild a defeated Germany, Western generated rumours were being spread of the Red Army committing between 20,000 and 150,000 rapes throughout Germany (not just Berlin). As there was no documented evidence surrounding these rumours, no mainstream historian took them seriously (although the Western far-right ideologues continued to espouse Goebbelsâ ahistorical ramblings). This changed with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 1992, two (bourgeois) German feminists â named , Helke Zander and Barbara Yor â published a book entitled âLiberators and Liberatedâ, within which they ahistorically stated that the Red Army had committed 2 million rapes throughout Germany during the closing months of WWII. This was a dramatic reworking of Goebbelsâ main anti-Soviet idea, and a massive increase in supposed âvictimsâ, but a logical assumption of how these âauthorsâ arrived at this number reveals the fallacy of their argument. This incorrect number was arrived at using the following flawed methodology. Zander and Yor focused on a single Berlin Hospital for the years 1945-1946, and assessed the births that occurred there. For both years it was reported that around 500 babies were born respectively, with 15-20 fathers being recorded as âRussianâ. In two or three cases it was reported that the pregnancy was caused by rape. These two âauthorsâ then ignored the fact that the vast majority of pregnancies were consensual, and assumed that ALL were the product of rape. They then presented Goebbelsâ Nazi German propaganda of the Red Army raping all German women between the ages of 8-80 years, and concocted the arbitrary figure of â2 millionâ as an âestimateâ of supposed rapes committed throughout the Soviet occupied areas of Germany. (These two âauthorsâ, incidentally, remain âsilentâ about the well documented rapes carried-out in Germany by US and British troops). However, even after this highly unreliable book was published, the idea of â2 millionâ rapes did not gain much traction until the British historian Anthony Beevor published his âFall of Berlinâ in 2002, within which he repeats without question the research of Zander and Yor, and perpetuates the anti-Soviet rhetoric of Goebbelsâ Nazi German propaganda. This is the history behind how the Red Army was misrepresented by Nazi Germany and modern German and British revisionist âhistoriansâ sympathetic to the political rightwing.
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, German people have been tired of having to repent for the holocaust and destruction they brought to the world during the 1930âs and 1940âs. They have found solace in a type of fiction made fact, that demonises the USSR and equates Stalin with Hitler. This alternative history has gained a certain credence through the decisions of endorsement made by various European organisations, and of course, the European Parliament. Coupled with the US anti-Soviet (and now âanti-Russianâ) position, the burden of âguiltâ for the appalling crimes of WWII is being shifted from Germany to Russia. An attempt is being made to make the Russian people take the blame for the crimes committed by the Nazi German regime. People like Zander, Yor and Beevor are pursuing a typical Western bias against Russia and against Soviet history. This may be viewed as a form of anti-Slavic racism. [...] Considering the crimes committed by the Nazi Germans within the USSR, the defeated German citizens were treated very well. Did rapes happen? Yes â but on a very small-scale. This was considered a highly âimmoralâ crime within the Red Army, with those responsible often being tried and executed, but the incidence was very low, certainly far lower than the rapes committed by US or British troops in Germany. [...]
Front commanders were responsible for the ideological education of the Red Army soldiers, although guidance was also often issued by the Soviet Government. The point is that leaflets and lectures were given explaining that the German working class people needed to be liberated from the bourgeois fascist Nazi regime, and that it was the Nazi elite themselves that were ultimately responsible, and not the ordinary German people. It was made clear to every Red Army soldier that it was highly expected that sections of the German population might well support the Soviets, and that everything possible must be done to facilitate this eventuality. Regardless of official communiques from the Soviet Government in Moscow â front commanders had to strictly follow the âinternationalistâ ideology of Marxist-Leninism. What the West has to ignore when propagating the âmass rapeâ lies about the Red Army, is the numerous reports from former German soldiers who stated clearly how well-behaved the Soviet soldiers were, particularly toward the German children. Yes â it is reported that within a number of political lectures a certain portion of the Soviet soldiers âquestionedâ the orders to be âkindâ, virtually all Red Army soldiers did follow these directions (with the exception of a few). This is remarkable considering the death and destruction caused in the USSR by the Hitlerite forces. [...]
What is little known today, is how German civilians fled in terror from the British and US Armies that advanced into Western Germany. Western atrocities against the German population is a subject for another topic â but the idea that Germans âinstinctivelyâ headed to the Western Allies is a myth. Soviet troops treated German women (and girls) with respect and did not even visit prostitutes (an act looked down upon by the Soviet officers). German civilians often arrived in the Soviet Zone of Occupation with tales of all kinds of abuse suffered at the hands of the Western Allies. Evidence suggests that US soldiers carried âgang rapesâ of German girls and women â usually accompanied by much violence. The US High Command turned a blind eye to these mass rapes, and would only occasionally punish a âBlackâ soldier â despite most US rapes perpetuated by âWhiteâ Americans. [...]
What these distorters of history continuously omit is the truly horrific fate of Soviet women and the mass rape and abuse that they suffered at the hands of Nazi German troops and other Axis forces. It is the suffering of Soviet women that is being written-out of history, being replaced by the myth of the suffering of Nazi German women. This is exactly the result that Joseph Goebbels wanted and expected through his basic manipulation techniques. Black becomes white, up becomes down, and good becomes bad, etc. [...]
This all hinges on the Soviet Victory on May 9th, 1945, over the forces of Nazi German fascism. This victory by the Red Army had and continues to have immense historical impact upon world history. The Red Army brought men and women together from all over the Soviet Union and Russia, and served as a world-wide anti-fascist inspiration. The Nazi Germans tried to stop the Red Army on every level (including the use of anti-Soviet propaganda) but this rightwing effort failed. Where Goebbels has been successful is that his distorted thinking has been kept alive and developed by the US and its European Allies between 1945 and the present day. Not only did the USSR build a progressive Socialist society, but its victory over Nazi German fascism proved the superiority of its socio-economic structure even though warfare was not the primary focus of its existence. Building a peaceful world premised upon scientific development was the true purpose of the Soviet regime, but as these exposed the Western, capitalist system as being inherently inferior and of no developmental use for the working class, the enemies of Socialism must attack and destroy the true purpose of the USSR and replace it with a degenerate mirage.
1. Most important government sites and base resources by Siwolism
2. Documentaries
3. Debunking common myths by Dr. Suzy Kim. Her book*** (most important resource here for beginners) about the North Korean revolution in 1945-50.
4. Atrocity Fab
5. Historical context about Juche (you can also read more about Juche from the works of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un in naenara)
6. Cities in the DPRK
If you are a beginner, you should check these resources out and make it a priority to get a good understanding of the material conditions leading to and after the Korean War, which is the focal point of Korean history.
Most basic things you should aim to get at least a rudimentary understanding of (Suzy Kim's book is a great resource to learn about most of the historical stuff and present stuff can be learned from kcna and other .kp sites):
Japanese occupation of Korea
Korean resistance. Kim Il Sung came from a family of independence fighters and was a guerrilla leader in the struggle against Japanese imperialism.
Events after Korean de facto independence after the surrender of Japan in 1945.
US Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) & the creation of the colony called ROK. And then soon, the creation of Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Events and Outcomes of Korean War.
Adoption of Juche. Reconstruction. How DPRK became a leader among the third world.
UN sanctions and how they led to the Arduous March.
Rural development and infrastructure development projects in current DPRK.
But it was with the second war in Chechnya starting in summer 1999 that American Russophobes found a more popular and less academic cause. For two years preceding the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, experts and journalists close to the anti-Russian lobby in Washington denounced without respite Russian âoppressionâ and the âatrocitiesâ committed by the Russian army in Chechnya. The election to the presidency of Vladimir Putin, billed as a former KGB officer, obviously fueled their arguments. (They did exactly the same in Syriaâs proxy war with the so-called moderate rebels, trying to portray the Al-Qaida jihadists and other Salafist warriors as freedom and democracy fighters against Assad the âbutcherâ.)
But when Russia offered her services to President Bush to fight terrorism after 9/11, the attacks against Russia were toned down for a few months, especially as Russia had let the United States and NATO invade Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. But they resumed with a vengeance when, in 2003, Russia refused to let the war against terrorism degenerate into an invasion of Iraq under the fallacious pretext of Saddam Husseinâs weapons of massive destruction. The arrest of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky shortly before he was to sell a majority of shares of his Yukos oil company to the Texan ExxonMobil group thoroughly upset the anti-Russian lobby, historically close to American petroleum interests.
American Russophobesâ infatuation with the Chechen cause is in reality a wink at history when we remember the passion the English had for the Circassian cause in the 19th century. [...] Like the English with the Circassians in the 19th century, the anti-Russian American lobby defended the independence of Chechnya by supporting former president Aslan Maskhadov who had dissolved parliament and imposed Sharia law while jihadist warlord Shamil Basayev invited Al-Qaida representatives to Chechnya to organize the rebel troops and supervise the billeting of hundreds of foreign jihadists. It should be noted that the present Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, has rebuilt Grozny and has applied a sui generis sharia with Moscow approval.
As if by magic, none of the pro-Western experts and journalists who criticized the Kremlin for its policy and the atrocities committed in Chechnya made the link between Chechen Islamists and Al-Qaida after 9/11 or protested against the coalition bombings in Afghanistan or the tortures inflicted on presumed terrorists jailed in GuantĂĄnamo, even when some of them were found innocent. The personalities that wrote books on Russian atrocities in Chechnya have never written books on Allied atrocities in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And yet, in both cases, it concerned the same Islamists.
I'm really confused on what to think about China, I know there's a lot of reactionaries especially neolibs that lie about the country and misrepresent the ways that it functions in order to do so.
Do you have any resources to learn about China? Admittedly, I struggle to read long books. But I do my best because of how nessicary it is. I want to understand how it functions in order to dispell myths around it when discussing the merits of socialism. And I want to know if modern day China should even be mentioned in the discussion of it.
Here's the three books I recommend everyone on China and Chinese socialism:
Why the World Needs China, Kyle Ferrana, 2024
The East Is Still Red, Carlos Martinez, 2023
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners, Roland Boer, 2021
if you want to learn about russian (and other post soviet republics) history without western russophobic narratives i recommend to start with this soviet book.
Once you start noticing how the incapacity to handle discomfort affects how people live their lives it's actually pretty shocking how it ruins pretty much every conceivable aspect of existence. Interpersonal relationships, romantic and platonic. Career and education opportunities. Your politics Your willingness to go anywhere. The kind of food you eat. The kind of art you expose yourself to and your ability to read it. It's never just one thing, it touches everything, and once you notice it it's like suddenly being able to see germs or something. Just this horrific catastrophe people look at you askance for screaming about. As I grow older and see what became of my friends and peers who could not learn to handle discomfort, the more I'm like. This is a genuine societal issue
2087
stormborns
yousharknotpass
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
