this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2026
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The gulags were not fascist torture camps. Many of them were barely even prisons, like they were towns where people could move around freely and even go to the theater. They were definitely work camps, where people repaid their debts to society, and the ones for political prisoners had heavy reeducation programs. They were successful, too. Many of the people who were imprisoned for anti-communist/fascist activity became committed socialists by the time of their release (not surprising given the logical nature of Marxism).
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about gulags, but when I say Musk belongs in one, it’s because he needs to work to repay all the damage he has done and if possible he needs to be re-educated. I don’t believe in prisons as punishment. I also don’t believe in capital punishment for people like Musk.
Stalin's purges must have been an educational tool as well then.
Soviet archival evidence shows that the purges were democratically initiated by the party at large and were initially very popular due to the real problem of capitalist sabotage They got worse when the NKVD became overzealous and stepped beyond the bounds that were given them. The evidence shows that Stalin actually spent more time trying to reign in the excesses, but was often unsuccessful largely due to the weakness of the Soviet state that was recovering from a brutal civil war.
Of course, the purges were very excessive and rightly considered one of the big mistakes of the Stalin era, but the idea that they were his is ahistorical.
No dude, Stalin was a facist at heart and only used communism to further his agenda. He killed anyone who he felt threatened his power and with paranoia. Idk where you get the idea that he was trying to reign in the purges. He wasn't. Doctor's Plot, the red purge, holodomor, his hatred of Jews, there's way too much. Everyone was happy to see him gone, at least secretly (refer to the secret speech). He had terrorised all of USSR.
While the politburo did sign off on the purges (never said they weren't complicit) it was NOT a democratic process. You need representation of voters there.
This is almost entirely anti-communist propaganda. Don’t believe the capitalists when they talk about socialism. They lie, distort and exaggerate.
You're focused on the "infrastructure" part of "forced infrastructure " and not the more important forced part.
I dislike your eagerness to accept all that bullshit you just said.
People have a fond outlook of what the USSR was like. They neglect to see that they were an authoritarian society with a single party in charge which was willing to do anything to remain in power.
Gulags were horrible places on all accounts.
That wasn't real communism. Just an ideal hijacked by meglomaniacs.
Well, I dislike the propaganda that capitalists force down most of our throats. I like looking at the actual historical record instead.