# I am a Communist. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 21, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964 "2010-08-21T09:21:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/241 "2010-08-24T20:26:01Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > And yet, he openly criticized the government, served time for it, criticized it again, served more time, criticized it again, got exiled. Anyone else notice the curious absence of any shooting? If we were as bloodthirsty and trigger-happy as he alleged, how is it that we let the worst and most prolific critic get away? Once he got famous enough, it would have been even more embarrassing to kill him. I love this argument: “Look, the Soviets weren’t so bad! They didn’t KILL Solzhenitsyn! The just locked him up for years! And he deserved it … for criticizing the Soviet state.” The minor level of criticism you’ve leveled at the United States in this thread would have been sufficient to get you shipped off the the gulag if uttered about the Soviet government in its darkest days. And yet no one is coming knocking at your door. Communism is such a fragile hot-house flower that it can’t endure direct and open public criticism of its principles or actions. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/242 "2010-08-24T20:50:54Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I love the bit about the mistake of massive cultivation of unsuitable crops. This is exactly the sort of foolish inefficiency that command economies are famous for. Like Khrushchev’s "[Virgin Lands" fiasco](http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/khrushchev-nikita.htm), or Mao’s idiotic [attempt](http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-58726302/rural-industrialization-china-backyard.html) to put forges into people’s back yards. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/243 "2010-08-24T20:55:31Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > > [@Muffin](#): > > > > …Or was it Il-sung? 1,600,000…Or was it Jong-il who prefers to let his people starve rather than give up on communism? > > Pedantic nitpick: In Korea, the family name comes first, so these men should be called “Kim”, since that’s their surname. Correct. Thanks for pointing this out. > [@Lemur866](#): > > Also, Solzhenitsyn was sent to the gulags because he was a POW during WWII. Anyone who allowed himself to be captured by the Germans rather than fighting to the death was considered a traitor by Stalin, and all the Russian POWs liberated from Nazi slave-labor camps were sent straight into Soviet slave-labor camps. To the best of my knowledge, he wast not one of those. Everything I have come across over the years indicates that he was in still fighting at the time, but got nicked by the censors for writing a letters to a friend that were critical of Stalin. Here are some cites that support this. The first one is out of the horse’s mouth. The second is from the usually reputable BBC. The third is from Russia’s primary funded broadcaster. The fourth is good old Wiki, where I expect such a historical difference would show up. Autobiography: [http://nobelprize.org/nobel\_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-autobio.html](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-autobio.html) > [@](#): > > In 1941, a few days before the outbreak of the war, I graduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at Rostov University. At the beginning of the war, owing to weak health, I was detailed to serve as a driver of horsedrawn vehicles during the winter of 1941-1942. Later, because of my mathematical knowledge, I was transferred to an artillery school, from which, after a crash course, I passed out in November 1942. Immediately after this I was put in command of an artillery-position-finding company, and in this capacity, served, without a break, right in the front line until I was arrested in February 1945. This happened in East Prussia, a region which is linked with my destiny in a remarkable way. As early as 1937, as a first-year student, I chose to write a descriptive essay on “The Samsonov Disaster” of 1914 in East Prussia and studied material on this; and in 1945 I myself went to this area (at the time of writing, autumn 1970, the book August 1914 has just been completed). > > I was arrested on the grounds of what the censorship had found during the years 1944-45 in my correspondence with a school friend, mainly because of certain disrespectful remarks about Stalin, although we referred to him in disguised terms. As a further basis for the “charge”, there were used the drafts of stories and reflections which had been found in my map case. These, however, were not sufficient for a “prosecution”, and in July 1945 I was “sentenced” in my absence, in accordance with a procedure then frequently applied, after a resolution by the OSO (the Special Committee of the NKVD), to eight years in a detention camp (at that time this was considered a mild sentence). BBC obit.: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7540038.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7540038.stm) > [@](#): > > Solzhenitsyn served as a Soviet artillery officer in World War II and was decorated for his courage but in 1945 was denounced for criticising Stalin in a letter. > > He spent the next eight years in the Soviet prison system, or Gulag, before being internally exiled to Kazakhstan, where he was successfully treated for stomach cancer. Russia’s state television Russia Today/RT: [http://rt.com/Russia\_Now/Russiapedia/Those\_Russians/saleksandr-solzhenitsyn-.html?fullstory](http://rt.com/Russia_Now/Russiapedia/Those_Russians/saleksandr-solzhenitsyn-.html?fullstory) > [@](#): > > After graduating in 1941, just a few days before the beginning of World War II, Solzhenitsyn was given a job as a physics teacher at the First Secondary School of Morozovka village in his home region of Rostov. His tenure in this position was cut short due to the war, and in October 1941, he found himself assigned to be the driver of horse-drawn vehicles for the Red Army, a job that he would hold throughout the following winter. But Solzhenitzyn’s mathematical education played a role in shaping his destiny. Because of his background in mathematics, he was transferred to an artillery school and completed an abridged artillery training program in November 1942. After his commissioning, he served for two weeks in the Gorky region before being made commander of a reconnaissance artillery battery on the Leningrad front. He served continuously until 1945, always on the front - in the battle of Kursk, in Poland and in East Prussia. Promoted to captain, Solzhenitsyn received the Order of the Patriotic War Class II and the Order of the Red Star. > > During the war, between 1944 and 1945, Solzhenitsyn had corresponded with a school friend Vitkevich, criticizing Stalin but referring to him under a pseudonym. Nonetheless, Captain Solzhenitsyn was arrested. Solzhenitsyn was beaten and interrogated at Lubyanka prison in Moscow, and was sentenced in absentia, a common practice for the Soviet government, to eight years of hard labor on 7 July 1945. Wiki: [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn#WWII) > [@](#): > > WWII > During World War II Solzhenitsyn served as the commander of a sound-ranging battery in the Red Army,[12] was involved in major action at the front, and twice decorated. A series of writings published late in his life, including the early uncompleted novel Love the Revolution!, chronicle his WWII experience and his growing doubts about the moral foundations of the Soviet regime.[13] > > Imprisonment > In February 1945, while serving in East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn was arrested for writing derogatory comments in letters to a friend, Nikolai Vitkevich,[14] about the conduct of the war by Joseph Stalin, whom he called “Usatiy” (“one with mustachios,”)[15] “Khozyain” (“the master”), and “Balabos”, (Odessa Yiddish for “the master”).[16] He was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda under Article 58 paragraph 10 of the Soviet criminal code, and of “founding a hostile organization” under paragraph 11.[17] Solzhenitsyn was taken to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow, where he was beaten and interrogated. On July 7, 1945, he was sentenced in his absence by Special Council of the NKVD to an eight-year term in a labor camp. This was the normal sentence for most crimes under Article 58 at the time.[18] ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/244 "2010-08-24T21:13:34Z")
Thanks Muffin, looks like my memory was wrong. Note that the Gulags weren’t death camps designed on purpose to kill the prisoners, but were rather literal slave-labor camps. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/245 "2010-08-24T21:21:33Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Thanks Muffin, looks like my memory was wrong. > > Note that the Gulags weren’t death camps designed on purpose to kill the prisoners, but were rather literal slave-labor camps. Yes. And the conditons were so often severe that there was a significantly higher death rate than the general public, despite the need to keep the prisoners alive to work on public projects. Wiki: [Gulag - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag#Conditions) > [@](#): > > Mortality in GULAG camps in 1934-40 was 4-6 times higher than average in Russia. The estimated total number of those who died in imprisonment in 1930-1953 is 1.76 million, about half of which occurred between 1941-1943 following the German invasion.[50][51] If prisoner deaths from labor colonies and special settlements are included, the death toll rises to 2,749,163, although the historian who compiled this estimate (J. Otto Pohl) stresses that it is incomplete, and doesn’t cover all prisoner categories for every year.[11][52] Other scholars have stressed that internal discrepancies in archival material suggests that the NKVD Gulag data are seriously incomplete.[9] ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/246 "2010-08-24T21:43:21Z")
> [@](#): > > we gave them full support, no strings attached. Of many funny things in this thread this is the funniest. You are comedy gold. Best whoosh ever. ---
**Author:** ![mutantmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@mutantmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mutantmoose)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/247 "2010-08-24T22:06:39Z")
I don’t get the single-minded determination to have a one party state (with all the problems that entails). Why not have a multi-party system but require that all the parties must be communist in nature? You could have a hard left party, an ultra hard left party and so on and they could fight out elections every few years in the normal way. This would at least remove the obvious danger of some lunatic coming to power and then gathering a cadres around him so that he cannot be removed without a revolution. The only justification you’ve given so far is this: > [@](#): > > The systems are not set up to handle vastly different political parties, as the transition period would tear the country apart. Think of a capitalist and socialist party changing power every five years… That means that everything is privatized, then nationalized five years later, then privatized five years later, ad nauseum. This is nobody’s best interests Fine, so have only socialist parties. Problem solved. You can still have elections though to get rid of the specific people in power even if you just replace them with different people with similar ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/248 "2010-08-25T03:52:59Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > > [@Ravenman](#): > > > > Who did you vote for in the latest elections? > > Can’t say I’m impressed by his performance so far… I understand that breaking promises is a popular past-time among US politicians, but Obama takes it to a new extreme. I can’t help but notice that the torture camps are still operating at full steam, the illegal occupation of Afghanistan is actually escalating, and we still don’t have a meaningful healthcare system. That’s the one good thing about communism: no torture camps! ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/249 "2010-08-25T06:40:54Z")
> [@mutantmoose](#): > > I don’t get the single-minded determination to have a one party state (with all the problems that entails). Why not have a multi-party system but require that all the parties must be communist in nature? > > You could have a hard left party, an ultra hard left party and so on and they could fight out elections every few years in the normal way. This would at least remove the obvious danger of some lunatic coming to power and then gathering a cadres around him so that he cannot be removed without a revolution. > > The only justification you’ve given so far is this: > > > [@](#): > > > > The systems are not set up to handle vastly different political parties, as the transition period would tear the country apart. Think of a capitalist and socialist party changing power every five years… That means that everything is privatized, then nationalized five years later, then privatized five years later, ad nauseum. This is nobody’s best interests > > Fine, so have only socialist parties. Problem solved. You can still have elections though to get rid of the specific people in power even if you just replace them with different people with similar ideas. Hmmm… Alright, I guess I could accept that setup. As long as no right-wingers can come to power and screw things up for everybody else, I would acquiesce to a multi-party democracy. The chief difficulty would be screening out unsuitable parties and individual candidates (i.e. those only masquerading as socialists), but that should be doable. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/250 "2010-08-25T09:02:26Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > Hmmm… Alright, I guess I could accept that setup. As long as no right-wingers can come to power and screw things up for everybody else, I would acquiesce to a multi-party democracy. The chief difficulty would be screening out unsuitable parties and individual candidates (i.e. those only masquerading as socialists), but that should be doable. Doable, yeah, you’ll do them all right – right up against the wall. Look, either you have a democracy – rule by the people – or you do not. You cannot have a democracy if you only permit one narrow party to participate in the electoral process. Taking one narrow party and dividing it into a few subsets while still outlawing all other parties is really no different, and is not a democracy at all. If you have a democracy, either your comminist party will get elected in elections against other parties, or it will not. It really is that simple. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/251 "2010-08-25T13:49:59Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Thanks Muffin, looks like my memory was wrong. > > Note that the Gulags weren’t death camps designed on purpose to kill the prisoners, but were rather literal slave-labor camps. Tell that to the prisoners of Magadan (Eastern Siberia)-they were fed just enough rations to allow them to work for 9-12 months-they died after a year, so as to free up space for MORE political prisoners. Solzhynitsyn detailed this in his “Gulag Archipelago”. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/252 "2010-08-25T14:56:24Z")
I think that the USSR under Stalin was the most successful example of communism ever. And that’s really, really sad. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/253 "2010-08-25T16:45:34Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Look, either you have a democracy – rule by the people – or you do not. You cannot have a democracy if you only permit one narrow party to participate in the electoral process. Taking one narrow party and dividing it into a few subsets while still outlawing all other parties is really no different, and is not a democracy at all. If you have a democracy, either your comminist party will get elected in elections against other parties, or it will not. It really is that simple. So, by this logic, you admit that the US is not a democracy? After all, your two parties are just “subsets” of a narrow capitalistic philosophy. Your system is set up in such a way (including but not limited to a winner-take-all election process, media coverage rules, and federal funding regulations) as to make it functionally impossible for a third party to win. Hence, people are deprived of their right to elect an actual left party. How do you justify this, given your professed love of democracy? Wait, let me guess: it is alright for capitalists to do it, but not for us socialists… ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/254 "2010-08-25T16:51:22Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > > [@Lemur866](#): > > > > Thanks Muffin, looks like my memory was wrong. > > > > Note that the Gulags weren’t death camps designed on purpose to kill the prisoners, but were rather literal slave-labor camps. > > Tell that to the prisoners of Magadan (Eastern Siberia)-they were fed just enough rations to allow them to work for 9-12 months-they died after a year, so as to free up space for MORE political prisoners. > Solzhynitsyn detailed this in his “Gulag Archipelago”. Of course, it goes without saying that Solzhenitsyn, who made his fame and fortune criticizing socialism, was a perfectly neutral and trustworthy source of information regarding Soviet labor camps. And, naturally, the fact that he held no political power and had no access to anything but anecdotal information regarding said labor camps, does not preclude him from being an expert in the field. This is akin to saying, “Obama is definitely a Muslim Communist that was born in Kenya. It is all detailed in a prominent tea-party spokesman’s manuscript.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/255 "2010-08-25T16:55:48Z")
First, it is not my system. I am Canadian. We have a parliamentary system, and coverage of the political spectrum through many parties, including Rhinos, Communists, and Yogic Flyers. Second, there is nothing in the USA to stand in the way of a party rising in popularity and coming into power. All it has to do is put forward a platform that is more appealing to the public. Popular support, and donations to fund the effort, flow out of that. So there you are, with your platform of: 1. Lose your right to vote; 2. Lose your right to free speech; 3. Lose your economic well being; 4. Stand up against the wall and get shot. Sorry, Commissar, but I don’t think you are going to get many votes. You will lose, not because of barriers to entry for new political parties in the USA, but because what you offer has been tested repeatedly in other nations, and failed miserably. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/256 "2010-08-25T16:59:04Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > Of course, it goes without saying that Solzhenitsyn, who made his fame and fortune criticizing socialism, was a perfectly neutral and trustworthy source of information regarding Soviet labor camps. And, naturally, the fact that he held no political power and had no access to anything but anecdotal information regarding said labor camps, does not preclude him from being an expert in the field. > > This is akin to saying, “Obama is definitely a Muslim Communist that was born in Kenya. It is all detailed in a prominent tea-party spokesman’s manuscript.” I don’t think anyone would seriously claim that Solzhenitsyn is a perfectly neutral and trustworthy source, for the good and sufficient reason that no such source exists. However, it’s a matter of historical record that Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned in the gulag system, and his accounts of it jive with those of others who were incarcerated there. This gives his claims regarding the gulag a high (though not perfect) degree of credibility. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/257 "2010-08-25T17:26:26Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > First, it is not my system. I am Canadian. We have a parliamentary system, and coverage of the political spectrum through many parties, including Rhinos, Communists, and Yogic Flyers. > > Second, there is nothing in the USA to stand in the way of a party rising in popularity and coming into power. All it has to do is put forward a platform that is more appealing to the public. Popular support, and donations to fund the effort, flow out of that. > > So there you are, with your platform of: > > 1. Lose your right to vote; > 2. Lose your right to free speech; > 3. Lose your economic well being; > 4. Stand up against the wall and get shot. > > Sorry, Commissar, but I don’t think you are going to get many votes. You will lose, not because of barriers to entry for new political parties in the USA, but because what you offer has been tested repeatedly in other nations, and failed miserably. I agree that **Comissar** is way out there - with his support of the Burmese junta in particular - but he _has_ taken pains to emphasize that he supports freedom of speech, even speech (like Solzhenitsyn’s) that he detests. He may not be sincere in this - his tolerance of the junta, for one, calls his sincerity into question - but it’s not correct to say that the abolition of free speech is part of his publicly stated platform. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/258 "2010-08-25T17:30:30Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > > [@ralph124c](#): > > > > Tell that to the prisoners of Magadan (Eastern Siberia)-they were fed just enough rations to allow them to work for 9-12 months-they died after a year, so as to free up space for MORE political prisoners. > > Solzhynitsyn detailed this in his “Gulag Archipelago”. > > Of course, it goes without saying that Solzhenitsyn, who made his fame and fortune criticizing socialism, was a perfectly neutral and trustworthy source of information regarding Soviet labor camps. And, naturally, the fact that he held no political power and had no access to anything but anecdotal information regarding said labor camps, does not preclude him from being an expert in the field. > > This is akin to saying, “Obama is definitely a Muslim Communist that was born in Kenya. It is all detailed in a prominent tea-party spokesman’s manuscript.” You don’t accept the accounts of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Robert Conquest, Yevgenia Ginzburg, Anne Applebaum, Adam Hochschild, George Bien, Michael Solomon, Ayyub Baghirov, Varlam Shalamov, Vyacheslav Palman, Vadim Kozin, and Nikolai Getman? You don’t accept the conclusion of historian Roy Medvedev that the conditions in Kolyma were comparable to Auschwitz? You don’t accept the rationale behind the Russian government erecting the Mask of Sorrow monument in Magadan? You do a great dishonour to the half a million or more people who died in the Kolyma slave labour camps near Magadan. Shame on you. > **[Kolyma | Emergence of the Gulag camps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolyma#Emergence_of_the_Gulag_camps)** > > Gold and platinum were discovered in the region in the early 20th century. During the time of the USSR's industrialization (beginning with Joseph Stalin's first five-year plan, 1928–1932) the need for capital to finance economic development was great. The abundant gold resources of the area seemed tailor-made to provide this capital. A government agency Dalstroy (Дальстрой, acronym for Far North Construction Trust) was formed to organize the exploitation of the area. Prisoners were being drawn i... > **[Mask of Sorrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_Sorrow)** > > .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}59°35′30.62″N 150°48′43.65″E / 59.5918389°N 150.8121250°E / 59.5918389; 150.8121250 > The Mask of Sorrow (Russian: Маска скорби, romanized: Maska skorbi) is a monument located on a hill above Magadan, Rus... ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/259 "2010-08-25T17:57:41Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I agree that **Comissar** is way out there - with his support of the Burmese junta in particular - but he _has_ taken pains to emphasize that he supports freedom of speech, even speech (like Solzhenitsyn’s) that he detests. He may not be sincere in this - his tolerance of the junta, for one, calls his sincerity into question - but it’s not correct to say that the abolition of free speech is part of his publicly stated platform. He stated that traitors should be shot. Then he stated that Solzhenitsyn was a traitor. That publicly established his platform on free speech in no uncertain terms. It was only when you called him on it that he backpeddled. Which platform should I believe? The one that he came to the table with, or the one that he was pushed into during the discussion? The platform that he freely put forward, rather than the one he was manoeuvred into making, is the one that I believe is more truly reflective. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/260 "2010-08-25T18:17:52Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > Your system is set up in such a way (including but not limited to a winner-take-all election process, media coverage rules, and federal funding regulations) as to make it functionally impossible for a third party to win. Hence, people are deprived of their right to elect an actual left party. What typically happens in the United States is that if a third party gets large enough to threaten the dominance of the major parties, the Democrats or Republicans will shift their platform to recapture those votes. If the progressives in the U.S. got strong enough, the Democrats would move left out of self-preservation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=14)