“Purging” normally meant “expulsion from Party membership” and carried no actual punishment. For criminals who were purged, that also included jail time or even execution. The myth that everyone purged was executed comes from the Black Book of Communism,

Your words. So you agree the great purge occured… so how are you going to explain how 1 million executions were justified and how many more does it need to be to stop being mythical?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge

Cant wait to see how you hand wave this one away.

You do know “purging” wasnt being sent off to a happy little farm, right?

I said purging opposition is a facist purge. And can you really say “citizens” support it when elections were limited by choices preapprpved by the communist party? Even if it were supported by the majority… then that simply makes them no better than the nazis purging their population. Do you support genocide? It sounds a lot like you support genocide.

Im tired of these wasted arguments. I agree the soviets were not facists in the strictest sense. But my entire point is the result of the soviet model lead to the exact same autocracy authoritarian government that denied their civilians right to their own voices.

Lets see here… the definition of facism

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

authoritarian: check

dictatorial leader: check

militarism: check

forcible suppression of opposition: check

subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation: check

strong regimentation of society and the economy: check

It may claim to be a turkey, but its seems to be clucking a lot like a chicken.

Sounds a lot like facism in a trench coat.

Who is the proletariat but people? What if they wanted any of those things? Their ideas are qlworthless because they dont fit your very narrow view? You are no better than the US republicans who label everyone they dont like as “communists”.

I mean, im not the one trying to make a claim that they were democratic while forbiding any ideology that opposes theirs. The mental gymnastics involved here could be the next Olympic event.

As I said, the argument was if the USSR was autocratic. Noone disagrees rather or not they were socialists nor they make offical statments they intended on working toward communism.

But its very clear that the leadership was very autocratic and anti-democractic and only accepted undying loyalty.

Sure…sure… theres democracy… so as long you align with the party’s ideology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purges_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union

The argument was rather or not the USSR was an Autocracy. If people cant even choose to leave on their own volition unless they get approved by the single party, which ultimately lead by a dictator… i dont even know what else could be an autocracy. Also, doesnt sound very communist, since the state is forcing a person’s means of production to remain in the state’s power.

I used germany as an example since it was the most extreme example of the USSR restricting emigration.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emigration_from_the_Eastern_Bloc in general, the USSR prevented all emigration except under special circumstances.

Youre totally right. west germany built a wall to keep people from running away to the communism utopia next door. Wait a minute…

“Sorry boss, but the text train delayed us 5 seconds and causes us to lose millionsnof dollars” Boss: “The wat?”

My 2016 doesnt have a modem. It has a Sirus radio…but sirus operates one way and has no way to communicate back.

I had a 1996 grand cheerokee… great vehicle except for everything chrysler hands touched. (It was a near finished design from AMC).