In August 1936, the Soviet Union held the first of a series of trials of former Bolsheviks who had been accused of various crimes against the state. The first group accused were Old Bolsheviks who had been allies of Stalin at one point. They had later sided with Trotsky and been stripped of their positions. By this point Trotsky was in exile and his supporters were all in various states of disfavor. One element of the first trial was the claim that the accused were still in contact with Trotsky.
At the time, the international Left was firmly in the Bolshevik camp, as this was the first successful radical government in the world. Whatever the doctrinal difference within the international radical camp, no one could deny that the Bolsheviks had managed to take power in a large important country. As a result, radicals found a way to justify what was happening to the accused. The cause was more important than any man, so no one dared criticize what was happening.
Even when it should have been clear that the trials had little to do with the alleged crimes, radicals around the world found a way to justify what was happening in the name of solidarity. “No enemies to the left” was never a real thing in radical politics, as left-wing politics has always been defined by endless schisms and disputes among rival factions but as the show trials progressed, it became a useful way to rally support in the face of criticism from outside radicalism.
What followed, of course, was more show trials of Old Bolsheviks, who were found guilty and then shot. A few escaped death and were sent to labor camps where they were expected to die. The show trials were then followed by waves of arrests, executions, and purges of the party. No one knows for sure how many died in Stalin’s purges, but the general consensus is between seven hundred thousand and one million people were killed in the process.
There are a lot of lessons about the nature of human society to be drawn from the Bolsheviks and especially Stalin. Radicalism since the French Revolution has always been about a radical break from the past, but in every case, it turns out be a horrific replay of the worst of mankind’s past. Stalin was the extreme example of the worst Tsar, an industrial strength version of Ivan IV, rather than the leader of a revolutionary movement to usher in a radical new form of society.
Another lesson of the purges was that there is never any appeal to the humanity and compassion of the radicals. Even when Stalin purged the beloved Nikolai Bukharin, radicals found a way to justify it. Stalin’s decision to murder his old friend and most loyal Bolshevik should have been viewed as a monstrous crime that could only be committed by a monster, instead radicals found a way to explain it away. Again, the cause is bigger than any one man or group of men.
Of course, the greatest lesson of all is that when the old rules break down or are willfully destroyed, what is left is a lawless world. Once the law collapses, everyone becomes an outlaw by definition. In a world where everyone lives outside the law, the people who survive and thrive are always the most cunning and ruthless. In the case of the Bolsheviks, Stalin was not the smartest or the most persuasive, but he was the most cunning and ruthless, so he came out on top.
All of this would be ancient history if not for what we see happening in Washington with the show trials being run by the ruling junta. Calling the people in charge the Biden administration is no longer sensible as it is clear that Biden is deep in the throes of dementia and barely able to do basic things. The government is now run by a collection of people who operate in the shadows. They control things through the people appointed to various posts in the administration.
Much like Stalin’s trials, the process has moved from arresting minor figures on trumped up charges to now arresting the former president. It is not inconceivable to think they may exile Trump in order to keep him off the ballot. Of course, the viciousness and cruelty of the show trials grows worse with every turn. A judge just sentenced the leaders of the Proud Boys to decades in prison. The judge used the sentencing hearings as a chance to denounce the enemies of the party.
That is another feature of the Stalin trials that bears attention. In every one of the show trials, the judges were outlandish supporters of the party and the charges brought against the accused. These were men picked because of their uncertain status within the party, particularly with regards to Stalin. The judges in the current show trials seem to feel the same pressure, so they are making sure the cases proceed exactly as the party expects them to proceed.
Of course, the radicals in the cheering sections are following the same script as the radicals who cheered the show trials. The same people who cry salty tears over a black criminal getting shot in the commission of a crime are cheering the harsh penalties handed down to grandmothers in these show trials. The cause is more important than the rule of law and their thirst for the blood of their enemies trumps whatever sense of justice that ever existed in their souls.
The most important lesson of the Stalin years is that the terror that Stalin inflicted ended when Stalin’s life ended. At no point was he talked out of murdering people. He never had second thoughts or pangs of guilt. After his death, a letter from his old friend Bukharin was found in which Bukharin appealed to Stalin as a friend. Stalin kept it in his desk so he could read it from time to time, presumably so he could remember how he outmaneuvered even his closest friends.
Tyranny ends when the tyrant and his supporters end. That last part is the most important part of the process. When Stalin died his supporters were then purged and sidelined, with some ending up in the camps. The party leadership went through a de-Stalinization phase. The reason is the tyrant is always a symptom. It is his supporters in the cheering section who are the ultimate cause. It is only when you remove the fanatics and psychopaths that normalcy can return.
During the Napoleonic Wars, there was a British officer named Sir William Sidney Smith who was particularly good at vexing Napoleon in battle. Eventually, the French captured him and Napoleon had him put in a Paris prison. Smith was able to escape with the help of royalist enemies of Napoleon. In the prison was found a shingle on which he had written a letter. In the letter Smith quoted a passage from Rousseau that should be inspiration for all political prisoners
“Fortune’s wheel makes strange revolutions, it must be confessed; but for the term revolution to be applicable, the turn of the wheel must be complete. You are today as high as you can be. Very well. I envy not your good fortune, for mine is better still. I am as low in the career of ambition as a man can well descend; so that, let this capricious dame, fortune, turn her wheel ever so little–I must necessarily mount, for the same reason you must descend.”
The men and women rotting in dungeons at the hands of the regime are in the very condition of Sir William Sidney Smith. They are in prison because they vex the regime, not because they are outlaws. In a general sense, all of us are in the same condition, just free to talk around until another example is needed. Like Sir William Sidney Smith, fortunes wheel will turn, and we will rise the regime shall fall. Those who cheered the loudest for the show trials will be remembered the most.
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they’re known for helping people convicted of more serious offenses (i.e. DP or life in prison type sentences) but maybe the innocence project needs to get into these cases?
Oh, I am quite sure that these fundamental leftists are in sympathy with the incarcerations of these MAGA minions of BOM. There is no balm forthcoming from that Giliad.
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Z: “What followed, of course, was more show trials of Old Bolsheviks, who were found guilty and then shot. A few escaped death and were sent to labor camps where they were expected to die. The show trials were then followed by waves of arrests, executions, and purges of the party. No one knows for sure how many died in Stalin’s purges, but the general consensus is between seven hundred thousand and one million people were killed in the process.”
So after Saint Joseph’s intervention, the world had about a million FEWER Bolsheviks than before?
Who/Whom?
What’s not to like here?
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Yeah – there is the argument that guys like Stalin and Cromwell are in some sense the good guys of the story. If you’re caught in a Girardian spiral that ends with a war of all against all, then the solution is literally the Devil’s: unite the people against a common class of scapegoats and murder the scapegoats.
In that reading, Stalin is the one who prevented the complete obliteration of the Russian people. Like someone said one time, “It is better that one [million men] die than that the entire nation should perish.”
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This is a very good piece Z!
The only question I have is: Who is our current day Stalin? I find it hard to believe the decrepit geezer is running anything so who must pass on so that the purging of the “cheering section” can progress?
Because if there is one thing I am waiting for… its the purging of the supporters.
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Tyrants are a reflection of the culture that produces them. Russia has always favored the strong leader. Russian culture is steeped in this ideal. He did not pick the name “Stalin” by accident. He knew the Russian character and he knew it would add to his image as a strong leader.
America is a different culture so we will get a tyranny that reflects our culture. Our is a a Judeo-Puritan tyranny, which brings its own unique qualities like sanctimony and moral hectoring. We do not get a Stalin, we get a Jonathan Edwards surrounded by a chorus of rabbis.
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That’s a good take Z, I was going to ask the question before Bluebeard beat me to it.
Seems like us coming from an English foundation our Stalin is going to indeed look more like Jonathan Edwards, or Cromwell in a dress as it’s looking now.
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Honest position, I understand the Puritan part less the more I think about it. Certainly true in the past (Reconstruction, Prohibition, maybe even eugenics), and I don’t dismiss the idea, but the morality today is immoral. Getting down in the mud instead of a purity spiral. Inverted, not, you know, puritanical.
Again, not dismissing it, but can people become their opposite and still be themselves? Anyway, just a rather inchoate sense I’ve got. What do I know?
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It’s not the actual tenets of their morality, it’s the ferocity with which they impose it
The morality used to be Christian, but today they’ve eliminated the Christianity, yet the moralizing continues. It wasn’t about Christianity; it was about being the Ones Who Know and pushing around all the Others Who Don’t.
Yes, and with everyone chanting “Democracy! Democracy! Democracy!”
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Ugh.
Perhaps let us look at the culture producing our would-be tyrants, Z: Queers. Drug addicts. Geriatric geezers. Jews. Trannies. Welfare slobs. Black women. Crime families. These idiots took a functional superpower of a nation and are running it into the ground before our eyes. The military can no longer recruit or retain talent. Major cities are collapsing and prolapsing under their rule. These guys cannot even handle a prosperous and orderly country.
I am not fond of this comparison. Our clowns will get swept away and burned to ash the second America has to get serious. By contrast, Uncle Joe had to build a super power from the ashes of empire. Russia was backward, illiterate and starving when Uncle Joe took power. His enemies were as bloodthirsty as he was.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that when you have to reform and radically change a country just to keep it fed with the lights on… you will need to kill an awful lot of people dedicated to keeping it freezing in the dark.
Hrrrrrrmmmm. Flip that around. Imagine that America falls as Globohomo and Clown World inevitably implode. Things are dire; people starve, black markets surge, rival factions fight to become local warlords. Further – Imagine that our intrepid Dissidents will need to rebuild a solid, secure and prosperous nation. Welp…you are going to need to eliminate all the potential sources of threat too. The queers, the swamp, the jews, the trannies, the druggies, the illegals, the vibrant blacks, the welfare scum, the activists… all these guys will destroy you if you don’t move against them.
Pretty soon, we start to look like Stalin or you-know-who. Decaying countries produce parasites that will need to be killed if the country is ever to recover…
Errr…sorry for these random farts from the outhouse. Some days it’s harder to stay focused than others.
We don’t need a Stalin, we have “the party.” The party is made up of a bunch of mini-Stalins. “The System” doesn’t allow for a single Stalin, at least not yet. At least Soviet dissidents had someone to point at and personify the state/party.
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Biden does not have dementia. I don’t know what he has because there’s definitely an ebb and flow but there are times he can talk
extremely well extemporaneously, joke around and laugh and no dementia patient ever reaches that high a level of cognizance, ever. Anyone that’s been around a lot of dementia patients knows this. I don’t know what’s going on with him but that’s not what it is
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Whatever it is, Biden’s not calling the shots.
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It is a good point and I have thought about this too. Old people tend to be foggy at times, but never completely out of and then back to being clear thinking. Also, Biden seems to have problems with spatial awareness. He gets lost in small spaces will just wander off at times. Someone noted that he is wearing special shoes to help with balance.
The thing to keep in mind is he has medical care not available to the rest of us. Jacking him full of drugs to get through a interview is not out of the question. We may only be seeing the best Biden.
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LOL, what a frighteningly hilarious notion. Spot on!
In other words, we have reached Peak Biden?
Lawd help us.
In other words, we have reached Peak Biden?
Lord, send us thy meteor.
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Sadly, peak Biden was 40 years ago when he was willing to criticize Israel and desegregation.
There is a Star Trek episode where Kirk and gang go looking for a wayward starship captain who had incorporated nazi syle governing on a planet. He thought he could use just the organizational aspects of it but it all degenerated into the usual.
They found him being drugged up to give speeches and being used by the nazi type handlers. Then doped him down again when not needed. I always think of Biden when I remember this episode.
I agree on probably not dementia but maybe hardening of the brain arteries or something differently debilitating. More so , the movement, cognizance and speech of a 90 year old.
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Yes that’s what everyone says he has drugs that other people don’t have access to. I don’t believe that there are any drugs in existence that are able to bridge the gap from his worst to his best.
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I don’t know. Old people whose minds are going do have good days and bad days. Even people with Alzheimer’s have periods of lucidity so it is not out of the question that Biden could have periods where he seems to be on the ball, maybe helped by drugs, and periods where he struggles to stay focused.
That said, his behavior is certainly out of the ordinary. This last episode where he sprinted out of the room is well outside of what we would expect from an old guy losing his marbles. On the other hand, Mitch McConnell locking up in public is also extremely bizarre. Maybe experimental drugs are the missing piece of the puzzle.
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Joe Biden is like Leonid Brezhnev at this point, but older and with better drugs than 1982. Remember that Joe had not one, but two brain aneurysms in 1988. That is what is catching up to him now. He was always monumentally stupid, but his brain took damage 35 years ago that never went away.
Biden shows plenty of signs of mid-stage dementia, but he has a large staff busy keeping him managed and medicated. Without his courtiers covering for him, he would present as a typical dementia case.
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Maybe we have to start steeling ourselves to face the eventual prospect of prison. I know that some preppers have a fantasy of retreating to a fortified homestead, and shooting it out at the end, but that’s not likely to be the case for most people, and it’s a waste of manpower. If it must be prison, being organized in advance will help things. Just as gang members find a support system of their own kind behind bars, dissidents should be a tight, supportive group who’ll look out for each other in the worst of situations.
Since you’ve mentioned the Bolsheviks, let’s not forget that many of them spent time in prisons and Siberian camps before their successful revolution. It was an experience that hardened them and they used it to recruit members to their cause, too.
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Take a lookout the latest FBI arrest.
Everyone needs to begin learning to think like an outlaw, a drug dealer, an organized crime boss. You’re an outlaw now, guys. Begin thinking like it.
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Doc Mabuse makes a great point about prison as crucible and preparatory school for counterrevolution. If I recall my Irish history, starting with Collins, all of the eventual movers and shakers in the independent Irish state were incarcerated together and had years to plan and become inured to the wet work that lay ahead of them.
I was also going to chime in that unfortunately, when Biden finally shuffles off this mortal coil, none of his supporters/handlers will be dealt with, as has been noted, he is not running the show. However this fanatical governance ends, it won’t happen with the demise of the frontman.
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In the history of America’s future, a Stalin-like figure, if any is forthcoming, would actually come from the other side.
At the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia was a poor and industrially backward country that had just suffered a disastrous butt-kicking in the First World War. The Bolsheviks, quite apart from being aligned with the fashionable intellectual currents of the times, promised bread and peace. Stalin eventually turned Russia into a military superpower and an industrial behemoth that was feared and respected around the world. There are reasons other than Marxist mythology that people might have overlooked the purges. A great many people within Russia genuinely admired Stalin, and still do.
Our ruling class, on the other hand, promises a green revolution that will plunge the world into poverty and starvation before 10% of it is implemented. They promise endless foreign wars for no recognizable national interest. They promise humiliation abroad, discord at home, and less and worse of everything. No normal person wants anything to do with them, but plenty of normal people signed on with the Bolsheviks. The current regime in America is actually more like what the Tsarist government was fairly or unfairly accused of being—bloated, out of touch, incompetent, destructive, wasteful, arbitrary, and cruel.
This would indicate that the proper analogy is not one that desires to be rid of the Stalinist tyranny, but which calls for one. In the show trials of today, it is Stalin (Trump) in the shackles, not in the judge’s seat. We live in an alternative history where the Trotskyites won.
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The closest thing that the Biden junta is those late dynasty eunuch governments. Usually near the end, when orders are given from the Forbidden City, nominally in the emperor’s name, but the emperor is only a puppet of the palace eunuchs. This is usually followed by “interesting times”. The best name for the Biden administration is “eunuch rule”
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Just shooting from the hip, but I’m kind of thinking they’d be the sort to celebrate those incarcerations ….?
oops …. this was to follow KrusKurm below, and I see JerseyJeff beat me to it anyway, while I was out moving the sprinkler ….
The whole Enrique Tarrio thing has me freaked. He wasn’t even in DC on the 6th.
This government is rogue.
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That is the entire point of the Tarrio psyop – to freak other dissidents out and keep them in line.
That is much more efficient than the use of actual physical force, which I am not sure if these characters have much stomach for.
I mean, I don’t see any potential Stalins or Pol Pots among this bunch.
Near to medium-term everything they do will be a persistent, annoying nudge, like the hysteria to take the jab, yet there will still be ways out and around for thoughtful, resourceful people.
Maybe I’m too optimistic about this point?
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Nice post, it touches on the concept of a holiness spiral.
A holiness spiral occurs when sociopathic leftists engage in a intra-leftist power struggle by virtue signaling about who can go the furthest left. They do this by signaling their support for increasingly small concentric rings of the oppressed (women, minority women, disabled minority women, etc.), and whoever is able to signal solidarity with the smallest conceivable ring ends up as the ‘winner’ for being the most virtuous, which they then parlay into political power. Anyone who doesn’t meet the latest leftist holiness spiral is cast out and treated as an enemy; as the number of excluded enemies grows over time the greater the odds violence is ultimately used against them, which, unless stopped, ultimately leads to a leftist singularity of genocide against the excluded peoples (i.e. Bolshevik mass murder of the kulaks, Chinese communist mass murder of their political enemies and Khmer Rouge mass murder in Cambodia are three recent historical examples).
Left wing holiness spirals only end in one of three ways: (1) a sociopathic individual of the holiest leftist groups ascends to power, as with Oliver Cromwell and Stalin, and then discovers that his followers are becoming even holier than he is and demanding greater holiness which threatens his rule, and therefore he turns away from those who were loyal to him based on shared faith in holiness and turns to those who are loyal out of desire for power, and he purges those to his left (such as Stalin using Beria and his apolitical gang, and Cromwell with his troops); (2) the leftist holiness spiral continues unabated cumulating in the Leftist Singularity, i.e. genocide of the hated mass of enemies until it profoundly weakens the polity and results in foreign conquest, as with Khmer Rouge Cambodia; or (3) a military leader takes power and puts an end to the holiness spiral, with examples such as Franco in Spain and either Napoleon or the Thermidorian reaction to the French Revolution, depending on how you look at it.
– NF
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