What is Digg?142 Comments
- ScipiosLegion, on 08/05/2008, -3/+54very similar to Nazi concentration camps -- and yet people seem to forget about all the brutal and horrible things Stalin was responsible for...
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -14/+45My father was in there. Lithuanian.
***** you, Russia. - zohaibusman, on 08/04/2008, -3/+32The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. "Gulag" is the Russian acronym for The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies.
- Meekus, on 08/05/2008, -3/+31Stalin was a monster. He also forced an artificial famine on Ukraine. Holodomor, Forced Famine, or The Forgotten Famine. Exact numbers are hard to find as Stalin destroyed any evidence. But estimates are between 7 million to 15 million people. Mothers had to decide which of their children would get to live an extra day on the last piece of bread. There is a documentary called "Harvest of Despair" that is about this nightmare. I was never taught any of this in school. Only that "Uncle Joe" helped the US in WW2. Uncle Joe also murdered ALL of my father's family. My father went into a concentration camp - he escaped to America.
- serif69, on 08/05/2008, -0/+26In Soviet Russia, joke finishes YOU.
- johnleemk, on 08/05/2008, -4/+28Quoth the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson:
"What Hitler did in his concentration camps was equalled if not exceeded in foulness by the Soviet gulags, forced starvation and pogroms. What makes the achievements of communist Russia so special and different, that you can simper around in a CCCP T-shirt, while anyone demented enough to wear anything commemorating the Third Reich would be speedily banged away under the 1986 Public Order Act?" - BuckNutty, on 08/04/2008, -2/+25"The salvation of mankind lies only in making everything the concern of all"
-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn - bigbchew, on 08/05/2008, -1/+22"There is no greater predator to the human race than the granted power of the state."
- Wargalas, on 08/05/2008, -12/+31Yep, America's a "police state". Riiiight. When we're pulling this kind of crap, let me know.
- VeryBoredNow, on 08/05/2008, -2/+15I remember reading a book by a guy named Karl Steiner, the book was called "7,000 days in Siberia" I belive and I could not belive what those people had to go through. What suprised me more is that some people actually survived those conditions. That is when I learned that humans can do much more if we put or mind to it.
- MedicalMatt, on 08/05/2008, -1/+13You gotta wonder why twice as many people died in the Gulags vs German camps, but in the west we give sooo much more credence to the struggles of those in German camps.
- chrissku, on 08/05/2008, -2/+14Americans were also sent to the gulags in Russia by Stalin.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/ar ... - isleepyx3, on 08/05/2008, -0/+11I believe it's because the German camps contained mainly Jews while Russian camps contained people thrown in there for different reasons (pissed off a neighbor, got set up, etc.) Plus, the Nazis kept meticulous records and didn't get a chance to destroy them while Stalin had the numbers fudged or had the records "lost."
- justinx0r, on 08/05/2008, -3/+14Yes, America is killing millions of people in penal labor camps.
/sarcasm - durzagott, on 08/05/2008, -2/+13In case you're wondering why there have never been any trials over the whole Gulag atrocities, here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article:
"The gulag had already killed tens of thousands of its own most ardent killers. Again and again, yesterday's judges were declared today's criminals, so that Soviet society never had to own up to its millions of state-backed murders." - MedicalMatt, on 08/05/2008, -3/+13Actually worse than the German Camps... Just by numbers, roughly twice as many people died in the Gulag
- jhartely, on 08/05/2008, -4/+14The sad thing about this article is that it omits to mention that Gulags still exist in modern Russia. They might not be called as much any more, but try Googling Yekaterinaburg Prison Camp for example and you'll see pictures and stories of real abuse.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2007/12/video_human ... - tcpip4lyfe, on 08/05/2008, -1/+10He means that they never taught us about how terrible he really was. Just that, "he was a bad man."
- dse78759, on 08/05/2008, -5/+14Shut up. We can't even execute a fat guy in Ohio cause of his veins.
Our system is nothing like Russia's was. - readacook, on 08/05/2008, -2/+11Excellent quote, I wish I could digg you up more.
Same thing with Che shirts, how cool do you think you'll look when you talk to a Cuban whose family was killed by the bastard. Do some ***** research before you idolize these people.
http://www.slate.com/id/2107100/ - diggit08, on 08/05/2008, -2/+10who are you talking to?
- LvsSocer, on 08/05/2008, -0/+7To all you asshats that say Russians aren't to blame and that its all Stalin's fault:
Why do Russians STILL have statues of Stalin, and want to put up new ones? - hoisonsauce, on 08/05/2008, -2/+8Britain is also guilty of running gulags. They massacred thousands of Kikuyu for supporting the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. You just never hear much about it because they destroyed official documents to cover it up.
- AbdullahAbuDawu, on 09/12/2008, -7/+13Guantanamo Bay.
- hansolo, on 08/05/2008, -2/+8Too bad the main point of Solzhenitsyn is still lost on many people in the US, UK, etc.
The point is - the state no matter where has the power to enact evil like this. While the US is not up to the levels of what Germany and Russia has done, but it wouldn't be hard for the US to do so. The US has come close with the internment of the Japanese-Americans, the current situation in Cuba, etc.
Also Solzhenitsyn argues that the State's power comes from the people and if the people do nothing, the State will get away with abuses.
A lesson America is ignoring all too well in 2008. - inactive, on 08/05/2008, -2/+8I seem to remember some camps being built in the US for `terrorists`.
- Wargalas, on 08/05/2008, -5/+10Really? Do tell me of an example of where we starved someone to death? I'd LOVE to hear this one.
- punkass1977, on 08/05/2008, -5/+10***** you, two of my friends died using that meme!
- Temo1, on 08/05/2008, -1/+6If you're implying that American schools give a favorable impression of Stalin, you couldn't be further from the truth. After all, it is he who was most responsible for the "Iron Curtain" and the ensuing cold war.
- theutopian, on 08/05/2008, -0/+5Pretty ***** far.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4He'll just say they probably deserved it and act like his country isn't a third world ***** trying to pretend it's civilized.
Stalin was a single man. Russians did the dirty work. - inactive, on 08/05/2008, -1/+5Are you ***** retarded? Most of the people killed during the Stalinist Era were prominent Jews. Moron.
- theutopian, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4Stalin didn't create the Soviet system. He merely took control of it and remade it based on his own will and his own image.
- one7, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4Thank you for submitting this. Dugg for being an important reminder of what true repression is. This is just one aspect of a truly brutal and savage police state...an horrific reality that most (if not all) of my generation have no connection to and cannot relate to--it is critical that we understand and learn from history, and to maintain perspective in examining current world events.
- theutopian, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4Well, certainly not 25 million, which is how many Stalin murdered.
- PaulOwen, on 08/05/2008, -0/+4"The Gulag system was disbanded in the 1950s" I remember seeing evidence in Prague that unofficial Russian Gulags still existed as late as 1991, and prisoners there were only released as part of Perestroika.
Just a personal observation. - PatoLucas, on 08/05/2008, -2/+6@Chico: but millions? please
Both American illegal prisons and gulags are evil, but it's a different kind of evil, you don't need to exaggerate to make a point because you run the risk of lacking credibility - thorstrongstone, on 08/05/2008, -4/+8People, especially Americans, seem to forget it because they were never taught it. American schools have a problem with teaching students about wars America has lost (Vietnam, Korea,) and slaughters that they did nothing to prevent or stop (Gulags, Kahmer Rouge, Idi "Sweet-tooth" Amin.....etc.)
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -1/+4Isn't it funny how things work? Jews are pitied for having to endure Nazi concentration camps, but Russians, who survived nearly a century of a police state, are viewed as some kind of evil enemy as if they themselves were responsible for such atrocities. It's very sad that the American education system, US media, and Hollywood brainwashes people into these false beliefs. Even reading thru these replies I see people blaming Russia for everything. The people responsible for these acts are Stalin and the corrupt Soviet system (created by Stalin). Stop blaming innocent people who had to endure so much. No wonder they don't trust you.
- theutopian, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3There has never been a true communist state. All charismatic leaders who claim to be communists have perverted the true philosophies behind communism.
There will probably never be a true communist state. At least until we evolve beyond our innate selflessness and evolve beyond the need for money.
But it's a nice idea.
Just another utopian ideal in the dustbin of history. - JorgeGT, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3If you enjoyed (well, I can't use that word, maybe "if you were interested in") his books, you may also find interesting "Journey into the Whirlwind", the biography if Yevgenia Ginzburg, which relates the crude horror that Solzhenitsyn hides or suggests in his sarcastic tone.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -1/+4I think you got your timing wrong. If you were educated in US I don't blame your stupidity, but you should be ashamed if you were educated elsewhere.
- one7, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3What is with these nuts that see moral equivalency between modern America and Stalinist Russia? Are you that out of touch? Have you been brainwashed? Or is it just plain intellectual dishonesty and willful ignorance?
And to directly address djoobacca's comment here about Iraqis dying. Just curious--do you have one iota of awareness of how many people died by Saddam Hussein's hand? How many people were tortured? (I'm sure his coke-bottle technique was truly pleasant for those that had to endure it--look it up.) The Kurds and Iranians that were on the business end of nerve and mustard gas rockets? Or the young daughters that were picked up off the street to be raped by Uday and Qusay at their whim? Yeah, how dare those damn Americans interrupt that idyllic paradise the Iraqis were living in under Saddam... - wunksta, on 08/05/2008, -3/+6you mean in america? never? in a client state? a lot.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -1/+4"at the time the USSR was ruled by an absolute despot,"
Why do you use past tense? - yogiincork, on 08/05/2008, -2/+5and what about guantanamo bay?
- theutopian, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3It doesn't. At least not in this scale.
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -7/+10Cue all the clueless, "The US is no better!" drones.
- albinoMithos, on 08/05/2008, -0/+3Normally I'd say amlynch was being an *****, but zohaibusman did copy that word for word from the first paragraph of the Wiki on Gulags.....
- inactive, on 08/05/2008, -2/+5Need I remind you of McCarthyism? We're doing pretty damn well.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 142 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is