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	<title>Comments on: Ideological Sociopath: Stalin Reads Machiavelli</title>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4910651</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 04:03:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4910651</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;Stalin Used Jews to control the Ukraine.&quot; 
 
Really? I&#039;ve just looked up rosters for the Ukraine Party and Government officials. Of about two dozen Communist Party Central Committee General, First and Acting Party Secretaries, two - Kaganovitch and Kon - had Jewish roots. Of about another two dozen Second Secretaries just one - Khatayevitch - had Jewish roots. Of about three dozen Sovnarkom and other executive officials, none had Jewish roots. All in all, I&#039;d say that the percent of Jewish officials in Ukraine under Stalin does not look disproportionate, given the fact that Ukraine had long been the biggest part of the mandatory Pale of Settlement for the Jewish subjects of Romanovs.  ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;Stalin Used Jews to control the Ukraine.&quot; </p>
<p>Really? I&#039;ve just looked up rosters for the Ukraine Party and Government officials. Of about two dozen Communist Party Central Committee General, First and Acting Party Secretaries, two &#8211; Kaganovitch and Kon &#8211; had Jewish roots. Of about another two dozen Second Secretaries just one &#8211; Khatayevitch &#8211; had Jewish roots. Of about three dozen Sovnarkom and other executive officials, none had Jewish roots. All in all, I&#039;d say that the percent of Jewish officials in Ukraine under Stalin does not look disproportionate, given the fact that Ukraine had long been the biggest part of the mandatory Pale of Settlement for the Jewish subjects of Romanovs.  </p>
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		<title>By: Ghostwriter</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4909693</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Ghostwriter]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 03:12:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4909693</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#039;ve never been a big fan of Stalin. In fact,he was just as bad as Hitler was. I remember hearing in a documentary about the struggle between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany,that some years after the war was over,he had one of his favorite actresses thrown in jail for falling in love with an American. For all the atrocities this guy did,this was strictly minor league,but still in keeping with this creep&#039;s character. 
 ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#039;ve never been a big fan of Stalin. In fact,he was just as bad as Hitler was. I remember hearing in a documentary about the struggle between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany,that some years after the war was over,he had one of his favorite actresses thrown in jail for falling in love with an American. For all the atrocities this guy did,this was strictly minor league,but still in keeping with this creep&#039;s character. </p>
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		<title>By: Maxie</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4907219</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Maxie]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 01:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4907219</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stalin was a paranoid narcissist - the product of a physically abusive father and a mother of questionable virtue. What drove Stalin was nothing more than pathologically-driven revenge against a world that allow   what happened to him.  To get revenge one needs power and that&#039;s what drives people such as Stalin and Obama.   ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Stalin was a paranoid narcissist &#8211; the product of a physically abusive father and a mother of questionable virtue. What drove Stalin was nothing more than pathologically-driven revenge against a world that allow   what happened to him.  To get revenge one needs power and that&#039;s what drives people such as Stalin and Obama.   </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4905440</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 23:28:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4905440</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#039;ve tried a longer answer, and it&#039;s being approved :) But, to your point about the capitalist encirclement: it was Lenin who as early as in 1920 pledged to destroy the Versailles Treaty and defeat European democracies, when Hitler had not even emerged on political scene. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#039;ve tried a longer answer, and it&#039;s being approved <img src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" />  But, to your point about the capitalist encirclement: it was Lenin who as early as in 1920 pledged to destroy the Versailles Treaty and defeat European democracies, when Hitler had not even emerged on political scene. </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4905309</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 23:21:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4905309</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Suvorov made a strikingly good point - not in this book - but somewhere else. The point was that Stalin&#039;s version of Marxism was a milder one. He had Communism with its labor armies and other pleasantries confined to GULAG, which directly affected only a portion of the population. Marx envisioned it everywhere. So, what your modern marxist professor next door would tell you is that Stalin was not a &quot;true Marxist&quot;, and that he settled for the &quot;Socialism in One Country&quot; doctrine, and that his international Communism ideology regressed into the nationalist one. When, in fact, the former had been a ruse, a time buying scheme in never ending pursuit of the world revolution. Even late Volkogonov, one of the Soviet &quot;official historians,&quot; admitted that the Soviet leadership never shed Comintern mentality.  And the latter was the result of the catastrophe of 1941. Stalin was forced to temporary replace Comintern aspirations with the Russian nationalist ones to save his regime. And Hitler would help him do so by conducting a brutal genocide of his own. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Suvorov made a strikingly good point &#8211; not in this book &#8211; but somewhere else. The point was that Stalin&#039;s version of Marxism was a milder one. He had Communism with its labor armies and other pleasantries confined to GULAG, which directly affected only a portion of the population. Marx envisioned it everywhere. So, what your modern marxist professor next door would tell you is that Stalin was not a &quot;true Marxist&quot;, and that he settled for the &quot;Socialism in One Country&quot; doctrine, and that his international Communism ideology regressed into the nationalist one. When, in fact, the former had been a ruse, a time buying scheme in never ending pursuit of the world revolution. Even late Volkogonov, one of the Soviet &quot;official historians,&quot; admitted that the Soviet leadership never shed Comintern mentality.  And the latter was the result of the catastrophe of 1941. Stalin was forced to temporary replace Comintern aspirations with the Russian nationalist ones to save his regime. And Hitler would help him do so by conducting a brutal genocide of his own. </p>
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		<title>By: Chezwick</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4904265</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chezwick]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 22:22:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4904265</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You seem to be saying that terms &quot;collectivization&quot; and &#039;industrialization&quot; were window-dressing for the militarization of the economy. No one could credibly argue otherwise.  
 
But collectivization was not just the &quot;war-time&quot; (using the term loosely, since it predated the war by a decade) confiscation of the wealth of the peasantry, as had happened innumerable times in every corner of the globe throughout history as despots and potentates had to feed armies and finance their wars. Collectivization was an enduring transformation in the administration of agricultural production, one that out-lived not only the war, but Stalin himself.  
 
The real legacy of collectivism, aside from the brutalities of its advent, was systemic agricultural under-performance. It cost Khrushchev his job as he failed in his clumsy and often counter-productive reform attempts. It was also a major impetus for the Soviet policy of detente in the 70s, when Brezhnev needed imported grain from the West to feed his people.  
 
Lastly, the term also has relevance that PRE-dated Stalin&#039;s implementation....specifically, in the internal debates that raged inside the upper-echelons of the Party in the mid 1920s, debates in which the need for heavy-industry and the fear of capitalist encirclement were certainly relevant to the discussion, but no more so than the ideological allure of the common ownership of land and production. 
 
Anyways, that&#039;s one way of looking at it. 
 ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You seem to be saying that terms &quot;collectivization&quot; and &#039;industrialization&quot; were window-dressing for the militarization of the economy. No one could credibly argue otherwise.  </p>
<p>But collectivization was not just the &quot;war-time&quot; (using the term loosely, since it predated the war by a decade) confiscation of the wealth of the peasantry, as had happened innumerable times in every corner of the globe throughout history as despots and potentates had to feed armies and finance their wars. Collectivization was an enduring transformation in the administration of agricultural production, one that out-lived not only the war, but Stalin himself.  </p>
<p>The real legacy of collectivism, aside from the brutalities of its advent, was systemic agricultural under-performance. It cost Khrushchev his job as he failed in his clumsy and often counter-productive reform attempts. It was also a major impetus for the Soviet policy of detente in the 70s, when Brezhnev needed imported grain from the West to feed his people.  </p>
<p>Lastly, the term also has relevance that PRE-dated Stalin&#039;s implementation&#8230;.specifically, in the internal debates that raged inside the upper-echelons of the Party in the mid 1920s, debates in which the need for heavy-industry and the fear of capitalist encirclement were certainly relevant to the discussion, but no more so than the ideological allure of the common ownership of land and production. </p>
<p>Anyways, that&#039;s one way of looking at it. </p>
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		<title>By: tagalog</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4903117</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[tagalog]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 21:26:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4903117</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[AND kill more than 3 million Red Army troops in six months and God knows how many civilians, penetrate to Stalingrad, and threaten Stalin to the point where he ordered Moscow depopulated. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>AND kill more than 3 million Red Army troops in six months and God knows how many civilians, penetrate to Stalingrad, and threaten Stalin to the point where he ordered Moscow depopulated. </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4902517</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 20:54:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4902517</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well, it&#039;s kind of simple, when one genuinely tries to see the forest from the trees. By the end of 1930s, the only tangible result of the titanic inhuman efforts widely known as Collectivization and Industrialization was the vast quantities of the most sophisticated for the time weaponry and munitions. On June 1, 1941, RKKA had 20 thousand tanks; 3.6 thousand of light amphibious tanks and 3 thousand of armored vehicles with 45 mm cannons - an equivalent of what Wehrmacht counted as tanks for two thirds of its rolling fleet at the time; 8.3 thousand fighter air craft in just western military districts; 20 thousand 81 mm mortars; 15 thousand 75 mm cannons; 8 thousand 105 mm howitzers and 6 thousand 150 mm howitzers. Most people - and I&#039;m talking about those who were not imprisoned in the GULAG - lived in subpar conditions and lacked basic necessities of life. Do your math. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well, it&#039;s kind of simple, when one genuinely tries to see the forest from the trees. By the end of 1930s, the only tangible result of the titanic inhuman efforts widely known as Collectivization and Industrialization was the vast quantities of the most sophisticated for the time weaponry and munitions. On June 1, 1941, RKKA had 20 thousand tanks; 3.6 thousand of light amphibious tanks and 3 thousand of armored vehicles with 45 mm cannons &#8211; an equivalent of what Wehrmacht counted as tanks for two thirds of its rolling fleet at the time; 8.3 thousand fighter air craft in just western military districts; 20 thousand 81 mm mortars; 15 thousand 75 mm cannons; 8 thousand 105 mm howitzers and 6 thousand 150 mm howitzers. Most people &#8211; and I&#039;m talking about those who were not imprisoned in the GULAG &#8211; lived in subpar conditions and lacked basic necessities of life. Do your math. </p>
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		<title>By: PAthena</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4902395</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[PAthena]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 20:47:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4902395</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Machiavelli&#039;s Prince was a satire, an attack on the Borgias. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Machiavelli&#039;s Prince was a satire, an attack on the Borgias. </p>
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		<title>By: Jim</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4901666</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 20:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4901666</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During a time when the top Communists fought for power by any means possible Stalin&#039;s ruthlessness was actually prudence on his part. 
 
Trotsky wanted power and was also ruthless. Stalin beat him to the punch.  
Stalin claimed Trotsky was a left wing deviationist. (of all things) 
 
Stalin was a careful observer of Kremlin politics. He only took preemptive action . 
Nothing he did was for the fun of it. 
The same was not true for Beria. ; He did enjoy himself 
 
Stalin Used Jews to control the Ukraine.Poland and other countries including as advisors to Chang Ki -Shek  
He did so not because he liked Jews. He was again just being prudent. He realized that the a person who was&quot; &quot;of the country &quot;might not be willing to carry out ruthless orders. He figured the Jews had been so badly treated in those countries they might be much more willing. Besides it deflected the anger away from the Russians.( at least that is what Stalin thought)  
He had a fear of losing and did psychopathic stuff to survive. Oddly he trusted Hitler. 
 ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>During a time when the top Communists fought for power by any means possible Stalin&#039;s ruthlessness was actually prudence on his part. </p>
<p>Trotsky wanted power and was also ruthless. Stalin beat him to the punch.<br />
Stalin claimed Trotsky was a left wing deviationist. (of all things) </p>
<p>Stalin was a careful observer of Kremlin politics. He only took preemptive action .<br />
Nothing he did was for the fun of it.<br />
The same was not true for Beria. ; He did enjoy himself </p>
<p>Stalin Used Jews to control the Ukraine.Poland and other countries including as advisors to Chang Ki -Shek<br />
He did so not because he liked Jews. He was again just being prudent. He realized that the a person who was&quot; &quot;of the country &quot;might not be willing to carry out ruthless orders. He figured the Jews had been so badly treated in those countries they might be much more willing. Besides it deflected the anger away from the Russians.( at least that is what Stalin thought)<br />
He had a fear of losing and did psychopathic stuff to survive. Oddly he trusted Hitler. </p>
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		<title>By: Chezwick</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4901290</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chezwick]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 19:52:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4901290</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;The biggest problem I see even with those who fundamentally agree that Marxism is evil is that they still compartmentalize its history. Even they acquiesce to Orwellian language genuinely using terms like Collectivization and Industrialization without understanding what those terms actually meant.&quot; 
 
I was wondering if you could elaborate on that.  ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;The biggest problem I see even with those who fundamentally agree that Marxism is evil is that they still compartmentalize its history. Even they acquiesce to Orwellian language genuinely using terms like Collectivization and Industrialization without understanding what those terms actually meant.&quot; </p>
<p>I was wondering if you could elaborate on that.  </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4901130</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 19:42:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4901130</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The biggest problem I see even with those who fundamentally agree that Marxism is evil is that they still compartmentalize its history. Even they acquiesce to Orwellian language genuinely using terms like Collectivization and Industrialization without understanding what those terms actually meant. But my optimism stems from my memories of the early eighties, when I vividly remember thinking that the world was going to hell. And then, one day, the Evil Empire pretty much succumbed and surrendered to the natural law.    ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The biggest problem I see even with those who fundamentally agree that Marxism is evil is that they still compartmentalize its history. Even they acquiesce to Orwellian language genuinely using terms like Collectivization and Industrialization without understanding what those terms actually meant. But my optimism stems from my memories of the early eighties, when I vividly remember thinking that the world was going to hell. And then, one day, the Evil Empire pretty much succumbed and surrendered to the natural law.    </p>
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		<title>By: Chezwick</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4900741</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chezwick]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 19:20:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4900741</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My congratulations on your in-depth knowledge of the subject matter at hand. Historical expertise is becoming increasingly rare these days as technology seems to have long superseded the humanities in interest and import. It&#039;s nice to encounter an obviously informed soul in such a routine manner. 
 
My interests in the era were less on war and diplomacy than on Kremlinology itself. I suppose the attraction began in my teens and was based on the &quot;know thy enemy&quot; maxim as it applied to the Cold War. Why squander one&#039;s intellectual energies on subject matter that is of only marginal relevance...when an existential threat was staring us in the face at the time?...(the same impetus has compelled me to learn as much as I can about Islam since the early 90s). 
 
But it&#039;s not just that Communism and Islam were/are perceived enemies, it is the particulars of these ideologies, the monstrous polities and policies they created, and the bizarre indulgence of them in our academic world. Reading about the horrors of collectivization, where cannibalism reared its ugly head among the peasantry at the very time that Stalin was exporting grain....or the Great Purge, where the NKVD was given arrest-quotas region-by-region and 99% of those swept up in the conveyor-belt of arrest-torture-execution were never anything but loyal to the regime,.. is more hair-raising than any Steven King novel could ever be. 
 
And today, a modern incarnation of Stalinism in all its infamy exists in North Korea, where people starve to death while the regime constructs nuclear weapons and long-range delivery vehicles.  
 
It&#039;s extremely hard to be sanguine about the future prospects for the human race. Is it possible that someone such as yourself can offer a credible philosophical/historical perspective that might be grounds for optimism? ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>My congratulations on your in-depth knowledge of the subject matter at hand. Historical expertise is becoming increasingly rare these days as technology seems to have long superseded the humanities in interest and import. It&#039;s nice to encounter an obviously informed soul in such a routine manner. </p>
<p>My interests in the era were less on war and diplomacy than on Kremlinology itself. I suppose the attraction began in my teens and was based on the &quot;know thy enemy&quot; maxim as it applied to the Cold War. Why squander one&#039;s intellectual energies on subject matter that is of only marginal relevance&#8230;when an existential threat was staring us in the face at the time?&#8230;(the same impetus has compelled me to learn as much as I can about Islam since the early 90s). </p>
<p>But it&#039;s not just that Communism and Islam were/are perceived enemies, it is the particulars of these ideologies, the monstrous polities and policies they created, and the bizarre indulgence of them in our academic world. Reading about the horrors of collectivization, where cannibalism reared its ugly head among the peasantry at the very time that Stalin was exporting grain&#8230;.or the Great Purge, where the NKVD was given arrest-quotas region-by-region and 99% of those swept up in the conveyor-belt of arrest-torture-execution were never anything but loyal to the regime,.. is more hair-raising than any Steven King novel could ever be. </p>
<p>And today, a modern incarnation of Stalinism in all its infamy exists in North Korea, where people starve to death while the regime constructs nuclear weapons and long-range delivery vehicles.  </p>
<p>It&#039;s extremely hard to be sanguine about the future prospects for the human race. Is it possible that someone such as yourself can offer a credible philosophical/historical perspective that might be grounds for optimism? </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4898470</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4898470</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;Once it was apparent that Hitler had abandoned operation Sea Lion and was focusing his efforts on the Balkans (early &#039;41), this is when Stalin began his scrupulous adherence to the pact....and protested only feebly with each new violation by Germany.&quot; 
 
Not quite. First of all, the last squable over the interpretations of what exacly the Pact meant for whom ended with Molotov&#039;s visit to Berlin in November of 1940, when he brought even more unreasonable demands from Hitler&#039;s stand point, particularly with respect to Finland, Turkey and Bulgaria. Consequently, Hitler issued Directive 21 (The Barbarossa Directive) in the matter of days. But not before Stalin had begun reviewing Vasilevsky&#039;s &quot;Considerations for Strategic Deployment,&quot; which he had been doing at least since August of 1940.   ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;Once it was apparent that Hitler had abandoned operation Sea Lion and was focusing his efforts on the Balkans (early &#039;41), this is when Stalin began his scrupulous adherence to the pact&#8230;.and protested only feebly with each new violation by Germany.&quot; </p>
<p>Not quite. First of all, the last squable over the interpretations of what exacly the Pact meant for whom ended with Molotov&#039;s visit to Berlin in November of 1940, when he brought even more unreasonable demands from Hitler&#039;s stand point, particularly with respect to Finland, Turkey and Bulgaria. Consequently, Hitler issued Directive 21 (The Barbarossa Directive) in the matter of days. But not before Stalin had begun reviewing Vasilevsky&#039;s &quot;Considerations for Strategic Deployment,&quot; which he had been doing at least since August of 1940.   </p>
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		<title>By: Chezwick</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4898356</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chezwick]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:13:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4898356</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[PS - There is an interesting narrative about the Russian people in WW2....that they welcomed it as a &quot;great, purifying storm&quot;. They were exhausted from the depredations of collectivization and the Yezhovschina....and thought that in war, they could prove their loyalty to the regime and be spared any further oppression. Of course, such sentiments didn&#039;t necessarily translate to the Ukraine...where Great Russian chauvinism hadn&#039;t been tamed by the Revolution....and where the horrors of collectivization were particularly acute. 
 
Robert Conquest&#039;s &#039;Harvest of Sorrow&#039; brilliantly documents that infamous chapter in Soviet history.  
 
  ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>PS &#8211; There is an interesting narrative about the Russian people in WW2&#8230;.that they welcomed it as a &quot;great, purifying storm&quot;. They were exhausted from the depredations of collectivization and the Yezhovschina&#8230;.and thought that in war, they could prove their loyalty to the regime and be spared any further oppression. Of course, such sentiments didn&#039;t necessarily translate to the Ukraine&#8230;where Great Russian chauvinism hadn&#039;t been tamed by the Revolution&#8230;.and where the horrors of collectivization were particularly acute. </p>
<p>Robert Conquest&#039;s &#039;Harvest of Sorrow&#039; brilliantly documents that infamous chapter in Soviet history.  </p>
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		<title>By: Chezwick</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4898225</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Chezwick]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:07:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4898225</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;Stalin&#039;s occupatiuon of Bukovina and Bessarabia in the summer of 1940 was a direct violation of the Pact. But - more importantly - it put Hitler&#039;s largest oil supply route from Romania within a hundred kilometers from RKKA tank columns.&quot; 
 
Good point. I should have quantified my timeline. Once it was apparent that Hitler had abandoned operation Sea Lion and was focusing his efforts on the Balkans (early &#039;41), this is when Stalin began his scrupulous adherence to the pact....and protested only feebly with each new violation by Germany.  
 
The cream of Stalin&#039;s officer corps had been decimated by the purges (particularly his Marshals and Generals)....and he new his military would need time to be rebuilt. It&#039;s probable that this reality is one of the primary reasons that compelled Hitler to redirect his attention away from the difficult air war over Britain....and to the easy pickings of the western plains of Russia. 
 
 
 ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;Stalin&#039;s occupatiuon of Bukovina and Bessarabia in the summer of 1940 was a direct violation of the Pact. But &#8211; more importantly &#8211; it put Hitler&#039;s largest oil supply route from Romania within a hundred kilometers from RKKA tank columns.&quot; </p>
<p>Good point. I should have quantified my timeline. Once it was apparent that Hitler had abandoned operation Sea Lion and was focusing his efforts on the Balkans (early &#039;41), this is when Stalin began his scrupulous adherence to the pact&#8230;.and protested only feebly with each new violation by Germany.  </p>
<p>The cream of Stalin&#039;s officer corps had been decimated by the purges (particularly his Marshals and Generals)&#8230;.and he new his military would need time to be rebuilt. It&#039;s probable that this reality is one of the primary reasons that compelled Hitler to redirect his attention away from the difficult air war over Britain&#8230;.and to the easy pickings of the western plains of Russia. </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4898214</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 17:06:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4898214</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Good questions. Suvorov argues that The RKKA doctrine simply excluded any defensive posture altogether. On both strategic and operational levels, RKKA deployment was purely offensive in nature, and thus vulnerable in case of a preemptive counterstrike. There&#039;re other perspectives on the reasons for the RKKA collapse. E.g., Mark Solonin provided exhaustive research of the root causes of the collapse. He points out at inadequate command and control and poor morale resulting in mass desertion and outright rout - which is what Stalin confided to Harriman about. But he too points out at the unquestionably offensive preparations and deployment patterns of the RKKA. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Good questions. Suvorov argues that The RKKA doctrine simply excluded any defensive posture altogether. On both strategic and operational levels, RKKA deployment was purely offensive in nature, and thus vulnerable in case of a preemptive counterstrike. There&#039;re other perspectives on the reasons for the RKKA collapse. E.g., Mark Solonin provided exhaustive research of the root causes of the collapse. He points out at inadequate command and control and poor morale resulting in mass desertion and outright rout &#8211; which is what Stalin confided to Harriman about. But he too points out at the unquestionably offensive preparations and deployment patterns of the RKKA. </p>
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		<title>By: AnOrdinaryMan</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4898029</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[AnOrdinaryMan]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:54:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4898029</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ The book you cite below, by V. Suvorov, is very interesting--that Uncle Joe was attempting to use Nazi aggression against France &amp; England, as a way to weaken his opponents; so that the Soviets could then step in, defeat Germany, and conquer Europe. And eventually, the USSR did come to dominate much of Europe. Nevertheless, the Red Army wasn&#039;t ready for Hitler&#039;s invasion; else how could they have allowed the Wehrmacht to penetrate so far into Russia, and conquer so much of it? Was that part of the plan, too?  ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> The book you cite below, by V. Suvorov, is very interesting&#8211;that Uncle Joe was attempting to use Nazi aggression against France &amp; England, as a way to weaken his opponents; so that the Soviets could then step in, defeat Germany, and conquer Europe. And eventually, the USSR did come to dominate much of Europe. Nevertheless, the Red Army wasn&#039;t ready for Hitler&#039;s invasion; else how could they have allowed the Wehrmacht to penetrate so far into Russia, and conquer so much of it? Was that part of the plan, too?  </p>
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		<title>By: tismaneanu</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4897996</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[tismaneanu]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:53:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4897996</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;Ideological gangsters know how to twist and disfigure a philosophical text so that what was previously envisioned as a glorification of civic virtue converts into the justification of cynical non-virtue.&quot; This is the meaning of the article. Nobody condemns Stalin for reading Machiavelli. Nobody denies that Machiavelli was a great political philosopher. If you have time and interest, please read the text. I discuss here Stalin&#039;s understanding of notions such as vice and virtue. No more and no less. ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;Ideological gangsters know how to twist and disfigure a philosophical text so that what was previously envisioned as a glorification of civic virtue converts into the justification of cynical non-virtue.&quot; This is the meaning of the article. Nobody condemns Stalin for reading Machiavelli. Nobody denies that Machiavelli was a great political philosopher. If you have time and interest, please read the text. I discuss here Stalin&#039;s understanding of notions such as vice and virtue. No more and no less. </p>
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		<title>By: reader</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/vladimir-tismaneanu/ideological-sociopath-stalin-reads-machiavelli/comment-page-1/#comment-4897452</link>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[reader]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:23:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=189023#comment-4897452</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&quot;Russia was soon going to border Germany one way or the other&quot; 
 
It&#039;s at best debatable, and at worst unlikely that Hitler would invade Poland without securing the Pact with Stalin, especially after Hitler repeatedly had emphasized avoidance of multi-front war as the absolute necessity for Germany.  
 
&quot;Once that had occurred, he desperately tried to stave off German aggression by adhering scrupulously to the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, all the while watching Hitler repeatedly violate it&quot; 
 
Stalin&#039;s occupatiuon of Bukovina and Bessarabia in the summer of 1940 was a direct violation of the Pact. But - more importantly - it put Hitler&#039;s largest oil supply route from Romania within a hundred kilometers from RKKA tank columns.  ]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&quot;Russia was soon going to border Germany one way or the other&quot; </p>
<p>It&#039;s at best debatable, and at worst unlikely that Hitler would invade Poland without securing the Pact with Stalin, especially after Hitler repeatedly had emphasized avoidance of multi-front war as the absolute necessity for Germany.  </p>
<p>&quot;Once that had occurred, he desperately tried to stave off German aggression by adhering scrupulously to the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, all the while watching Hitler repeatedly violate it&quot; </p>
<p>Stalin&#039;s occupatiuon of Bukovina and Bessarabia in the summer of 1940 was a direct violation of the Pact. But &#8211; more importantly &#8211; it put Hitler&#039;s largest oil supply route from Romania within a hundred kilometers from RKKA tank columns.  </p>
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