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From: ka@hou3c.UUCP (Kenneth Almquist)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.followup
Subject: Re: Stalin and slavery
Message-ID: <139@hou3c.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Dec-83 17:54:31 EST
Article-I.D.: hou3c.139
Posted: Wed Dec 14 17:54:31 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Dec-83 03:05:08 EST
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Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
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	Stalin's murders and American support of slavery are both in the
	past, but what is even more revelant is the countries' reaction
	to the conditions.  The United States has repudiated slavery
	openly, and legally and constitutionally banned it, while the
	Soviet government has never repudiated Stalin's style of
	governing (through fear and violence), and continues to use it,
	though with a lower profile.

Stalinism was publicly repudated by Khrushchev, shortly after Stalin's
death.

Describing Stalins's style of government as "governing through fear and
violence" isn't saying much.  The U. S. government governs though fear
and violence.  ("If you break the law we will send you to jail and possibly
kill you.")  The difference is that the Stalin executions were massive and
unpredictable whereas today you really have to work on it to get executed
in the Soviet Union or the United States.

Blacks are still discriminated against in the United States, which suggests
that the U. S. still practices slavery, "though with a lower profile."

Of course the Stalin and Andropov regimes are similar in that they are both
repressive.  There is no free press, no guarenteed bill of rights, no
freely elected government.  But these are things which have never existed
in Russia, so you could equally well compare Andropov with the Tzars.
					Kenneth Almquist