It was really a point about perspective. The horrible tribulations and injustices suffered by the people of East Europe are well known to us and the figures who led the resistance to Soviet domination are well known. But the even more - and by a wide margin - horrible tribulations and injustices suffered by the people of central America are not. In the 60s, 70s and 80s thens of thousands of people 'disappeared' or were murdered and tortured in those countries. This did not happen in the Eastern Bloc. That is not in any way to defend the Soviet Union (though the way these discussions always go it is sadly necessary to point that out). It is simply to ask why one set of crimes are less well known? Perhaps because one set of crimes were carried out by our official enemies and the other by the US?
Reagan's responsibility, for example, for the horrors inflicted upon Latin America is every bit as great and direct as any Soviet leader's responsibility for what happened in Poland or Hungary or Czechoslovakia. The difference is those Soviet leaders are now regarded, rightly, as criminals and Reagan has an airport named after him.
By people in the West. (apart from the dickhead 'communist' types who idolise that sort of shit [because they haven't lived through it])
But in the East and especially Russia, although its widely recognised that those leaders committed huge atrocities if you go by Communist thinking and justifications like "Promises are like pie-crusts–made to be broken." its not surprising that 'the cult' of Lenin and Stalin is as strong as ever. (as a huge amount of people who currently live there were brought up on these ideals)
Heck even Putin and Medvedev openly praised Stalin for his 'acheivements', currently have a government taskforce rewriting textbooks and are going back to 'old skool' tactics in brainwashing.
Also In 2008 Stalin was voted the third 'best' Russian by the public....
By people in the West. (apart from the dickhead 'communist' types who idolise that sort of shit [because they haven't lived through it])
But in the East and especially Russia, although its widely recognised that those leaders committed huge atrocities if you go by Communist thinking and justifications like "Promises are like pie-crusts–made to be broken." its not surprising that 'the cult' of Lenin and Stalin is as strong as ever. (as a huge amount of people who currently live there were brought up on these ideals)
Heck even Putin and Medvedev openly praised Stalin for his 'acheivements', currently have a government taskforce rewriting textbooks and are going back to 'old skool' tactics in brainwashing.
Also In 2008 Stalin was voted the third 'best' Russian by the public....