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For Mao this is true, for Stalin it was the Russian Civil War (he killed most of his victims in the 20s and 30s).
The Berlin Wall fell for a reason. It would be foolish to consider trying to rebuild it - and all it represents - today.
I loved this episode. Broadened my perspective on US-India relations. Thanks for also circling back a lot of times on why India sees Russia as ally.
Most of Stalin’s crimes occurred prior to World War II, though
Mao is a postwar leader, but his authority comes more from surviving internecine Chinese conflicts than any wartime record against the Japanese
It’s not true in Mao’s case. The CCP contributed little in WWII. Mao’s prestige primarily comes from winning the Chinese Civil War.
But Stalin's purge, Holodomor etc came *before* WW2.
Seems the real reason is that leaders who came to power in civil wars are preselected for brutality.
much of world history has pivoted on mid-wits being at the right place at the right time to ride the zeitgeist
This seems like an unsatisfying explanation considering that what are normally considered Stalin’s nost brutal actions (his handling of famine in the 30’s and the Great Purge) happened before WW2.
this makes no sense. it's ahistorical
Stalin's worst excesses all predate 1940
Mao's prestige was largely from leadership in the civil war - the CCP were relatively uninterested in fighting the Japanese
I'm not sold on the theory. For one, Stalin racked up the vast majority of his death toll pre-WWII.
Well let's note:
1. Mao wasn't quite a 'winner' of WWII, if the civil war had gone the other way the anti-communists would claim to have resisted Japanese occupation.
2. Nukes locked in geopolitics.
3. The US, even right after WWII, lacked the resources to invade China.
I feel like the guys who ended up on top of the pile after the Russian revolution and the Long March were always going to be total nutcases. Anyone with any humanity would have lost out to the guys with none.
Wasn't the worst of Stalin pre-war, holodomor, collectivisation, massacre of Poles in Belarus, purges. Heck the war itself, Ribbentrov-Molotov + Winter War.
No picnic but 1945-1953 doesn't seem like the worst Stalin.
Think this applies more to Mao, no?
Just finished the Jakarta Method (Bevins) and listening to this pod/reading these notes in that context invites a question of whether the puppet-master facilitating harm might be subject of the same assessment
"The Democratic Party's actions had left many U.S. citizens feeling humiliated. Signs of a Trump victory were proclaimed well before Biden withdrew from the race. The voters had had enough."
