Waiting For That Rocket

Because I’m me I’m returning to Stalin research. I’ve overshot the anniversary of the Russian Revolution by seven years, but with growing despotism in the world it still feels like a book about the Russian tyrant still needs to be written.

If you’re new to this idea I’ve been wanting to write a book about Stalin that’s consumable by non-academics, but is more academically sourced. This is why I’m actually reading the books I cited in my college papers about the same. This is why I’ve bought access to journal articles. This is why I’ve upgraded my computer.

All a typical long lead in.

This morning I’m taking notes from The Great Terror: A Reassessment by Robert Conquest. I was struck by this, “It was precisely his lack of brilliance, his plainness, which inclined us to believe what he said.” (61)

This could be ascribed to US politics these days, particularly on the right. Donald Trump is not a brilliant politician. He’s able to get folks to ascribe to his politics, but it’s hard to say he has a vision other than a personal success.

Over and over I’m reading about how Stalin’s purges and killings were related to perceived insults to his capabilities and intelligence. Even Trump’s language shadows Stalin’s. Reading about purges of the staff who had originally been in the White House with him was downright terrifying. If you’ve studied any extreme governorship in the world you know it’s not too large a hop, skip, or jump from mass firings to mass killings.

I’m not saying there is a definitely going to be a mass and lethal purging if Nero gets back in office, but his language is suggesting he admires the routes Stalin took to get to power and the actions he took when and while there. Here is a post with sources showing how Stalin and Trump are similar.

We’ve had presidents and presidential candidates in my life time that I didn’t agree with and didn’t support, but my father always taught me to respect the office and the officer. I can’t support Donald Trump and his administration. He’s not just doing and saying things antithetical to my being, but he has me afraid. I’m not a real scholar, not by education or title, but I know enough to recognize patterns. And I’m seeing one.

Right now we have the right to support who we so choose. We can volunteer, we can speak up and out, we can write blog posts comparing a US President to a dictator, we can vote. Let’s vote in a way that can conserve these rights.