Soviet Union Responsible for its Own Bad Legacy

Re: Legacy of media distorting Soviet Union January 25

It is true that Russophobia is a legitimate problem, judging by the abhorrent depiction of Russians as callous villains in western media (the Modern Warfare games being the worst offenders by far). It is also true that the United States did many bad things during the Cold War (McCarthyist witch hunts, Vietnam).

America also deserves flak for abandoning Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed, allowing Russia to become overtaken by corruption and lawlessness, and denying them the financial aid and restructuring that America gave to Germany and Japan post-WW2.

What is not true however is that the Soviet Union’s crimes against humanity are in any way exaggerated or embellished by western media.

Around 20 million people were killed in the genocides committed under Stalin.

Even at the highest estimates of 2.5 million civilians being killed in Vietnam, including those not directly killed by America, that is still a small fraction of those murdered under Soviet rule. Thus, calling America and the Soviet Union equivalent, or claiming the Soviet Union is falsely demonised, are distorted assertions.

The Soviet Union, if anything, gets off easy, when considering how much more the name “Hitler” is invoked, whenever people make a comparison to label someone as synonymous with pure evil, as opposed to the far less invoked name of “Stalin.”