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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKhrushchev's great-granddaughter: Trump's America in some ways worse than Russia during my childhood
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/donald-trump-s-not-quite-joseph-stalin-his-fake-news-ncna838456Trumps America is in some ways even worse than Russia was during my Soviet childhood.
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As a former Soviet citizen, I am frequently overcome by a horror-movie feeling of fear and disbelief. Its almost as if I dont know where I am. In cosmopolitan New York? Or back in monotonous Moscow, listening to Soviet leaders boasting from the Kremlin about Communisms drummed-up victories and denouncing their illusory enemies?
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake delivered a pre-planned speech from the Senate floor on Wednesday criticizing the presidents attacks on the press. Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Joseph Stalin to describe his enemies," Flake said. Frankly, Trumps America is in some ways even worse than it was during my Soviet childhood. When I was growing up in Moscow in the 1970s, not even Pravda used such menacing language for the Kremlins critics.
In the early years after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, and particularly under Joseph Stalins despotic regime in the 1930s, enemies of the people emerged as the regime's most terrifying label. During Stalins Great Purges of 1936-38, the term vragi naroda (enemies of the people) branded all those who disagreed with the Kremlin whether about the planned economy, unfree press or predetermined election results. That label, which defined Soviet reality, typically resulted in immediate death or imprisonment within the Gulag of harsh labor camps.
This changed when Nikita S. Khrushchev, my great-grandfather, denounced his predecessor Stalin during a 1956 speech to the Communist Party. Khrushchev dismantled the Stalinesque system of the Gulag camps, and, perhaps as important, the vragi naroda became a tragedy of the past. The term itself was retired; Khrushchev considered the hateful language damaging to the Soviet Unions fragile recovery from totalitarianism.
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Not only does Trump appear less democratic than the Soviet autocrat Khrushchev, but his anti-free speech rhetoric places him in unsavory company; the current pantheon of world rulers who share his disdain for the free press include Russias Vladimir Putin, Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chinas Xi Jinping and the Philippiness Rodrigo Duterte.
In democratic societies, a free press guaranties that the states menacing language can never turn into menacing actions against its people as Stalins Gulags did. Thats how many dictatorships have thrived. Where would Nazi Germany be without Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who dubbed the Jews the sworn enemy of the German people because they doubted Adolf Hitlers Aryan agenda?
Of course, the flashy real-estate tycoon-turned-reality-TV-star-turned-foulmouthed president is arguably more like Charlie Chaplins buffoon character in The Great Dictator (1940) than the real Hitler or Stalin. Or perhaps Trump is more like Hollywoods mean clown Pennywise "Trumpywise" insulting some, punching others and scaring the rest.
But the danger of this nightmare is that it gets more real every day. And the longer it lasts, the harder it will be to wake up.
Khruscheva is professor of international affairs at The New School.
Leghorn21
(13,524 posts)Yet, when Trump tweets, or when speeches or ads attack the news media, this still can amount to the conditions of state censorship. Before Michael Wolffs book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was released, the presidents personal lawyer filed suit to stop its publication. As the book garnered widespread attention this month, Trump indignantly objected to the current libel laws [that] are a sham and a disgrace, and do not represent American values or American fairness.
Fairness for who? This kind of pronouncement is designed to instill intimidation and fear. It creates volatility threats shouted from the top, even without the threat of physical harm, can restrict public debate and influence public policy. Such actions reinforce social and political inequalities, and foster an atmosphere of mistrust and animosity between political parties and social groups. As a recent report from the think tank Freedom House argues, basic rights and political freedoms in the United States are deteriorating at a faster pace under President Donald Trump, exacerbated by attacks on key institutions like the press and the courts."
Response to highplainsdem (Original post)
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WyLoochka
(1,629 posts)I remember the late 50's and the 60's - the stories that came out about Stalin and the ensuing worldwide condemnation.
I kept thinking, surely someone who would know, someone who was there will speak up about the similarities of trump 's rhetoric to stalin's.
Thank you, Nina Khrushcheva