Matvei Bronstein: Theorical physicist. Pioneer of quantum gravity. Arrested, accused of fictional “terroristic” activity and shot in 1938
Lev Shubnikov: Experimental physicist. Accused on false charges. Executed
Adrian Piotrovsky: Russian dramaturge. Accused on false charges of treason. Executed.
Nikolai Bukharin: Leader of the Communist revolution. Member of the Politburo. Falsely accused of treason. Executed.
General Alexander Egorov: Marshal of the Soviet Union. Commander of the Red Army Southern Front. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Arrested, accused on false charges, executed.
General Mikhail Tukhachevsky Supreme Marshal of the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the Red Napoleon. Arrested, accused on fake charges. Executed.
Grigory Zinoviev: Chairman of the Communist International Movement. Member of the Soviet Politburo. Accused of treason and executed.
Even the secret police themselves were not safe:
Genrikh Yagoda : Right-hand of Joseph Stalin. Head of the NKD Secret Police. He spied on everyone in Russia and jailed thousands of innocents. Yagoda was arrested and executed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrikh_Yagoda
Nikolai Yezhov : Appointed head of the NKD Secret Police after the death of Yagoda. Arrested on fake charges, executed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Yezhov
Everybody was absolutely terrified during this period. At least 600 000 people were killed and over 100 000 people were deported to Gulags in Siberia.
Today, Russian schools no longer teach what Joseph Stalin did. Many young russians actually believe that Stalin was a great patriot.
This is part of an effort by Vladimir Putin to rehabilitate him:
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/05/21/stalin-is-making-a-comeback-in-russia-heres-why-a89155
To me, Communism is a lot like Libertarianism and Anarchism. It SOUNDS fun on paper but once you start thinking through the implementation, it gets REAL bad. The go to for Libertarianism is “how do orphanages work”.
Communism? If you are in a managed economy where everyone contributes to society to the best of their ability… how do you decide who gets to do what? Who is a janitor and who is a scientist or philosopher? Aptitude tests only go so far because, sure, the people who score the best get to be scientists. What about the people who… don’t? Who is a janitor who spends time in the “muck” and who is in food service and who is in construction and so forth?
And the existence of Entertainment makes that even messier. How do you decide who gets to be a singer? Okay, maybe that one is easy if we ignore the existence of autotune. What about a model?
And… if you are the kind of person who believes that sex work is work… how do you pick who gets to be a sex worker?
While I am a firm believer that most (all?) attempts at Communism very rapidly became coopted into authoritarianism, if not outright fascism, it is very much worth looking at WHY that tends to happen.
And maybe get why so many of the true scotsmen who like the idea of communism tend to be REAL quick to describe ourselves as Socialists or even Democratic Socialists