By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 June 2023
The Decembrist Revolt: Russia’s Revolutionary Tradition Begins
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Tag Archives: Joseph Stalin
A Flawed Film Brings Attention to the Soviet Terror-Famine in Ukraine
The Soviet Role and (the Lack of) “Justice” At Nuremberg
British MP, Soviet Spy: Tom Driberg
A Prop of Autocracy and a Nest of Spies: The Russian Orthodox Church
Christianity, the West, and Russia’s War on Ukraine
“Socialism With A Human Face” Was Always Impossible
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 21 August 2022
It was on this day in 1968, fifty-four years ago, that the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, one of its colonies in the “Warsaw Pact”, which had embarked on a program of liberalising reforms. The Czech leadership did not intend to depart from the socialist path, merely to soften its edges—and ran into the brute fact that this was not possible. Continue reading
A Case of Red Terror in Spain: The Cárcel Modelo Massacre
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 8 October 2021
Cárcel Modelo, 1937 || MINISTERIO DE CULTURA. ESPAÑA
A fire was started at the Cárcel Modelo (Model Jail) in Madrid on 22 August 1936 by “common” criminals displeased with the pace of releases promised by the Republican government. The Republicans convinced themselves that the Carcel Modelo fire was a “fascist” uprising, brought about by conspiracy with General Franco’s forces outside the prison walls, who had initiated their rebellion a month earlier. The fire was used as a pretext by the Republicans to carry out a massacre of prisoners that lasted into the early hours of 23 August, in scenes reminiscent of the French Revolution’s September Massacres in 1792 that signalled the onset of the Terror. There were Rightist among the victims and some military men; there were also many liberals and non-Soviet Leftists. Continue reading
The Role of the “Fraternal Parties” in the Soviet Union’s Global Mission
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 9 August 2021
After the post looking at the relationship of Reuben Falber and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to the Soviet Union—namely the total subservience of the former to the latter—a follow-up was intended on the broader issue of the how the KGB and its predecessors interacted with the “fraternal” Parties around the world. Eighteen months later, this is that post. Let’s blame COVID.
The accusation that the Communist Parties around the world were fronts for the KGB was often derided as “McCarthyism” while the Cold War was going on. Arguments about that term in general to one side,[1] it certainly did not apply in this case. The accusations as stated were entirely factual. Continue reading
General Franco’s Intentions in the Second World War
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 25 June 2021
Writing recently about the first meeting between Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco at Hendaye on 23 October 1940, where the Führer tried to enlist Spain into the Axis, I concluded, drawing on Franco: The Man and His Nation by George Hills, a former BBC journalist and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society:
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