Almost a good expansion pack.
As usual, HOI4 does some great man of history BS that feeds into pop-culture understandings of history rather than trying to portray the events themselves. I guess you could say that they're trying to make interesting gameplay decisions around the purges, but it sounds like everything boils down to "spend your political power now or risk losing random government advisors/generals later", which is hardly a compelling choice.
TBH once I got good enough at HOI4 to beat it, it got boring fast, and the fanbase has proven themselves time and again to be better historical CYOA writers than the Paradox devs.
just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not right
It's just a minor thing in this article, but there's this Western fetish for the balkanisation of China. Every rebellion in China must be imagined as if it could have been successful (there's no Bavarian Soviet Republic in this game, for contrast) and the territory claims of the Republic of China must be delegitimized in favor of warlords and Imperial Japan. Somehow, the Western norms of state sovereignty don't apply here.
US paranoia during the McCarthyist 1950s made Stalin look like a naif in comparison
Among the "lesser" classes, yes. Among the ruling class and petit-bourgeoisie, who perpetuated it, it was one of the best investments they'd ever made.
she was an integral part of the early hexbear experience, feeling really nostalgic now.
Are there any mods that portray Soviet history well?
Great Man BS aside, I'm not really that bothered by this, given how much worse it could have been handled, seeing PDX's treatment of Socialism/Communism in general. At least it's not HOI4 now, where "Stalin is a big evil doo-doo head but also there's a civil war if he isn't enough of one". The biggest worry is that the gameplay is going to just end up dull, since not having your best advisors and generals purged at the cost of some mana is the obvious choice.
(Also, obligatory "Stalin did bad stuff and shouldn't be uncritically lionized" take)
The purges were largely nonsensical and based on farce so I don't see many other ways they could've handled it
I mean, some was paranoia and people getting caught in the witchhunt (Stalin, Beria, and Yezhov all admitted this in private correspondence), some was actual treason, quite a bit was German intelligence having completely hacked the NKVD.
Libs think that a Socialist revolution in a country dominated by the Russian Orthodox Church and literal monarchists running Pogroms for Jewish people wouldn't have a massive and ongoing counter-revolution for decades.
Liberals unironically think that the Whites and the Nazis phased out of existence after their armies scattered. No object permanence.
No, that's anti-Communist garbage. Read Origins of the Great Purges.
Origins of the Great Purges
:LIB:gen link:
http://library.lol/main/202D73A751817E9D047121E74D02671C
you have a real argument or you just gonna spew trot/CIA shit lmao
stalin wasnt the reason for why the soviet union fell but hes purges played a part in creating an incapable and opressive state
even bougie historial steve kotkin agrees that the trot-nazi fifth olumn was a valid concern
The original hoi4 made the purges necessary to avoid civil war.
"Making stuff more anti-communist is good" – Intelligent and rational socialist.
fucking love this stalinist shit here completely disconnected from real world i guess thats why you can say that assad should never step down
The (in)famous and anti-communist CBTS mod does that too, weirdly.
Raskova's Aviation Group
:lets-fucking-go:
Excited that the soviets will finally have a good tree after all this time.
I usually go Trotsky for the memes anyway, guess we'll see how that alternate paths turn out.
