I have a friend who is by all accounts very socialist but was absolutely horrified when I claimed that the USSR was not “bad” and that many of the deaths it is blamed for have a much more complicated reason. They also called me a tankie, much to my despair as it really displayed to me how many brainworms they have. They also were fairly close to calling me a genocide denier 💀
This person is a freshman in college and I’d like to try and help them unlearn these ideas. They are queer and Canadian,and they also thought Vaush was great if that’s helpful at all. Does anyone have any accessible resources to help them unlearn what they’ve been taught about the USSR?
They actually went for the big red Holodomor button, not even the little stuff people like to start off with yk?
But as a strategy I think just disproving the smallest myths might work? Since then I can set up the narrative that it was honestly a fairly normal country to live in and it wasn’t a hell scape, which I think is a good place to start? I’ll give Citations Needed a listen first tbh since I’ve never listened to it sadly- that way I can I give it to someone else as a genuine listener rather than just a thing to throw at them! Thanks for the advice comrade :)
Are they the sort that might be swayed by, say, the fact that even anti-communist historian Robert Conquest revised his opinion on the "Holodomor" after the release of the Soviet Archives and since then no longer believes it was a deliberate attack on Ukraine?
EDIT:
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-double-genocide-theory
https://spme.org/spme-research/analysis/clemens-heni-the-prague-declaration-antisemitism-with-a-democratic-face/7822/
https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/11/21/in-search-of-a-soviet-holocaust/
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Absolutely will look into In Search of a Soviet Holocaust! Thanks for the recommendation comrade!
Unfortunately, Holomodor shit is basically in the mainstream historical narrative now (at least in the imperial core). Look at all the European countries issuing condemnations of it. Unless someone reads about the period in a university-level history class they're going to be susceptible to it.