So, I am reading for an exam on a course about racism and anti-racism and one of the source materials we were given is this chapter on a book about european racism: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-78990-3_5
After reading it, I am taken aback with the way these authors just state "Stalinist terror" in a very matter of factly way. Also the analysis of racism in the context of the Soviet Union seems lacking, looking at the sources they are mostly from the West and from times after the Soviet collapsed.
Does anyone have any sources on racism within the Soviet project written by the people or academia who actually lived those times, because I feel like the analysis on this text I was given is very sus.
Not quite what you're looking for, but I've got a copy of the textbook 'The Soviet System of Government' by John N. Hazard 🏴☠️ and this thing jumps at every chance to point out how much better the US is than the USSR, often to the point of hilarity.
Like, we're talking about a book that's got a chapter called 'The Heritage of Terror' and racism doesn't even warrant a mention in the index. I'm not saying there wasn't any racism, but if it was a major problem like on the level of white supremacy in the US this book would have happily been all over it.
Well the text I read does read very similarly to your example. It's kind of obvious yet hard to define.
I am supposed to quote this stuff in my exam answer and am trying to find a way to add a critique of the framing of "terror" to it, but so far haven't figured out how I am going to do that.
Oh, I'm sure. Rather than an 'appeal to authority', I think it of as 'an appeal to western chauvinism' because they don't offer concrete examples; It's just something we all "know" because we live under the cultural hegemony.
You might find this review calling out Red Famine helpful.
https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169438
I encountered a number of issues that the reviewer discussed with Soviet System of Government as if they were textbook techniques of disinformation. One of the most glaring was when Soviet System of Government was discussing court case examples of how the "potentially authoritarian" courts found in favor of the defendants, clearing their name, but brushed that documented evidence away by referencing unincluded anecdotal evidence by unnamed refugees.
That was a great read. It actually covers a lot of similar issues I found in this book I am reading.
They even use a Guardian article as a reference in the one I am reading, just so sus.
Cool, hopefully it helps ya. It's a trial to read this sort of shit and not really have a clear path to explain it to people that haven't ever considered that they were taught wrong.