The Sailors of Kronstadt
 

The Smithsonian Channel is running an excellent program on the Russian Revolution. A lot more to it than I realized.

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc...ution-in-color

Dave

Sounds interesting, I'll try to catch it.

But I've lost a lot of respect for the Smithsonian Channel after I caught part of their "Life After Aliens" program, or whatever they called that hogwash.

Somehow, a bunch of people crawling out of a cave and destroying the mother ship by sending an IED up their giant vacuum sweeper...and then cheering like a bunch of numb nuts at the big game...was a little too incredulous for even my pea brain to comprehend...even through a drunken fog.

Chas

I'd never heard of that one. It does seem beneath them.

Maybe they will stream it on their site someday.


Carl

Pretty sure I saw it on their channel, for no other reason than I couldn't believe that they would air such garbage.

But I was slightly intoxicated. Otherwise I wouldn't have watched it for 10 seconds. As it is, I'm out about 15 minutes of my life. Even worse, it was so pathetic that it wasn't even funny.

Chas

I thought they do.

Oh. Trailers only.

They do have a few shows just not this one. Maybe after this season is done they will post it. I would really enjoy hearing what those sailors had to write home about.


Carl

Nearly all of them wound up dead, betrayed by the Soviets.

I was wrong, it was "Alien Invasion" on the National Geographic Channel.

My apologies to the Smithsonian Channel.

That said, I would have expected better from the National Geographic.

Chas

So they were white army, or did they get "Stalinized"?


Carl

It's a long story, Carl. Suffice it to say that they supported the Soviets because they thought it would lead to less centralized government, then discovered there was no difference between Bolshevik and Soviet. So, they rebelled and were gunned down by the very people they had just fought a revolution for.

Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt_rebellion

The first two demands sealed the fate of the sailors.

It's terrible. And they weren't the only ones, just among the first.

Pete

Very true, Pete. Have you seen the program?

No, but I've read a good bit of Russian history. Everyone points to Stalin as a butcher, and he was, but Lenin was no slouch.

If I get a chance I will definitely watch it.

Pete

Lenin was far more intelligent than Stalin, which made him more dangerous in some ways.

Stalin was just a stupid bully that killed everyone who pissed him off. It was his answer to everything.

Sometimes I think things might have been more difficult for us had Lenin outlived Stalin.

Yeah, Stalin seems like a crude man. Lenin starved and killed people to help them :rolleyes:

I've often thought about who's the worst murderer in history. As terrible as it is to be targeted by race religion or income, Stalin often just did it at random, and killed them accidently for the most part. Mega-death by callousness. Can we re-animate these guys, so we can shoot them?

Pete

He cut their pay and laid half of them off to save their jobs, it was done for their own good.;):p

:D

Pete

The Soviet leadership had a chance to execute him during the period immediate after the beginning of the German invasion.
He lost his marbles a went in a stupor. I guess they were still enamored and or afraid of him.

He was informed that the Germans were going to attacked and just did not believe it. Even Molotov failed to convince him.
One principal result: The Germans caught the air force napping on the ground and almost destroyed it.

All I'm saying is that an evil genius is a bigger threat.

Dave