[crshults]

My son asked me the other night how long we were going to live which took me down the Oldest_people[0] rabbit-hole on wikipedia. On the page for Jeanne_Calment[1] I found this interesting line:

"She considered the most important historical event in her lifetime to have been the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the execution of the Russian imperial family, a view shared by many fellow centenarians."

Goes to show just how impactful this act must have been.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

[adrianN]

The Soviet Union shaped much of 20th century politics so this view is pretty reasonable.

[TangoTrotFox]

I can only imagine, but one thing that's really striking to me is how incredibly long the Soviet Union lasted. There have been a lot of awful things that have happened in history, but they tend to go as rapidly as they come especially when it comes to major powers in modern times. For instance the entire era of Nazi Germany was a mere 12 years from start to finish! The Soviet Union lasted for 69 years.

And the USSR itself was a communistic nation where the government even thinking you said the wrong thing was enough to get disappeared. And tens of millions citizens were killed by this government in its efforts to maintain itself. And then there was the fact that the economic system itself was failing as evidenced from decades of completely unnecessary shortages on pretty much everything. There was a joke within the Soviet Union that the only thing that's permanent within the union are temporary shortages. Of course, again, say such a joke to the wrong person and get disappeared.

Imagine living your entire life from birth to your sixties under such a system. I find it remarkable how little focus is given to things like lessons from the USSR as opposed to e.g. lessons from the Nazis.

[Fnoord]

> There was a joke within the Soviet Union that the only thing that's permanent within the union are temporary shortages. Of course, again, say such a joke to the wrong person and get disappeared.

For a list of Russian jokes (including the Soviet Union) see [1]. I got it from HN a while ago btw so I'm merely giving it back. Free quality entertainment, and also you can observe how subtle or multiple interpretable the jokes commonly are.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_jokes

[myth_drannon]

I think more comparable with Nazism would be Stalinizm. It didn't last that long(although the horrors done to the Soviet people in that short time are unimaginable). Most of Soviet Union's history and the Cold War is relatively calm if I just subjectively compare to our times.

[Fins]

Mass slaughter started well before Stalin, so at least 30+ years. What followed was calm compared to Stalin, or to North Korea, but nevertheless you wouldn't want to compare it to saner parts of the world.

[lostlogin]

When are you saying the slaughter started? 30 years pre-Stalin takes you back to before communist rule by my estimate, however there are a variety of points you can measure from.

[Fins]

Slaughter started with Lenin (not even counting the Civil War), so from the revolution to 1953 give you a bit over 30 years, give or take.

[rexpop]

Not surprising at all, since reading China Miéville's "October".