| Quote: ‘(Stalin) exterminated an awful lot of non-Russians who had traditionally resisted the central Russian state’ Yes, he did but not because they were non-Russians and the Soviet Union was not a "central Russian state". Stalin’s power was centered in the power of the Communist Party that by design (and ideology) spanned all nationalities. Quote: ‘The rise of the modern state enabled ideological mass-killing, but that just added another reason to all the other ones - ethnic, religious, colonial conquest, etc.’ Yes, exactly, "ideological mass-killing". Of course there was plenty of other killing all along but I am sure you’d agree that’s irrelevant to the thesis. I assume, of course, you were not trying to say that since people were killing each other before we should not try to understand the causes of 20th century atrocities. So back to the obvious question: Who developed the ideas of the ideologies that are at the root of ideological mass-killing? Just consider your own words (and the ideas behind them). I don’t think you need reeducation. You went straight to the core, quite intuitively. |