So welcome aboard!

For starters, the “Great Famine” of 1921-22 took place after the “Whites” were defeated (largely by early 1920.) Therefore, the famines were not caused by “mobs of peasants”, but were a deliberate policy of the Soviet government. (As Lenin hiself admitted routinely.)

In fact, the Soviet’s wars against the peasants were instituted as early as 1918 via Lenin’s “War Communism” decrees which, in part, required the coercive conscription of peasants and the coercive “requisitioning” of food stuffs. By decree the peasants were to be left with as little as 1/10th of the total needed to sustain life.

“I have no idea what you mean by Lenin’s allowing for private initiative.”

Then you need to read more. From, _The Black Book Of Communism_, Harvard University Press, 1999, p. 133.

Market mechanisms, which had not been operational from 1914 to 1922, were partly reinstated by Bolshevik authorities and were temporarily tolerated….Famines became more and more rare, and the peasants once again could eat as much as they needed.

Defending Lenin? What? My point is when the peasants were left alone by Soviet authorities they were able to feed themselves. When the Soviets interfered they starved. Those are the facts. Your statement that it was “unruly mobs of peasants” causing all the troubles in Russia is simply wrong.

Uneducated peasants may not be the ideal ruling class, but at least they didnt institute mass deportations, set up concentration camps, use poison gas on civilian populations, attempt the extermination of whole classes of people (kulaks or Cossacks), employ homicidal terror, use hunger as a political weapon, and set up the brutal Cheka.

I have no idea what you mean by Lenin’s allowing for private initiative. Nothing but. And less then a year after the revolution we were in full-blown civil war.

So the famine really came to Russia after the communists took over. Stalin gets a lot of flack for late twenties, but truth is, Lenin’s policies were not much different. Hope you’re not going to defend Lenin here.

It was only Stalin’s “collectivization” schemes that brought hunger and starvation back.

There is nothing intelligent about the noble class selling out our liberties just because they need to retain their place in the VIP room.

And when your noble overlords illegally use their Big Brother government to investigate the insides of your anal cavities, don’t come here asking for help.

The trouble with these particular people is that they are by and large indistinguishable from 95% of Democrats. Almost by definition, these are NOT the “intellectuals” of the conservative movement. These are the syncophants who tied themselves to Republican power and little else.

These shallow hucksters have shown themselves for what they actually are, and that can be nothing but a good. And remember, my concern here is with conservatism, which can not (and should not) be exactly the same as the Republican party.

That’s right. Banish everybody who smells like “elite” from GOP. Great idea. You can still survive for a little while mongering fear and demagoguing about “economic freedom”. But in the end if you banish intellectuals, you run out of ideas.

Which really sucks. I don’t really like the thought of Dems controlling the presidency and both chambers of congress. GOP at least should provide thoughtful opposition to what is a set up for overreaching and abuse of power. And you still sit on your old rancid tune of “economic freedom”, “small government”, and all this bullcrap. Shame on you guys, the country needs you to come up with something fresh!

In the mean time, while you are wallowing in your sorrows of imminent defeat, go rent “Idiocracy”. Great movie.