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**arerrurrY** · 07-07-2009, 12:06 AM

I'm not sure what to say, really. Rosemary Edmonds knew Elder Sophrony very well and spoke absolutely fluent Russian; I'd be surprised if she did not report what he said to her accurately. Obviously, I would not want at all to put in any plea of mitigation for Stalin but there was a softer line towards the Church from 1945 until his death in 1953. Khrushchev revived severe persecution. Demonic as the Soviet system was, and though dissidents were still cruelly treated, the scale of oppression was much less in the decades after WWII than it had been before, and the majority of Soviet citizens lived reasonable lives after WWII if what I know from my wife's family and their friends is anything to go by. (That said, very few Russians I know or know of regret the passing of the Soviet Union.) Had the Nazis won, then since they regarded the Russians as 'untermenschen', things would surely have been far worse.

We do not believe in the infallibility of one single person.
Andreas you can not compare inhuman conditions and say one is better or worse. Plus you can't mention "reasonable lives" during communism of your wife and family since you have told me that they were part of the elite; and how the communist elite lived is not the standard how people lived in communism. Yes of course many who lost their privileges, will have nostalgia for the communist regime. And please stop comparing Nazis with Communists and trying to depict the latter as softer, because both are regimes, dictatorships, cruel, inhuman ... I know your wife has had an easy life in communism but just for the sake of those who suffered in communism just do not try to make it sound as communism was not a curse because of people's sins. You have really no idea what Stalin did, because he was a leader in the communist idea for the entire Eastern Block. You have really no idea what it means to live in communism (persecuted or not). You have no idea. Perhaps I should start a thread where we can enumerate and tell "the reasonable lives" in communism starting with the life of Father Arseny. Nazism and Communism (and other such regimes) are both evil and a shame for humanity.

07-07-2009, 12:06 AM	#8
arerrurrY Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 411 Senior Member	I'm not sure what to say, really. Rosemary Edmonds knew Elder Sophrony very well and spoke absolutely fluent Russian; I'd be surprised if she did not report what he said to her accurately. Obviously, I would not want at all to put in any plea of mitigation for Stalin but there was a softer line towards the Church from 1945 until his death in 1953. Khrushchev revived severe persecution. Demonic as the Soviet system was, and though dissidents were still cruelly treated, the scale of oppression was much less in the decades after WWII than it had been before, and the majority of Soviet citizens lived reasonable lives after WWII if what I know from my wife's family and their friends is anything to go by. (That said, very few Russians I know or know of regret the passing of the Soviet Union.) Had the Nazis won, then since they regarded the Russians as 'untermenschen', things would surely have been far worse. We do not believe in the infallibility of one single person. Andreas you can not compare inhuman conditions and say one is better or worse. Plus you can't mention "reasonable lives" during communism of your wife and family since you have told me that they were part of the elite; and how the communist elite lived is not the standard how people lived in communism. Yes of course many who lost their privileges, will have nostalgia for the communist regime. And please stop comparing Nazis with Communists and trying to depict the latter as softer, because both are regimes, dictatorships, cruel, inhuman ... I know your wife has had an easy life in communism but just for the sake of those who suffered in communism just do not try to make it sound as communism was not a curse because of people's sins. You have really no idea what Stalin did, because he was a leader in the communist idea for the entire Eastern Block. You have really no idea what it means to live in communism (persecuted or not). You have no idea. Perhaps I should start a thread where we can enumerate and tell "the reasonable lives" in communism starting with the life of Father Arseny. Nazism and Communism (and other such regimes) are both evil and a shame for humanity.
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