Stalin's terror was the most cruel event in the history of mankind

And who forced them not only to confess to imperfect crimes and slander their friends, but also to renounce the ideals that they actually were devoted to.

Semyon Kogan, publicist (USA)

An unexpected thought came to mind, which, I am sure, will not receive support, but I will express it anyway.

I think the Great Terror of 1937-1938. was the most violent event in human history!

Yes Yes! I didn't make a reservation! It is in the history of all mankind! And it was the Great Terror of 1937-1938.

Wait for me to pounce!

I remember very well all the wars, the Witch Hunt, the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Dispossession of Kulak and millions of other cruelties and atrocities that humanity has managed to commit during its existence!

But think about the fact that moral suffering is often worse than physical.

In the vast majority of cases throughout human history, people died at the hands of those whom they perceived as their enemies, whether it was an invader or a hostile party/religion or a soulless government.

Even if we are talking about innocent victims of massacres, then their suffering, no matter how terrible, is only the usual physical suffering and the horror of death inherent in any living being, you will forgive me for my cold cynicism.

But only during the years of the Great Terror, hundreds of thousands, even if blinded by a false idea, people took torment at the hands of those whom they considered their comrades and who forced them not only to confess to imperfect crimes and slander their friends, but also to renounce loyalty to those very ideals. to which they were actually true (whatever we now think about these ideals).

Nothing like this in the history of mankind on such a scale IMHO was not.

And if we take into account these moral torments, then maybe I'm not so wrong, what do you think?

(Inspired by the diaries and poems of Olga Bergholz.

How we loved - bitterly, rudely.

How we were deceived, loving,

As in interrogations, gritting your teeth,

We have denied ourselves.

And in the stuffiness of sleepless cells,

All day and night,

No tears, broken lips

Whispered: "Motherland ... People" ...)

PS

Well, think about such an imaginary terrible example.

It would seem that what could be worse than the Holocaust?

But imagine that believing Jews would be sent to the gas chambers not by the SS by Hitler's decision, as racially inferior, but by the verdict of the rabbinate court for a fictitious renunciation of the Faith and God.

Moreover, before the execution, they would have been forced to publicly confess this renunciation and stipulate other respected rabbis in it.

Well, how? Do you still not see the difference?