Forming the Stalin Battalion!
Some instances we federate with have free account creation and some people use that to instantly post on Lemmygrad (like 2 days old accounts with comments only on Lemmygrad type of stuff)
I give you my blessing to dunk on those people when you see them, go as hard as you need (within reason).
But remember: people that are reasonable should receive the same too. I’m talking about pure trolls who know what they’re doing.
Then don’t forget to report them and we’ll ban them.
If we mobilise a front to counter trolls, I assure you they will stop soon enough because we take the fun out of it.
I recommend, the Stalinist cliché that I am, Grover Furr’s work. Notably Khruschev Lied, where many of the popular myths proliferated about Stalin are systematically debunked.
I would recommend, above Furr even, Ludo Martens’ Another View of Stalin alongside Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend. Both well-sourced critiques of Stalin and the USSR he helped lead that deliver a balanced, humanizing view.
From my own perspective, I would firstly feel inclined to address what I see as your hypocricy in calling for a balanced, non-Great Manish view, while still placing the blame for systemic failures that resulted from the actions of many squarely onto Stalin.
He was, of course, a man. A great man, in my view - I believe it is possible at once to admire an individual without lionizing them beyond historical recognition - but still just a man. I recommend the works for more balanced histories.
Great suggestions.
Reading the intro to each of these should be the bare minimum for people who want to talk about Stalin. I wouldn’t even mind if critics found a rigorous way of challenging these sources. But they have nothing.