This count of 18 million, of course, is not including the abhorrent conditions, material and legal, ordinary Soviet workers toiled under. Remember that quitting your job without permission is grounds for GULAG! :)
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
211 points (99.5% liked)
History Memes
2118 readers
399 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism (including tankies/red fash), atrocity denial or apologia, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Piefed.social rules.
-
History referenced must be 20+ years old.
Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world
OTHER COMMS IN THE HISTORYVERSE:
- !historymusic@quokk.au
- !historygallery@quokk.au
- !historyruins@piefed.social
- !historyart@piefed.social
- !historyartifacts@piefed.social
- !historyphotos@piefed.social
founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
Remember that quitting your job without permission is grounds for GULAG!
Yep. And that's the distinction I would make between wage slavery and actual slavery.
In wage slavery, you can quit your job. You might have to find a different job in order to survive, you might become impoverished or homeless if you don't find a different job ... but you are legally allowed to quit your job. Nobody will come beat you or throw you in prison if you try to quit your job.
In slavery (whether or not you're being paid), you are not legally allowed to quit your job. You will face physical punishment for attempting to do so.
angry .ml noises
"If those fascists could read they'd be very upset."
Quite a few German POW from ww2 were only allowed home a decade later. And of course back home nobody knew whether they were still alive or not, families didn't even know if they'd fallen in the war or were send to a gulag. Many war widows clung onto the hope their husband would return someday for the rest of their live :(
I don't know much about it but from what I hear the soviets could have done better with the way the work was distributed. I was told Lenin essentially disbanded the soviets (unions?) that would have handled the deligation of labor. I refuse to read theory though so I'm just gonna speculate.
It's less that the Soviets were disbanded, and more that they were stripped of independence. They still elected representatives under Lenin, but the nominated representatives were generally tightly restricted to Bolshevik or Bolshevik-friendly candidates who would rubber-stamp Lenin's agenda. Under Stalin, it became a matter of outright single-candidate elections.
The reason tankies keep talking about theory is that the practice was absolutely abhorrent.
The reason tankies keep talking about theory is that the practice was absolutely abhorrent.
The soviet union was the worst thing to happen to the left wing. don't @ me.