judging a character by today’s standards is not only bad faith but a terrible argument.
While I’m not entire sure whether such claim is true or not (or even if Stalin had any say in that), you have to understand that material conditions back then were much different from today’s.
Does this “redeem” the CPSU in this regard? Not really, no, they should be criticized, but to claim Stalin was a terrible man because of this one policy (that he either had no say in or had no real power to change if he wanted to) is just bad faith. Stalin was not the king or god emperor of the USSR.
No, the material conditions were the same. In the 1920s, the world was in the midst of a surge of queer awareness, knowledge, acceptance, and progress. The institute of sex research in Germany was doing transgender surgeries. Homosexuality was more accepted than it had been in centuries. And the Nazis were doing everything they could to change that, which they eventually succeeded in doing. The political climate around queer issues was the same as it is today. Stalin had the opportunity to be on the forefront of knowledge if he had only opened his eyes. And the USSR was on the cusp of increasing queer rights dramatically up until Stalin became the head of the government.
judging a character by today’s standards is not only bad faith but a terrible argument.
While I’m not entire sure whether such claim is true or not (or even if Stalin had any say in that), you have to understand that material conditions back then were much different from today’s.
Does this “redeem” the CPSU in this regard? Not really, no, they should be criticized, but to claim Stalin was a terrible man because of this one policy (that he either had no say in or had no real power to change if he wanted to) is just bad faith. Stalin was not the king or god emperor of the USSR.
No, the material conditions were the same. In the 1920s, the world was in the midst of a surge of queer awareness, knowledge, acceptance, and progress. The institute of sex research in Germany was doing transgender surgeries. Homosexuality was more accepted than it had been in centuries. And the Nazis were doing everything they could to change that, which they eventually succeeded in doing. The political climate around queer issues was the same as it is today. Stalin had the opportunity to be on the forefront of knowledge if he had only opened his eyes. And the USSR was on the cusp of increasing queer rights dramatically up until Stalin became the head of the government.