Talk:Soviet Union and state-sponsored terrorism

Brian Crozier - reliability of anti-communist propaganda
It's about the first sentence "The Soviet Union and other communist states were major sponsors of international terrorism." - Crozier, Brian (2005) Crozier was a known propagandist and worked together with intelligence services. For me sounds the claim "major sponsors of international terrorism" not trustworthy. Is someone able to proof the source for evidence?--2A00:C1A0:8082:BB00:910B:DC8E:5507:602A (talk) 05:49, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Misleading statements, bias, and selective sourcing.
While the legacy of the Stalin years is almost universally accepted as one of unmitigated repression, could the entire history of the Soviet Union be so simply classified?

This article fails to differentiate between the original and contemporary definitions of "terrorism," the former being the political repression exercised by the regime following the French Revolution, and the latter being the violence of a covert group, the nature of which is almost always the indiscriminate killing of civilians for the publicity that the event would generate for a cause. While the Soviet Union certainly, in its formative years, carried out a sweeping repression of political opponents, the continued program of imprisonment and internal surveillance as I understand it was one intended to single out active dissidents, and directly interfered very little in the lives of rank-and-file citizens in comparison with the Stalinist era. This article makes it seem as though the entire lifespan of the Soviet Union was characterized by a climate of absolute fear and iron-fisted repression, and in so doing glosses over the absence of terror-supported totalitarianism during the Khrushchev Thaw and the Gorbachev liberalizations, which when combined comprise about 20% of the period in which the USSR existed.

When the portrayal of the Soviet system as a completely fear-driven entity are combined with the mention of "support for international terrorist organizations," it would lead one to believe that the United States and other Western powers did not engage in policies of a similar and in certain cases worse nature. To remove the context of the Cold War from that statement is to construct a ludicrously misleading claim, as it was a period in which the United States merely supported right-wing dictatorships in response to the Soviet support for leftist ones. The fact that certain organizations receiving Soviet aid engaged in terrorist activities is substantiated, yes, but such support was commonplace on both sides at the time. While this doesn't justify it, it certainly doesn't warrant the subsequent classification of the Soviet Union throughout its entire history as a terror state, which from the tone of the article is a classification made out of a feeling of triumphalism on the part of a politically-motivated writer.

Finally, the use of certain sources reflects the questionable nature of this article, as I highly doubt that the likes of Richard Pipes, a CIA operative and Reagan Administration official, or "The Black Book of Communism," a book which itself is criticized for a one-sided view of the relevant situations could hardly constitute objective and neutral sources. The remainder of the article contains for the most part accurate information, yet even this is surrounded by statements such as "People were executed simply for who they were, not for their deeds" and "since the importance of terror follows from Marxism (sic) teaching which considers human lives as expendable material for construction of the brighter future society," statements which are not sourced, inaccurate both in view of the events themselves and in an interpretation of Marxist philosophy, which despite arguable shortcomings certainly does not view human lives as an expendable resource, and which are clearly intended to provoke an emotional response, rather than provide meaningful and accurate information.

The subject of this article warrants investigation, as it is a subject of profound importance for the history of the 20th century. Any investigations, however, should contain facts as opposed to opinions, should be supported by accurate and neutral sources, and should conform to the general standards of encyclopedic writing. The article in its current state is just simply awful, as what could otherwise have been a mature and informative exploration of Stalinist-era terror and the excesses of a powerful state security organization has, like so many other Wikipedia articles, become instead a forum for the expression of the personal views of a user motivated not by a desire to convey information, but to advance their particular interpretation of history. Being a Marxist, I would prefer that such changes would be made by someone else, but if no one does, I will attempt to make them myself in a manner that leaves my personal views out of it. --Apjohns54 (talk) 06:08, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Final cleanup of Communist terrorism
As part of the final cleanup of Communist terrorism I have done some major rearranging of sections of text: -- Petri Krohn (talk) 01:26, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I have moved two sections from Revolutionary terror in the Soviet Union to Revolutionary terror
 * I have renamed Revolutionary terror in the Soviet Union to Terrorism and The Soviet Union (should go to Terrorism and the Soviet Union)
 * I have moved the section Western perspectives on terrorism committed by groups claiming adherence to Communist ideology of Communist terrorism to be the new lede section of this article.
 * I have moved the parts of the lede section of Communist terrorism to the lede section of Left-wing terrorism.
 * As there was no content left in the Communist terrorism article, I reverted it to the disambiguation page.

I like the way you fixed the mess with this article. However it misses a significant point: the ideological position of the Soviet Union; how these actions were justified: something along the lines "struggle for peace" and "support of revolutionary movements", "liberation of working class", "support of national liberation movements", "anti-imperialism", etc. Lovok Sovok (talk) 16:46, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Title
Can an admin remove the capital 'T' from 'The' in the title? I tried to move it but am not allowed. Lapsed Pacifist (talk) 03:24, 13 January 2011 (UTC)


 * You may do it by moving the article. Click on the downward arrow and choose "move".  TFD (talk) 18:44, 13 January 2011 (UTC)


 * No, I may not. I tried again and was again not allowed. That is why I asked for an admin to assist. Lapsed Pacifist (talk) 17:07, 12 March 2011 (UTC)


 * ✅. TFD (talk) 01:36, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Big Spring State Park
This sentence shows an error. Big Spring State Park (Pennsylvania) is in Perry County and in the Susquehanna River watershed, not the Delaware. I am not sure what park is supposed to be the target, but it's probably not the one in Perry County.
 * Disruption of the power supply in the entire New York State by KGB sabotage teams, which would be based along the Delaware River, in the Big Spring Park.
 * Big Spring State Park in Pennsylvania is in south central PA in Perry County, Pennsylvania and in the Susquehanna River basin. Gerry D (talk) 00:50, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Ion Mihai Pacepa
This guy is the main source here? Seriously? He's hardly a reputable source nor are the publications he frequently contribute to. Mitrohkin is a bit better but also suspect. The fact that this article is based almost entirely on those two-- a right-wing conspiracy crank cashing in on his defection, and a guy who's notes were all from memory of things he supposedly read in the KGB archives years before they were published in the West-- makes me wonder if this article is even worth having or should be merged with some other Soviet topic until someone who isn't an idiot creates an article that isn't based entirely on two unreliable sources. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.136.75.169 (talk) 04:48, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Citations: KGB in Europe
There are several citations of a book allegedly titled "KGB in Europe" in this article. Is this the book titled "The Mitrokhin archive : the KGB in Europe and the West" by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin or a different book? Also, which edition and ISBN number are we talking about? An edition published in 1996 has 995 pages, but there appear to be several other editions and I am not sure if they are merely reprints or revised editions with different content. There are also different volumes with similar titles. Unfortunately, only short citations have been used, without fully citing the book concerned. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 06:45, 24 July 2022 (UTC)