Comrade:ComradeSyntrofos/sandbox/Debunking myths

Here I'll cite sources to debunk common anti-communist and other myths. Of course, if I find more material, I'll add it here.

Titles with an asterisk are not finished.

Anti-communist myths

Soviet Union / Warsaw Pact*

Myth 1: "The Soviet Union manufactured a famine in Ukraine"

• RESOURCE 1: Fraud, Famine, and Fascism by Douglas Tottle
• RESOURCE 2: The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933 by Mark Tauger
• RESOURCE 3: Natural Disaster and Human Actions in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1933 by Mark Tauger
• RESOURCE 4: The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931–1933 by Davies and Wheatcroft
• RESOURCE 5: Lies Concerning the History of the Soviet Union by Mario Sousa

Myth 2: "The Soviet Union was a totalitarian dictatorship which killed millions of people"

• RESOURCE 1: The Triumph of Evil by Austin Murphy
• RESOURCE 2: Human Rights in the Soviet Union by Albert Syzmanski
• RESOURCE 3: Another View of Stalin by Ludo Martens
• RESOURCE 4: Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives by Getty and Manning
• RESOURCE 5: Origins of the Great Purges by J. Arch Getty
• RESOURCE 6: The Road to Terror by J. Arch Getty
• RESOURCE 7: Other studies by historian by J. Arch Getty
• RESOURCE 8: The Legacy of Stalinism by "brown-eggs"
• RESOURCE 9: Khrushchev Lied by Grover Furr
• RESOURCE 10: Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
• RESOURCE 11: Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's 'Bloodlands' Is False by Grover Furr

Myth 3: "The Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were undemocratic"

• RESOURCE 1: Soviet Communism: A New Civilization by Sydney and Beatrice Webb
• RESOURCE 2: Is the Red Flag Flying? by Albert Syzmanski
• RESOURCE 3: Socialism Betrayed by Keeran and Kenny
• RESOURCE 4: Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia, 1934–1941 by Robert Thurston
• RESOURCE 5: The Russians are Coming: The Politics of Anti-Sovietism by V.L. Allen
• RESOURCE 6: The 1936 Soviet Constitution
• RESOURCE 7: Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan

Myth 4: "Lenin actually wanted to be succeeded in Trotsky, not Stalin"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 5: "The Nazis and the Soviets were the same and were allies"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 6: "Stalin was an anti-semite"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 7: "Beria was a pedophile"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 8: "The 1921-1922 famine was manufactured by the Soviet Union"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 9: "The 1956 Hungarian Revolution was a democratic revolution against the communists and was brutally repressed by the Soviet Union"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 10: "The Prague Spring was a democratic revolution against the communists and was brutally repressed by the Soviet Union"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 11: "Stalin wanted a divided Germany"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 12: "East Germany was a totalitarian dictatorship which killed everyone who tried to leave and was also poor"*

• RESOURCE 1: Democracy, East Germany, and the Berlin Wall by Stephen Gowans\

Myth 13: "Stalin wanted to control Yugoslavia"*

(TO BE STARTED)

People's Republic of China*

Myth 1: "Mao killed ~78 million people"

• RESOURCE 1:Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward? by Joseph Ball
• RESOURCE 2:Monster or Liberator? by Carlos Martinez
• RESOURCE 3: The Battle for China's Past by Mobo Gao
• RESOURCE 4: Was Mao Really a Monster? The Academic Response to Chang and Halliday's "Mao: The Unknown Story" by Benton and Chun
• RESOURCE 5: How did Mao manage to kill ~78 million people? by Godfree Roberts

Myth 2: "China under Mao was a totalitarian dictatorship"

• RESOURCE 1: The Rise of the Chinese People's Communes by Anna Louise Strong
• RESOURCE 2: The Chinese Road to Socialism: Economics of the Cultural Revolution by E. L. Wheelwright
• RESOURCE 3: Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton
• RESOURCE 4: Shenfan: The Continuing Revolution in a Chinese Village by William Hinton

Myth 3: "China has reverted to capitalism"*

• RESOURCE 1: Why China is not Capitalist by ProleWiki user and PRC citizen GojiraTheWumao

Myth 4: "China is a totalitarian dictatorship"*

• RESOURCE 1: Constitution of the People's Republic of China
• RESOURCE 2: UN resolution on Global South countries

Myth 5: "China commits a genocide against Uyghurs"*

• RESOURCE 1: World Bank investigation of Xinjiang
• RESOURCE 2: Organization of Islamic Cooperation investigation of Xinjiang (document 1)
• RESOURCE 3: Organization of Islamic Cooperation investigation of Xinjiang (document 2)
• RESOURCE 4: Egyptian media delegates visit Xinjiang

Myth 6: "China is an imperialist country that wants to puppetize Africa"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 7: "China commits cultural genocide in Tibet"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Cuba

Myth 1: "Che was a bloodthirsty butcher"

• RESOURCE 1: Che: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
• RESOURCE 2: Debunking the 'Che Guevara Was Racist!' Lie by Cuervo Rojo

Myth 2: "Cuba is a dictatorship and a horrible place to live"

• RESOURCE 1: 20 Reasons to Support Cuba
• RESOURCE 2: Cuba: A Revolution in Motion by Isaac Saney
• RESOURCE 3: Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion by Arnold August + https://www.democracyintheus.com/
• RESOURCE 4: Cuban Democracy Fact Sheet
• RESOURCE 5: All in This Together: Cuba's Participatory Democracy
• RESOURCE 6: The Elected Delegate and the Dissident in Cuba's Municipal Elections by Arnold August
• RESOURCE 7: 2002 Cuban Constitution
• RESOURCE 8: Work and Democracy in Socialist Cuba by Linda Fuller

Albania

Myth 1: "Albania was a totalitarian dictatorship"

• RESOURCE 1: Pickaxe and Rifle: The Story of the Albanian People by William Ash
• RESOURCE 2: Insights into Socialist Albania from 'Pickaxe and Rifle'

DPRK*

Myth 1: "North Koreans believe in unicorns and that Kim-Jong-Un is immortal and that the DPRK is the entire world"

• RESOURCE 1: Western DPRK Propaganda: The Worst, Occasionally Hilarious, and Often Racist, Lies by Alyx Mayer
• RESOURCE 2: Anti-DPRK Propaganda War – a Cavalcade of Comedy by Red Youth
• RESOURCE 3: Tourist who took camera inside North Korea shocked by 'ordinary' lives of citizens
• RESOURCE 4: My trip to North Korea: 13 misconceptions corrected
• RESOURCE 5: A Lot Of What You Know About North Korea Is Racist Nonsense
• RESOURCE 6: Freed American Matthew Miller: ‘I wanted to stay in North Korea’
• RESOURCE 7: Exclusive: The Greek Who Lived in North Korea Tells Her Story
• RESOURCE 8: The North Korea Neither Trump Nor Western Media Wants the World to See

Myth 2: "The DPRK is a fascist monarchy"

• RESOURCE 1: Korea Resilient! Socialism in Democratic Korea by Vince Sherman
• RESOURCE 2: How to Think about Socialism in Korea
• RESOURCE 3: Constitution of the DPRK
• RESOURCE 4: Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development by Brun and Hersch
• RESOURCE 5: Democracy: US vs DPRK – Towards the Annihilation of a Narrative
• RESOURCE 6: On Smoking Weed in North Korea
• RESOURCE 7: North Korea: an unlikely champion in the fight against climate change
• RESOURCE 8: Zombie Nation? ‘Executed’ North Koreans return to life
• RESOURCE 9: The truth about North Korea: it’s booming

Myth 3: "Kim Jong Un is a lunatic who wants to nuke the world"

• RESOURCE 1: Interview: Understanding and Defending North Korea - Very insightful must read interview with Yongho Thae, Minister of the DPRK embassy in London.
• RESOURCE 2: North Korea Punished for Helping to Liberate Africa
• RESOURCE 3: How Black Panthers turned to North Korea in fight against US imperialism
• RESOURCE 4: North Korea: The Grand Deception Revealed
• RESOURCE 5: North Korea will not use nuclear weapons first, says Kim Jong-un
• RESOURCE 6: The Real Reason Washington is Worried about North Korea’s ICBM Test
• RESOURCE 7: North Korea, The UN, And War Propaganda

Myth 4: "People who leave North Korea think they've reached heaven and that the DPRK is a shithole which tortured them"

• RESOURCE 1: North Korean defector confesses to murder
• RESOURCE 2: Former defector back in North Korea describes ”painful” life in the South
• RESOURCE 3: Why two North Korean defectors want to go back
• RESOURCE 4: South Korea boosts reward for defectors from North to $860,000
• RESOURCE 5: Why do North Korean defector testimonies so often fall apart?
• RESOURCE 6: North Korean defector returns home calling South ‘capitalist hell’
• RESOURCE 7: Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul
• RESOURCE 8: Homegrown Outcasts: North Koreans in Japan

Myth 5: "The Korean War was started by the North"*

(TO BE STARTED)

General anti-communist myths*

Myth 1: "Socialism is an economic failure"

• RESOURCE 1: Do Publicly Owned, Planned Economies Work? by Stephen Gowans
• RESOURCE 2: From Farm to Factory by Robert Allen
• RESOURCE 3: The Rise of Socialism by William Z. Foster
• RESOURCE 4: We Lived Better Then by Stephen Gowans
• RESOURCE 5: The Need for Planning by Joseph Ball

Myth 2: "Everybody hated socialism"

• RESOURCE 1: Homesick for a Dictatorship
• RESOURCE 2: 60% of Russians Want Communism Back
• RESOURCE 3: Former Soviet Countries See More Harm from Breakup
• RESOURCE 4: Russians say Aug 1991 events are tragedy, not triumph of democracy
• RESOURCE 5: Struggling Romanians Yearn for Communism
• RESOURCE 6: Tajikistan Pines for Old Soviet Union Strength
• RESOURCE 7: Referendum on the Preservation of the USSR
• RESOURCE 8: Central Asia in Nostalgia for the Soviet Period
• RESOURCE 9: Freest Under Czech Communism!
• RESOURCE 10: Seven Myths about the USSR by Stephen Gowans

Myth 3: "Life under socialism is/was terrible"*

• RESOURCE 1: An experiment in living socialism: Bulgaria then and now by F.S.
• RESOURCE 2: Growing Up Under Communism Was The Happiest Time Of My Life by Zsuzsanna Clark

Myth 4: "There is no innovation under socialism"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Other myths

Yugoslavia*

Myth 1: "Yugoslavia was a Serb-controlled state"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 2: "Slobodan Milošević was a Serbian chauvinist and responsible for the dissolution of Yugoslavia"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 3: "Milošević was responsible for the crimes in Bosnia"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 4: "Milošević commited a genocide in Kosovo"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 5: "Republika Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina were Yugoslav puppet states"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 6: "The KLA were legitimate freedom fighters"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Russia

Myth 1: "Russia is an imperialist power"*

• RESOURCE 1: Is Russia imperialist? by Stransfield Smith

Russo-Ukrainian war

Myth 1: "Russia is the aggressor"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 2: "Ukraine is not a nazi state"*

(TO BE STARTED)

"Israel" and Palestine

Myth 1: "Israel is a democratic country"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 2: "Hamas is an anti-Semite terrorist organization"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 3: "Israeli attacks in Gazan civilian infrastructure are necessary to destroy Hamas and are not a genocide"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 4: "Israel commits no genocide and isn't a settler-colonial state"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 5: "Hamas has decapitated babies and raped women during the October 7 attacks"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 6: "The Nakba is fabricated by Palestinian resistance organizations which use human shields to purposefully cause more deaths"*

(TO BE STARTED)

Myth 7: "Palestine is not real"*

(TO BE STARTED)