Who's Your Historical Hero?

[kua2u]

Human hero's to me are: Ghandi and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.


Dr King changed my life.

 

[the_cheat]

Why not Stalin? Most information on Stalin has been created to demonize Comrade Stalin as a murderous tyrant who eats babies for breakfast.... lol

Almost all information on Stalin in the 'west' is complete lies. I shall post more on this later....

Dude, I didn't learn about Stalin in the West. You shouldn't make assumptions. And in any case, I'm not all, Stalin is a communist! Communists are evil! Kneejerk, kneejerk! I, quite reasonably, I think, object to Stalin's genocide campaigns against certain ethnic groups, such as the Tatars, and to his fostering of the gulag system, and to some of his frankly vicious actions during WWII, such as purposely allowing the Siege of Leningrad to continue for quite a while, so that Moscow's rival power center would be weakened.

I am willing to allow that Lenin may well have been a true believer; I am also of the opinion that Lenin was, at the very least, not worse than the tsars. Which is not a ringing endorsement, but considering that Russian history is pretty much one autocratic government after another, I'm quite willing to believe that Lenin intended to change the system but discovered too late that he'd bitten off more than he could chew. Stalin, on the other hand, was little more than a vicious despot. He deserves credit for his part in the fight against Hitler, but his WWII record is so marred by his unnecessarily callous actions toward his own citzenry that it's quite hard to pat him on the back for it.

 

[Ginsu]

Ronald McDonald. Nuff said.

 

[Koba The Dread]

Dude, I didn't learn about Stalin in the West. You shouldn't make assumptions. And in any case, I'm not all, Stalin is a communist! Communists are evil! Kneejerk, kneejerk! I, quite reasonably, I think, object to Stalin's genocide campaigns against certain ethnic groups, such as the Tatars, and to his fostering of the gulag system, and to some of his frankly vicious actions during WWII, such as purposely allowing the Siege of Leningrad to continue for quite a while, so that Moscow's rival power center would be weakened.

I am a communist and I am not 'evil'. I have almost no heinous crimes to my name....lol.

Would you provide me with some concrete evidence to suggest Stalin ordered the Siege to purposely last longer. From what I know, the city could not be freed and an aid plan was established soon after in the second winter when as ice road over Lake Lagoda(sp) was set up.

Also, on the idea that the City of Leningrad was a rival power threatening Moscow's. At that time it was not as even before Operation Barbarossa began, Stalin had placed Kirov as party leader in Leningrad to secure the city from Zinoviev and his anti-communist supporters. Zinoviev was assassinated and there would have been no need to prolong the Siege Of Leningrad.

On the Gulags.... http://www.geocities.com/redcomrades/lies.html
Review the laughable exaggerated lies set out by many historians on the Soviet penal system

 

[Colossians3]

Jesus is the obvious answer, but I'll go with Sir Francis Drake as well. The story of the Spanish Armada always fascinated me.

 

[the_cheat]

I am a communist and I am not 'evil'. I have almost no heinous crimes to my name....lol.

Would you provide me with some concrete evidence to suggest Stalin ordered the Siege to purposely last longer. From what I know, the city could not be freed and an aid plan was established soon after in the second winter when as ice road over Lake Lagoda(sp) was set up.

Also, on the idea that the City of Leningrad was a rival power threatening Moscow's. At that time it was not as even before Operation Barbarossa began, Stalin had placed Kirov as party leader in Leningrad to secure the city from Zinoviev and his anti-communist supporters. Zinoviev was assassinated and there would have been no need to prolong the Siege Of Leningrad.

On the Gulags.... http://www.geocities.com/redcomrades/lies.html
Review the laughable exaggerated lies set out by many historians on the Soviet penal system

Okay, the only thing that's "laughable" is that you're relying on a geocities source to refute moutains of evidence. I'll rely on the actual historians and victims I've discussed this with, thanks. While many of the Western sources do show an anti-Soviet bias, the data is unquestionable - going into the gulag system was, for a huge percentage of prisoners, a death sentance, and even those who survived long enough to be released suffered hugely - facts that are made even more vile for that such a huge percentage of prisoners were purely political, and not guilty of a tangible crime such as theft, assault, fraud, etc.

As for the Siege, below is a historical summary from the BBC. Both American and Russian sources are generally much more critical of Stalin, American, I suppose, seeing it as an opportunity to point fingers, and Russian because they were the victims of it. This is, in fact, the most Stalin-positive reliable text on the Siege of Leningrad that I could find online, and even it admits that his actions allowed the city to starve...

Georgii Zhukov was dispatched to galvanise Leningrad's demoralised defenders. He did so with such effect that Hitler abandoned the idea of taking the city by storm. Now the plan was to starve it into surrender.
The result in winter 1941-2 was the worst famine ever in a developed society. Two and a half million people were trapped in Leningrad. With low reserves of food and fuel, only a trickle of supplies, and rations at starvation level, without heating or lighting, running water or drainage, and exposed to one of the bitterest winters on record as well as to continual bombing and shelling, they died in appalling numbers.

By the time spring came, half a million people were dead. Altogether around a third of the population would die during nearly 900 days of siege, a third would be evacuated, and a third would remain.

Stalin has been accused of sacrificing Leningrad, of indifference to its population's fate, with some justice. For him the needs of the Red Army had total priority. This is why the evacuation of civilians by the ice road across Lake Ladoga was delayed for weeks.

A large-scale air-lift of food into the city could have saved many lives, though it would have diverted planes from the military campaign. And while thousands were dying every day, news about Leningrad's ordeal was totally censored.

Nonetheless, the Soviet authorities got supplies through to the starving city, got people out, kept morale from collapsing, and eventually lifted the siege. Some of the credit for this belongs to Stalin. What is also certain is that Leningrad's fate would have been far worse had the city fallen to the Nazis.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/leningrad_betrayal_01.shtml

Even the sources least critical of Stalin assign him a large degree of blame for the starvation of Leningrad. And then there are sources, like the book 900 Days, which quite convincingly lay the blame on Stalin's paranoia and viciousness, and convincingly so. I recommend you check out some history other than Soviet propaganda.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0306812983/qid=1089843951/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-2212140-5703061?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

 

[tomkuegler]

Always been very partial to Teddy Roosevelt. He attacked life, had passion, and was not afraid to "be in the arena".

 

[Nessie]

I like Teddy Roosevelt because he wouldn't kill the bear. How sweet is that?

 

[tomkuegler]

Wel... he did kill a lot of other bears though. Not that there is anything wrong with that, IMHO

 

[Koba The Dread]

To the_cheat:

Your BBC article claims that Stalin sacrificied the City of Leningrad. Not that this is even credible but it's not even claiming that he purposely starved the city for devious reasons.

Also, adding to the aid arriving from the ice road built over Lake Ladoga during the winter, barges during the summer also brought necessary supplies and food. There were many attempts made to help the besieged city. Anyway, if there were available military units, I'm sure the city would have been rescued much quicker if not immediately.

On Stalin left the city undefended for his own protection in Moscow....It makes no sense as by 1941, German troops were only fifteen miles outside Moscow. The city was evacuated. In two weeks, two million people left Moscow yet Stalin rallied morale by staying in Moscow.

900 day's....Stalin's paranoia and viciousness

That book seems very objective and historically accurate without obvious bias.....

 

[Xen_Antares]

Teddy Roosevelt

 

[tck1987]

I admire Jesus Christ. After him I really admire Esther from the Bible.

 

[ego licet visum]

Einstien, he was absolutely brilliant.

 

[Inge87]

Ruth (from the Bible)

St. John Bosco

Robert E. Lee
n.b. - for his character, not for the CSA. If you had to choose to fight for or against your home, what choice would you choose?

 

[Peiper]

My historical hero is, easily, Thomas Jefferson.

I cannot help but casually mention some others whom I would love to buy a beer (in no order and excluding people who are still alive):

John Locke: for his philosophy on liberty
The Barons who penned the Magna Carta
The Founding Fathers of the American Revolution
Frederich Nietzsche: for who he was
Rene Descartes: the Founder of Modern Philosophy and the Father of Modern Mathematics
Sir Isaac Newton: for writing Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Nicolaus Copernicus: for writing De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
Galileo Galilei: the Father of Theoretical Experimentalism
Francis Bacon: for his work on the Scientific Method
Thales of Miletus: the Father of Science
Charles Darwin: for writing The Origin of the Species
Alan Turing: the Father of Computer Science
Leonhard Euler: for his contributions to mathematics
Karl Friedrich Gauss: for his contributions to mathematics
Ludwig van Beethoven: for his music
Richard Wagner: for his music and philosophy
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: for his music
Leonardo da Vinci: for who he was
Albrecht Durer: for his art
Michelangelo Buonarroti: for his art
Caius Cornelius Tacitus: for his historical records
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: for his writings
Johannes Gutenberg: for his printing press
Martin Luther: for breaking the Church's back
William Shakespeare: for his writings
Mark Twain: for his writings
General George S. Patton, Jr.: one of the last classic generals; also for his sense of history
Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel: one of the last classic generals
Gaius Marius: for his contributions to military science
Carl von Clausewitz: for his contributions to military science
Gustavus Adolphus: the Father of the Modern Warfare

 

[MatthewG215]

Karl Marx

 

[slimboyfat]

It's got to be Gerard Winstanley the 17th century English radical/social reformer

 

[oldrooster]

To the_cheat:

Your BBC article claims that Stalin sacrificied the City of Leningrad. Not that this is even credible but it's not even claiming that he purposely starved the city for devious reasons.

Also, adding to the aid arriving from the ice road built over Lake Ladoga during the winter, barges during the summer also brought necessary supplies and food. There were many attempts made to help the besieged city. Anyway, if there were available military units, I'm sure the city would have been rescued much quicker if not immediately.

On Stalin left the city undefended for his own protection in Moscow....It makes no sense as by 1941, German troops were only fifteen miles outside Moscow. The city was evacuated. In two weeks, two million people left Moscow yet Stalin rallied morale by staying in Moscow.


That book seems very objective and historically accurate without obvious bias.....

He did sacrafice the city for somthing as stupid as believing that the party organization was against him. At the party congress of victors, none of the Leningrad delegates voted for Stalin, but for Kirov. Stalin harbored grudges all of his life...

 

[Koba The Dread]

Unrepentant Trotskyite

Why should I believe anything you say? We all know what Trotsky was....

 

[Soviet Surpreme Power]

Joseph Stalin- For leading the great development the first working man's state and leading the war against 80% of the Fascist invader.

Vladimir Lenin - For leading the proletariat and saving the world on 1917, providing an example for us all.

Kim Jong-Il - For his awesome leadership and exercise of courage and bravery, and for his brilliance as Supreme Commander.

Che - For fighting selflessly for socialism

Simon Bolivar - For fighting for a unified, anti-capitalist, democratic latin america against the imperialist scum in the USA and Spain.

Most of all, my favourite historical figures, are the broad masses of people that make every revolution come to life and defend it with their lives.