The hottest Substack posts of 20th Century Musings in the 21st Century

And their main takeaways
137 implied HN points 10 Feb 24
  1. Deborah Lipstadt denied the Soviet ethnically targeted deportations and killings, contradicting well-known sources and political motives.
  2. Lipstadt gained fame from a lawsuit by a Holocaust denier, but never retracted her false claims about Stalin's terror lacking ethnic targeting.
  3. Lipstadt's reputation faced challenges for supporting Israel's heavy bombing in Gaza, showing the complex nature of historical perspectives and societal influence.
137 implied HN points 12 Jun 23
  1. Alternative history novels often overlook atrocities committed by powers other than Germany.
  2. Realistic alternative history fiction would likely include investigations and publicizations of Soviet crimes against ethnic Germans.
  3. Some historical narratives ignore crimes committed by countries other than Germany during World War II.
117 implied HN points 02 May 23
  1. Claims that Jews were the most persecuted group by the Soviet regime have been discredited through historical data.
  2. During the Great Terror of 1937-1938, national operations targeted various diaspora communities, not specifically Jews.
  3. Poles, Germans, Latvians, Finns, and other groups were more heavily repressed by the Soviet regime compared to Jews during this time.
78 implied HN points 15 May 23
  1. During the Great Terror of 1936-1938, Poles, Latvians, Finns, and Germans were disproportionately arrested and executed in the USSR.
  2. From 1940-1949, Germans, Chechens, and other nationalities were targeted for near total internal deportation, not Jews.
  3. Jews in the 1940s were not subject to mass deportations like other ethnic groups, and rumors of a pending Jewish deportation have no archival evidence.
98 implied HN points 27 Mar 23
  1. Over three million ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia, leading to at least one million civilian deaths from 1941-1948.
  2. Ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans in various countries occurred before National Socialist death camps were established.
  3. A moral framework justifying Allied crimes by referencing the Holocaust led to continued violence post-WWII and a lack of accountability for atrocities.
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39 implied HN points 02 May 23
  1. The author has taught at universities in Kyrgyzstan, Ghana, and Iraq, with a diverse student body including various ethnic groups from different countries.
  2. The author actively promotes historical understanding and constructive dialogue among different ethnic groups in the places where he has taught.
  3. The author emphasizes the importance of embracing the truth of the past without bias and has worked to support women's scholarship in underrepresented societies.