Re: "I have to apologize for reacting to the quoted bit out of context; in the next section of [[Economy of the Soviet Union]] the poor productivity is indeed attributed to forced collectivization. Interestingly, that section is so delicately phrased that the average reader won't actually find out what happened; it just says "the human toll was catastrophic", which could mean any number of things. There are details about the famines in WP, I didn't see any links that would explain "human toll" via connections to any of those articles." - Stan Shebs
**I will not contribute another word to Wikipedia (including two new articles that I have finished on my MS Word browser) until I get something better than this disingenuous apology (far, far worse than no apology) from Stan Shebs.**
FIRST: ONCE AGAIN, THAT WAS AN ARTICLE ON THE ECONOMY OF THE SOVIET UNION, NOT THE HISTORY OF STALINIST RUSSIA. The CIA Factbook and the U.S. Library of Congress Country Study of the Soviet Union (hardly published by institutions with "leftwing" agendas) aren't detailing (or even mentioning), e.g., the purges, the Ukrainian famine, the deportations, the repression in their overviews of the Soviet economy. Instead, they focus on the Soviet economy of recent years-- the Soviet economy leading up to its collapse.
SECOND: Notice that that agriculturewhere the Soviet record was by far the most horrendouswas the only sector of the Soviet economy that got its own individual section in my article on the economy of the Soviet Union. The section on agriculture even included a subsection on agricultural labor. Thus, it should be obvious that I actually went out of my to stay on topic in an article on the Soviet economy while addressing the consequences of collectivization.
THIRD: There are numerous links to collective farming-related topics as well; thus, it is an OUTRIGHT LIE that there are no links that would explain "human toll" via connections to any of those articles.
Re: "I found that it was indeed possible to write US history without mentioning trivialities like Nancy Reagan's astrologer (no personification of history? uh-huh), and that it was possible to have accounts of the Cold War that didn't cast every incident as ultimately due to US aggression against the Soviets."
FYI, I have contributed over 10,000 edits to WP over the period of 18 months, yet Stan brings out one or two out of context to perpetuate these disgusting lies that I'm somehow pushing a Stalinist agenda.
I will not be able to function on Wikipedia as a writer and an editor unless these cloud of suspicion that Stan is trying to cast over me goes away. It will not go away, as I am certain that Stan will not apologize for his penchant for unfairly impugning my integrity and competence as a historian. Instead, he knows very well that his postings will be read by an audience largely unaware of the fact that his his bogus, mean-spirited critiques entirely draw on out-of-context, selective referencing of my comments and edits.
BTW, I swear unconditionally that I will not return to Wikipedia until Stan Shebs retracts these lies.
-172
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