Gavagai manages his personal GULAG

[Bacchus]

1953 is the year Stalin died, and with him the system of terror he built up over his twenty-year reign. It's pretty unfathomable, but by its final days this whole machine operated largely on the will of one man; hardly any other person of influence in the USSR thought it appropriate. Stalin died on the 25 March, and already on the 27 the Supreme Soviet enacted an amnesty, which granted freedom to over 1.2 million inmates and ceased prosecution of another 400,000 individuals. Just to illustrate exactly how far Stalin's terror has gone by then, this amnesty was proposed to the Supreme Soviet on 26 March, Stalin's body still warm, by Lavrentiy Beria, the man who headed the security and police services under Stalin!

By 1956 the whole Gulag system was dismantled, most camps were closed down and the remaining ones were turned into something closer to a "regular" prison.

The reduction in 1942-1943 is both due to the enormous military mobilisation (the Soviet army numbered 12 million men in 1943), and due to a general scarcity of supplies. Feeding prisoners was not high on the country's agenda when the Nazis were besieging Leningrad and Stalingrad. The death rate in the camps in those years exceeded 20%. And this is something else to bear in mind when looking at the total figure — even when it stays constant, it is a net effect of incoming inmates and releases or deaths. The annual death rate during Stalin years was mostly 3-6%.

[Bobchillingworth]

If you guys were to transition this thread to be 90% Russian history, I'd be very content man.

[Gavagai]

1953 is the year Stalin died, and with him the system of terror he built up over his twenty-year reign. It's pretty unfathomable, but by its final days this whole machine operated largely on the will of one man; hardly any other person of influence in the USSR thought it appropriate. Stalin died on the 25 March, and already on the 27 the Supreme Soviet enacted an amnesty, which granted freedom to over 1.2 million inmates and ceased prosecution of another 400,000 individuals.

Also immediately after Stalin's death a number of particularly inane large-scale construction projects were put to halt, railroad to Norilsk (thousands of kilometrs through permafrost with no human presence around) among them.

[Gavagai]

A question to mapmaker: what's wrong with this horse?

[spacetyrantxenu]

Barbs lack the tech to see it?

[Gavagai]

Barbs lack the tech to see it?

Oh, that explains...

[Mardoc]

If you guys were to transition this thread to be 90% Russian history, I'd be very content man.

My understanding of Russian history is pretty much Tom Clancy plus those sections of WWII books that are basically 'And there was fighting on the Eastern Front too'. Every once in a while I run into something that shows me how...inadequate...that perspective really is.

[Haram]

I was always wandering: If there is Stalin as a playable leader, so why they excluded Hitler?

[Bobchillingworth]

They wouldn't have been able to sell the game in Germany or Israel if Hitler was playable. Probably other countries as well. That's why Hitler isn't even in the official WWII scenario. Having Stalin isn't a no-go even for Russia (Mao *was* for China, but I guess since it was only one nation they just replaced him with a different leader for Chinese copies only).

Plus they probably didn't want to deal with the inevitable gaming media controversy (Kotaku: "This Game Allows You to Exterminate Judaism as Hitler!").

Plus Hitler was a total failure as a leader within his own lifetime, unlike Mao, Genghis, Shaka or Stalin, who at least managed to avoid getting utterly crushed by their foes. Admittedly they still included Montezuma, but he's been a fixture of the series for ages, plus the vast majority of the public wouldn't be aware of any other Aztec leaders.


The Civ franchise has also been gradually cutting back on controversial content since Civ III, which included genocide as a game mechanic via the Fascist government option.

[Gavagai]

I was always wandering: If there is Stalin as a playable leader, so why they excluded Hitler?

Same question can be asked about Mao

(My opinion is that of course both Stalin and Hitler should be in the game because they both represent memorable and distinctive periods in the history of their respective nations and both made a huge impact not only on their own people but on the world at large.)