Thread: Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia?

Don't see as how it makes much difference. I'd be morally obligated to fight either government, so I'm dead either way.

Originally Posted by Viktyr Korimir

Don't see as how it makes much difference. I'd be morally obligated to fight either government, so I'm dead either way.

The USSR would have killed me because Stalin was a paranoid dick, and had any dissenters (anyone that wasn't a speechless automaton) sent to camps, or shot.

Would have died in Germany because I have issues with cops and judges. Had I ever gone before Freisler, I probably would have told the little **** that I ****ed his wife.

So the real choice is who would you rather engage against Nazi's or Commie's? Certainly only proponents would seriously choose one over the other as a better choice to reside in. Those opposed would choose based on who would be the easier to beat. Since the Nazi's lost and were much smaller of an country with less resources i suppose I would chose to fight the Nazi's. But since there would be a choice somehow between the two it would most likely mean that after conquering one that the next would follow. In that case since the Societs are known for taking advantage of other countries when things are thin. It would be logical to attack the Commie's first. Or we could repeat history and use the Commie's to help conquer the Nazis then play it by ear afterwards. Perhaps infiltrate the Soviets and start a revolution and the critical time during the war against the Nazis.

Or order pizza and get some beer and watch a movie Im undecided.

Originally Posted by Lokiate

The USSR would have killed me because Stalin was a paranoid dick, and had any dissenters (anyone that wasn't a speechless automaton) sent to camps, or shot.

This isn't completely true. Ordinary citizens regularly spoke out against the government, the state and even Stalin. Various publications poked fun at these institutions/organizations/individuals, and many people even publicly, vocally hoped that Stalin would die and said that he was ruining the country.

Originally Posted by Khayembii Communique

This isn't completely true. Ordinary citizens regularly spoke out against the government, the state and even Stalin. Various publications poked fun at these institutions/organizations/individuals, and many people even publicly, vocally hoped that Stalin would die and said that he was ruining the country.

Sure and Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagere (Gulag) never existed right? You cannot just pretend that Socialist Realism was not in full force. Sure you can speak out against Stalin if you didnt value your family who would be sent with you to to prison. That is if you lived that long. Writers that refused to comply to Socialist Realism such as Babel and Pilnyak, were executed or died in labour camps.

In fact I will be as bold as to say that you are distorting history and engaging in propaganda. No one was free to do anything under Stalin that is fact not the fiction that you are trying to present.

Many people here seem to think that the original question presumes time travel. You do know that, unless time travel is involved, the chances of you being the same person then and there vs the self-proclaimed 'freedom fighter' person you are here and now is pretty much nil, right?

Originally Posted by FreedomFromAll

Sure you can speak out against Stalin if you didnt value your family who would be sent with you to to prison.

It has been well documented in Harvard Project interviews, in letters to relatives and even the Soviet government, in documentation of public events and discussions (through the NKVD and others), and even in official state publications (Krokodil being the most prominent) that mockery of the government/state and criticism of its organizations/policies/individuals/propaganda was commonplace.

What you don't understand is that the prosecution of such individuals was arbitrary; some were indicted and sent to GULag camps for years, while others weren't even pursued by the authorities even after publicly making such statements. Krokodil as a state-sanctioned publication openly mocked the state on a regular basis.

That is if you lived that long. Writers that refused to comply to Socialist Realism such as Babel and Pilnyak, were executed or died in labour camps.

Using Babel and Pilnyak to discuss the experience of common Soviet citizens in their everyday lives is absurd.

No one was free to do anything under Stalin that is fact not the fiction that you are trying to present.

I have plenty of sources, both primary and secondary. Check out Everyday Stalinism by Sheila Fitzpatrick which deals with this exact subject, for starters.

Originally Posted by JusticeForSome?

Where would you rather live, and why?

If I was part of the ruling or privileged class or party it probably wouldn't matter. If I was the target of the ruling class it probably still wouldn't matter.

This is another one of those "do you want your testicles smashed with the red or the green five pound sledge hammer".

Originally Posted by radcen

Many people here seem to think that the original question presumes time travel. You do know that, unless time travel is involved, the chances of you being the same person then and there vs the self-proclaimed 'freedom fighter' person you are here and now is pretty much nil, right?

Well, Hell, if we're not supposed to answer the question as us, who are we supposed to be when we answer the question?

I took a quiz once on who you'd be in Nazi Germany. Of course, the idea is that everyone thinks they're la Resistance but most people would have just been ordinary law-abiding and genocide-enabling volk. The quiz is supposed to open your eyes to the banality of human evil.

Me? I scored as der Kommandant. I'm not a 'freedom fighter'. I'm just sealed evil in can answering a question about what I'd do if I lived in a world of can openers.

Why can't there be other options?

I don't think any person would want to live in those places during those times.