Bandits Quotes

Rival to Mao. This quotation is historically important because it shows how intensively the Chinese Communists concentrated on organizing the fringe and unpopular groups of society to the point where the struggle was between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and everybody else. The Chinese Communist coalition included many who had not idea of what communism was but knew that Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists were not very good for them or the people they knew.

Dagestan was the poorest of the Soviet States, It was then mainly populated by feuding Muslim sects who were in constant conflict with each other and an Islamic nationalist group that wanted independence from Russia. There were also a large number of bandits in what was a frontier culture of banditry and lawlessness.

In 1917 the fledgling Russian revolutionary government was threatened by Germany. English and French aid was a possibility, but many Russians were opposed to taking aid from capitalists: Vladimir Lenin

The Kuomintang nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek tried to stay in power in China, but their corruption and incompetency at government lost them the support of most of the Chinese. The Chinese communists took over the government. The Nationalists then invaded the offshore island of Taiwan but claimed to be the rightful government of all of China. For many years they controlled the Chinese seat in the UN and they refused to recognize the fact that they had failed to gain the loyalty of the Chinese people.

The term “tories” then had nothing to do with politics. It was the name given to Irish Catholics who having been driven into the mountains by the English Protestants, turned to banditry. They were hunted down and mostly eliminated by 1683.

Vladimir Lenin. At the time of the Russian Revolution, the country was a mess for all except the very rich and the nobles. Food was very scarce and speculators would buy up food and hoard it driving the price way up while some people starved. Bandits were active throughout the country stealing anything at gunpoint so that they could buy food. Meanwhile the country had been at war with Germany and the previous law enforcement was the Czar’s’ police who were now overthrown and there were no law enforcement officers in most places. Much of the nation was in chaos. Lenin and others urged extreme measures which were used to stabilize things at a horrendous cost in human rights and human life. Many Russians were shot, having been unjustly accused by people settling scores. Terror meant the act of terrorizing people in order to get them to behave in a certain way—not unlike the purpose of modern terrorists.

Mehmet Talaat Pasha. He had been one member of the ruling triumvirate of Young Turks who ordered the extermination. Note that he did not deny the atrocities but tried to justify them. The Christian Armenians, a minority in Turkey and its lands, were discriminated against like other non Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire. But during the Turkish War with Russia and WWI, some Armenians defected and served on the Russian side. Many Turkish citizens took revenge on Armenians by means of murder and torture. Soon, the extermination of the Armenians became the official “Young Turk” government policy. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed outright, and about an equal number were “deported” to special areas. Many died of malnutrition along the forced march of Ethnic Cleansing. Others were murdered as they were deported. No one knows exactly how many Armenians were killed with estimates ranging from ½ million to 4 million. This was the first genocide of the 20th century. Modern Turkish leaders however, are in denial about the Armenian deaths. They claim that there was a war and food was scarce; the only Armenians killed, the claimed were proven Russian agents. They further claim that the Armenian behavior was in large part responsible for the forced deportations because of their lack of patriotism and unwillingness to help the Turkish authorities identify the Russian agents. Most Turks today are unaware of the Armenian Genocide as nothing is taught about the massacres in schools or other institutions. It is against the law in Turkey to even have an intellectual study of the Turkish behavior towards the Armenians, much less publish anything about it.