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As With the Soviet Union, It Will Take Acts of Individual Courage to Stop Putin

Posted on Saturday, June 18, 2022
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by Ben Solis
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AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis

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Following the rise of Vladimir Putin more than 20 years ago, Russia has once again descended to become a malign force on the global stage after a brief period of hope following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The culmination of this was Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which has fully revealed the depravity of the Russian regime.

As the world rises to meet this challenge, it will take not only courage from the Ukrainian people and other freedom-loving nations to counter the Russian threat, but also individual Russian citizens who dare to expose Putin’s lies. Two examples from the last century, one working from within the Soviet regime and one within the United States, prove just how effective such bravery can be at liberating the oppressed and toppling an evil empire.

Following the Russian revolution and the rise of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union came to embody the very worst of mankind. Stalin’s paranoia led to the torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands, and in the end tens of millions would die under his brutal dictatorship.

Nonetheless, the Soviet propaganda machine had most Russians convinced that Stalin was the savior of Russia, and that the Soviet Union was the enlightened center of the world. One such person born into this climate was Alexander Yakovlev, a peasant who grew up on the banks of the Volga River. Yakovlev served valiantly in the Red Army in World War II, and subsequently rose to become an important figure in the Communist Party.

Thousands of miles away in the United States, another young man, Whittaker Chambers, was born to a working class family in Philadelphia. After a troubled childhood that saw his brother commit suicide at 22, Chambers turned to the Communist Party for a sense of belonging, eventually becoming a Soviet spy.

As distinct as they were, both by their positions and their upbringing, Yakovlev and Chambers ultimately made indispensable contributions to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Chambers, with the pivotal role of being the Soviet underground manager in the United States and Yakovlev as an influential member of the Soviet leadership, shared rare traits of the courageous witnesses of history, a clarity of moral judgment, a quest for higher meaning, and the intrepidity to fight back against the regime.

Both men began to become disillusioned with Soviet-style communism as Stalin commenced his Great Purges in the 1930’s. Millions were sent to work camps in Siberia, many of whom never returned. Following World War II, Yakovlev witnessed prisoners of war shipped off to the camps for the supposed crime of being captured, as their mothers and wives wept on rail platforms. This image never left him, and his faith in the regime began to wane.

Following Nakita Khrushchev’s secret speech in 1956 exposing Stalin’s crimes, Yakovlev’s break with the regime became complete. In his memoir, Yakovlev’s disdain for the regime was laid bare as he described Soviet communist as a “religion of evil” and “neo-Cainism.” Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler were, he argued, the three greatest criminals of the century. Yakovlev was convinced that Russians must repent, seek forgiveness from the camp’s survivors, kneel at the graves of the innocently killed, and understand that all lived in a criminal state. Only then, he said, will a spiritual breakthrough occur.

Yakovlev slowly began working from within the system to bring about its demise. For his efforts, Yakovlev was eventually effectively exiled to serve as the Soviet ambassador to Canada. But with the rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yakovlev returned to the Soviet Union and was granted a key post in the Central Committee.

From here, he acted as the architect of perestroika and glasnost, pushing Gorbachev to abandon the hardline Communist policies of his predecessors. He published more than 20,000 secret documents and 75 volumes that revealed the criminal nature of the Soviet Union. He led a commission that reviewed and repealed one million sentences, and more than two million victims of the repressions had their good names restored.

It was Yakovlev who convinced Gorbachev to resign and open the possibility of the Soviet Union peacefully dissolving. Though he remained a staunch critic of the United States and Western democracy, Yakovlev nonetheless played a pivotal role in helping the West triumph over the Soviet Union.

In the United States, Chambers began to fear that he might be one of the next victims of Stalin’s purges. In 1939, he decided to take action against the Soviet Union and began exposing the names of Soviet spies in the United States – including one that would become the central character in the “trial of the century,” Alger Hiss, who was at the time a high-ranking official at the State Department.

In 1952, Chambers published a book entitled Witness about his experience, part autobiography and part warning about the dangers of Communism that would go on to great critical acclaim. Soon thereafter he would join William F. Buckley as a senior editor of National Review, becoming an important voice in the fight against Communism.

Today, it will similarly take those working inside and outside of Putin’s regime to bring an end to his reign of terror. Much as Stalin’s Great Purges did more than 80 years ago, Putin’s brutalization of the Ukrainian people has served as a wake-up call for many who were previously sympathetic or at least apathetic to Putin’s cause. Now, the question will be if a few courageous individuals again have the courage to step forward.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian and researcher.

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Bill on the Hill
Bill on the Hill
2 years ago

Once again, more propaganda induced negativity towards Putin’s Russia… A socialist state I might add, NOT communist… How many Americans have been killed by Putin since the Ukrainian border dispute began? NONE…How many missiles has Putin launched out of defiance to the west, with the exception of those launched on Ukraine? NONE… Is Russia a neo Nazi state? NO…
Does Vladimir Putin have the overwhelming support of his people? YES… Does today’s Ukraine along with it’s current leadership have fascist leaning tendencies? YES… Is Ukraine a corrupt nation under it’s current leadership? YES… Simply ask Joe Biden & his son Hunter, they have intimate knowledge of the Ukrainian gov’t’s on going corruption…Has Ukraine been intimating the ethnic speaking Russians of the Donbas region as well as murdering them for well over 70 years now? YES…This includes the current leadership of Ukraine…There is a fascinating story to be told about both Russia & Ukraine that dates back 100’s of years…Is Putin in complete control of Ukraine? For the most part, YES…
Should America be sending 40 billion dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine, not forgetting the 19 billion already sent, the obvious answer is NO…However Senator Cruz & Crenshaw, both Texans, feels Ukraine deserves 40 billion dollars more of American taxpayer money to defend their border. The obvious question here is: What about the WIDE OPEN Texas border of your own state of Texas? This question applies to Governor Abbott as well…( That I have mentioned these (3) people alone & there is more, is a disgrace. )
From the very beginning, in fact before Russia actually did invade Ukraine, MSM, both liberal & conservative have spun a web of propaganda against Putin & all by design, just like everything else going on around the world & right here at home. One more question: Does anyone miss President Donald J. Trump yet? Truly the only real grown up in the room, from the very beginning…
In closing, had the 2020 presidential election NOT been rigged, not forgetting the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs election, simply put, there NEVER would have been a Russian incursion into the Ukraine & this propaganda laced fantasy story never would have been written in the first place, sadly enough…I do expect the censors will be out on this comment…
Bill… :~)

Paul B Garcia
Paul B Garcia
2 years ago

PUTIN is a True Christian and is doing God’s work: Revealing the US Bio-Labs, Stopping Human Trafficking and Money Laundering in Ukraine, collecting evidence of The DEMONcrat Party’s criminal enterprises! Ben Solis appears to be quite unintelligent and he also appears to have no personal relationship with God or he would know this! (This article makes me believe AMAC is a communist organization pretending to be a Conservative Christian one!)

TheHoneyBadger
TheHoneyBadger
2 years ago

Don’t get in the way of scriptural prophecy. Putin is the King of the North mentioned in Revelation. Nothing can stop him except the Lord. Be patient, my friends.

TheHoneyBadger
TheHoneyBadger
2 years ago

The Russians are Jephethites and have been pissed off about the loss of the birthright since the days of Noah. Very vindictive people indeed.

William Showalter
William Showalter
2 years ago

Don’t think it’s a fair comparison of the purge,what putin is engaged in at present.

Susan Miller
Susan Miller
2 years ago

AMAC, you really need someone to vet your contributors. This one won’t even use his real name. Pen name = Liar for a journalist.So please, send this liar packing.

David Millikan
David Millikan
2 years ago

None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for Election Fraud by FASCIST liberals and VP Pence sent back votes to States that wanted a recount which he had the power to do so but didn’t. Had he done his job, PRESIDENT TRUMP would still be in White House.
And WE would still be #1 and ENERGY INDEPENDENT.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
2 years ago

Actions in the US & inside Russia to counter Putin

Rik
Rik
2 years ago

And we all know that Jackass Joe or anyone in his administration are all talk and no action unless it’s after the fact!

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

Who has courage to stop the U.S.’s warmongering Neocons?

Patriot bill
Patriot bill
2 years ago

Lol it looks like a lot of people on here believe the media narrative. Russia is defending itself against NATO aggression.
Wake up. This show is being created by the Marxist Democrat party and globalists

BACKWOODS
BACKWOODS
2 years ago

As Patriot Bill states there is more to Ukraine and a global cover scheme going on. Documents found that implicate the Biden crime syndicate involved in Bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Video evidence from an independent journalist Patrick Lancaster I think that’s his name showing Ukrainian troops firing on their own citizens. Don’t buy into the main stream.

JEFFREY JONES
JEFFREY JONES
2 years ago

MUKE MOSCOW NOW!!!

Denise
Denise
2 years ago

Our own nation is being “turned into a Soviet Union” in front of our faces….but how many Americans are willing to fight as the Ukrainians are? How many are willing to bleed for this nation? Our border is a sick joke, we’ve been over run with criminals, drug dealers, child sex traffickers, cartels, repeat killers…our border guards have been reduced to baby sitters.
There is one open border state between my town and the southern border. Our main street is a drug route to the north. The demorats bleed from the eyes to tear this country down to a Venezuela, or Cuba, China, North Korea…it is happening in front of us! How many are at least willing to call so called representatives, congressmen, governors to hold them accountable? Go to a state assembly, vet someone as a governor candidate. Make phone calls until they block you. Write letters to the editor to wake people up? With a few exceptions, so many citizens are mesmerized like moths drawn to the flame as it singes their wings…Question fellow Americans…if you’re not on some government list … WHY NOT??
Indeed, I have a special place on the ATF’s list as an “enemy of the state” per my sheriff, because of a rabid stand on our second amendment rights…Washington called firearms: “The liberty’s teeth”.
Instead of “remember the Alamo” remember the slaughter at Waco, Texas under William Jefferson Clinton’s “presidency”…all cheered on by the “media”! This “government” has declared war on our Constitution, Bill of Rights,our Declaration of Independence, our very freedom as Americans. If you are unfamiliar with these documents perhaps you should read them. Then get in the fight.

Morbious
Morbious
2 years ago

We might see actual positive change if a few prominent dems were to defect publicly and denounce the policies of the current administration. However, this is not likely in an era where public figures sell out in order not to be blacklisted by the cocktail circuit in dc. Chambers book ‘Witness’ is a classic. Much of it is devoted to the Hiss trial but the introduction is a wonderful discussion of who becomes a communist. It should be required reading for high school seniors.

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