What did anti-Soviet propaganda "take wrong"? Even after reading Bukowski, Solzhenitsyn, and the Black Book of Communism, I find it hard to imagine an atrocity which communists didn't commit.
And not as isolated incident of abuse of power, usually on a mass scale. They liked their genocides like they liked their mines and factories -- huge.
Not to mention the economic system of constant shortages where you had to bribe everyone, including the meat store clerk.
Yes, definitely Bukowski the dissident. Although I would highly recommend both And the Wind Returns... and Factotum.
There is this very telling scene in And the Wind Returns... where people peruse Lenin's works on the toilet (to then use as toilet paper because there was a shortage of course) and afterwards discuss what they read. It leads to never-ending arguments because the collected Lenin's writings were so contradictory, everyone found something different.
> They liked their genocides like they liked their mines and factories -- huge.
Wut? How many huge genocides exactly did the Soviets commit? As in killing off entire ethnic groups? I can't really name any, although I can definitely name at least one that Americans committed, but we usually don't like to talk about that.
The Soviets mostly didn't target ethnic groups. They killed a large number of people, but it wasn't along ethnic lines. (which isn't to say they didn't kill ethnic groups, but most of the killing was other Russians)
And not as isolated incident of abuse of power, usually on a mass scale. They liked their genocides like they liked their mines and factories -- huge.
Not to mention the economic system of constant shortages where you had to bribe everyone, including the meat store clerk.