I’m worldbuilding a fictional universe centred on communist societies, and I want to write the socialism/communism aspects as accurately as possible.
So if a country is currently monarchist, fascist, imperialist, etc but with a socialist revolution is underway, there is certainly going to be extreme resistance from the existing State. In a situation like this, do you think the socialist revolution should do things that help them, but would be considered unethical in war, aka “war crimes”? For example, things like poisoning key figures of the existing State, using “cruel weapons”, torture, etc. Especially if the existing State is already acting in that way? Would this contradict socialist philosophy or morality? What if the revolution is in danger of being extinguished by the State?
I’m not the OP. My point is that “making manslaughter more humane” is a real thing, and it’s actually a good thing in at least that it makes your troops not seen as monsters that much, which is extremely important for social stability in the long term. USSR has invested heavily into moral and patriotic education of troops that were sent to Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, and Russia vs. Ukraine treatment of local population provide a more modern example.
I understand, of course there is a difference between killing 1000 civilians and 1000 opposing troops. But that does not change the fact that shit happens everywhere and that does not delegitimize the whole movement. Just because Soviet soldiers raped some German women does not mean that suddenly Bolshevism is delegitimized, demoralized and must be eradicated.
Some?
We can talk frankly about the unfortunate realities of war, but that’s a really dismissive statement about mass rape and revenge taken out on civilians.