I'm a bit concerned about the portayal of the "Great Purge" in HoI IV

[Rufo]

It's reasonable to be concerned about how a topic such as the Purge is handled, and the difficulty of designing its impact to give both relevant gameplay choices, interesting outcomes and at the same time try to connect back to the real events has led to the event chain being redesigned and rewritten throughout development. The final result does compromise between these different goals, but I would still like to address some of the chief concerns voiced here.

Having a risk of civil war and Trotsky returning are designs coming from the perspective of interesting outcomes, rather than plausible ones. It's definitely true that these were outcomes Stalin's administration wanted to seem plausible, and we have no intention to give credibility to the attempts of the regime to justify their crimes. We aim to counteract their narrative by telling the story so that in these scenarios, the reason for the crises are not the boogeymen Stalin created to justify the Purges, but rather Stalin himself. With the Fourth International, if the Purge has not occurred as it did in history, Stalin ramps up both his paranoia and hostility to those who are still alive. This then leads, ironically, to the implausible results he saught to portray as the reasons for the Purges.

We understand that this is a risky balance and criticism of this design and its execution are of course still welcome, but it should be made as clear as possible that we have no plans to present the way the Purges were justified in propaganda as valid reasons.

 

[podcat]

@Rufo - bravo. I don't remember ever seeing a more sensible and thoughtful post here.

there is a reason I asked rufus to answer this one rather than run in here myself like a cougar in a tuna shop

There were real centrers of power aside Stalin, so it would be far more logical that in case of purges not happening, one of the highly ranked person to that was purged IRL, would actually lead the coup. It would be better if Yagoda or Bukharin would be leaders of the military coup to displace Stalin. Then, there would be struggle between Stalin bureaucracy and the old revolutionaries.

absolutely true, however Trotsky is a lot cooler and within reason (imo of course) of being used as a front figure by others. People know who trotsky is. Very few people can list potential people that were purged any why they would be interesting. also I like cool stuff.

 

[podcat]

The idea of Trotsky being the "nice guy" option is quite silly

He was as bloodthirsty and backstabbing as Stalin. His role and behaviour during the Russian Civil War are unequivocal. The reason why Stalin and Trotsky were incompatible was precisely because they were too similar.

We dont portray him as a good guy, and in fact if Stalin is overthrown there are counter purges, so we arent really taking a stand who is the biggest evil of the two, although Trotsky has traits that shifts him slightly more in favour of coups and such compared to declaring wars so there is a slight playing difference.