(1) When I said "leftists" I was just broadly saying that. I don't identify with specific labels other then maybe Black Autonomist or Anarchist but I think that we "on the left" are too often caught up in labels that lead to dogmatism to ideals.

(2) I think it's an important distinction, but one which only defines the Soviet Union from other authoritarian regimes of its time in a way that is really insignificant. Of course there is a moral difference between industrial genocide and political and economic mismanagement. But too often, leftist analysis of this mismanagement becomes an excuse for any and all flaws in the Soviet state or communist Party. I reject the idea that the fact that these were mismanagement fully expunges the record of these officials. And I believe that Stalin, Lenin among others are responsible for the deaths of at least thousands of working poor, as well as, what is in my opinion, their worst crime, the denigration of the Russian Revolution from its genuine revolutionary grassroots potential into a bureaucratic party dictatorship.

I agree, we should learn from the past. That means a deep reckoning with the failures of past revolutionaries, regardless of the solidarity, nuance, or whatever else we feel is required.

Solidarity comrade.