1) “So there are two rabbits on a road during Stalin’s 1937 Purge… the first rabbit asks the second, ‘why are you in such a hurry?’ The second responds, ‘you haven’t heard? There’s a rumor circulating… apparently all camels are to be castrated.’ The first replies, ‘But you’re not a camel.’ So the second explains, ‘After they catch you and castrate you, try proving you’re not a camel.’

2) My Russian friend told me this joke because he wanted to make a point. He believes that socialism or communism have potential under the right leaders and environment, but he believes Stalin’s method was utterly immoral and a failure. He told me that he shared this joke because he believes critique is prior to proper reformation in society. 

3) This joke was told to me in a set of four while my Russian friend and I were playing video games. 

4) This joke is referencing Stalin’s Great Purge in 1937. This event was the culmination of Stalin’s reign in which he had various political and military figures executed or removed from the USSR, as well as Russia’s intelligentsia, and ultimately conducted a witch hunt in which people who displayed any marginal signs of anti-soviet sentiments would be imprisoned or executed without fair due process. The Great Purge is estimated to have led to nearly 700,000 deaths.