I read it in a biography years ago in grade school, but even a casual google search showcases his stances on fags.
Nothing unusual for communists at that time. Most communist ideologies considered homosexuality to be a bourgeois disease that will disappear when capitalism is abolished (whereas fascists thought that homosexuality was an invention of Jewish communists to damage the white race lol)
This reminds me of a song from the satirical singer Rambo Amadeus who made fun of communist ideology in Yugoslavia. The song was very controversial and was almost banned by the Communist party. The shocking thing about the lyrics is just how much is similar to what communist spew today:
Lošije danas za bolje sutra,
ponavljaju meni od jutra do jutra,
bez takve žrtve Amerika i Engleska,
nikada neće postati zemlja proleterska
'Worse today for a better tomorrow
They repaet to me from morning to (the next) morning
Without such sacrifises America and England
Will never become proletarian countries!'
So what he made fun of was of course: Hunger yourself to death for the ideology of communism. There will come better days, we promise!
Now the part that is quite hilarious when you see how commies talk today:
Svi dobro vide a niko da prizna
klimu rasizma i liberalizma
side i homoseksualizma
sve su to produkti kapitalizma!
'Everyone sees it quite well, but nobody wants to admit it,
the clime of racism and liberalism
AIDS and homosexuality
they're all products of capitalism!'
The rascism and liberalism thing isn't new, but you see how the perception of homosexuality has changed for commies. The most ironic thing is that commies are today so accepting of homosexuality exactly because of LIBERALISM. It was under liberalism that homosexuals got more rights and commies claim now that it's capitalism that oppresses everyone.
The logic is of course very sound:
In the Past
Commies: Homosexuality is a Western capitalist disease! Let's put them into worker's camps!
Liberals: Well, maybe they aren't that bad.
Now:
Commies: Homosexuals are oprressed by capitalism! Only by abolishing capitalism will the gays finally be free!
Liberals: Well, they aren't that bad.
People are actually now much more accepting of homosexuality in the Balcans (and also Bulgaria) AFTER the collapse of communism. After the collapse many new music genres that mixed traditional Balcan music and modern Western music emerged and many gays actually managed to become more visible there. Stuff like this happens when the state doesn't (literally) review any song that is written in the country before it's released.
The only thing that never really changed is talking about racism and imperialism for commies, even though communist states engaged in both and often were much worse than capitalist countries.
The USSR was a racist pile of shit that constantly oppressed most non-Russian populations. They talked about the unification and liberation of people around the world, until they were in power. Then all non-Russian identities were considered to be anti-communist and the state tried to erase them. Not a long time ago I wrote a paper about the Yeniseian languages in Siberia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeniseian_languages
Linguists are glad today that the USSR didn't wipe them out completely, because during the terror of the USSR Yeniseian people were forced to learn Russian and many forgot their native languages, now only one has survived. Sure, Russia is today still an oppressive shithole, but you know what, they are much more tolerant towards ethnic minorities than 40 years ago and don't go nuts because some people in Siberia perform traditional dances.
How about Commies and environmentalism?
Well, let's see:
This is a picture from the Aral Sea in 1989 and 2014. Due to the superior and better USSR agricultural policies the Sea almost dried up completely.
In numbers:
68'000km2 (1960)
28'687 km2 (1998, two lakes)
17,160 km2 (2004, four lakes)
