Soviet-Empire.com U.S.S.R. and communism historical discussion.
19 Dec 2015, 19:03
I finally made the move, saw the website linked on politicsforum.org, and here I am!
Hope i'm welcome!
Hope i'm welcome!
20 Dec 2015, 17:24
Welcome to SE. It's a little quiet here lately, with the exception of the The Longest Communist Thread Ever, so feel free to post up a storm and get some discussion rolling. Happy holidays.
20 Dec 2015, 22:10
Comrade Gulper wrote:Welcome to SE. It's a little quiet here lately, with the exception of the The Longest Communist Thread Ever, so feel free to post up a storm and get some discussion rolling. Happy holidays.
Thank you, I appreciate that!
20 Dec 2015, 22:57
I guess I should lay out some basic thoughts about what I believe, which impelled me to come on here.
First, I am a devout Orthodox Christian, and also a Communist. Each one informs and enlightens and grants meaning to the other, the Hitlerites being correct that Bolshevism is the natural consequence of Christianity.
More specifically, I'd say that I'm pretty much a 'Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist'. Read Stalin's 1924 'Foundations of Marxist Leninism' and it stuck with me, plus clues and indications from my spiritual heritage....
I don't mind working with Atheists. If you are an Atheist and a true Bolshevik, you're still doing more to build up the Kingdom of God, sadly enough, than many 'Christians' today. However I do think Atheism is a peculiar bourgeosie relic that hobbles and undermines Communist work in reality.
I go to Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, for understanding the true political and socio-economic sciences, not on their relations with spirituality or lack thereof.
This way i've worked out seems to work for me, no apparent unresolved internal contradictions. The main thing and thrust of why i'm here is that i'm convinced the Soviet Union didn't truly 'collapse from internal contradictions and an inferior system to Capitalism' as we were told, but because of treason at the very top of that system; Gorbachev, Yeltsin, etc...
I want a renewed 'Soviet Union 2.0', new and improved, and believe it will happen soon someday.
First, I am a devout Orthodox Christian, and also a Communist. Each one informs and enlightens and grants meaning to the other, the Hitlerites being correct that Bolshevism is the natural consequence of Christianity.
More specifically, I'd say that I'm pretty much a 'Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist'. Read Stalin's 1924 'Foundations of Marxist Leninism' and it stuck with me, plus clues and indications from my spiritual heritage....
I don't mind working with Atheists. If you are an Atheist and a true Bolshevik, you're still doing more to build up the Kingdom of God, sadly enough, than many 'Christians' today. However I do think Atheism is a peculiar bourgeosie relic that hobbles and undermines Communist work in reality.
I go to Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, for understanding the true political and socio-economic sciences, not on their relations with spirituality or lack thereof.
This way i've worked out seems to work for me, no apparent unresolved internal contradictions. The main thing and thrust of why i'm here is that i'm convinced the Soviet Union didn't truly 'collapse from internal contradictions and an inferior system to Capitalism' as we were told, but because of treason at the very top of that system; Gorbachev, Yeltsin, etc...
I want a renewed 'Soviet Union 2.0', new and improved, and believe it will happen soon someday.
21 Dec 2015, 18:49
Hi,
Platonism, Christianity and Marxism are basically the ideological weapons of the social classes who want to protect/or promote public property, instead of private property. Thus, they all have the same point, that is - humankind, in order to achieve happiness must strive to follow the common, the whole, instead of only acting for himself. (Heraclitus also stated the similar thing, but somehow, he wasn't actively against private property, despite he also detested it. Perhaps he knew it was inevitable) However, they are also different from each other, for they are the ideology of different of classes.
Platonism was the ideology of the ancient aristocrats, who needed to fight against the slaveowners and landlords. The slaveowners and landlords were challenging the position of ancient aristocrats by promoting private property. The freemen and peasants (the majority of the mass) also followed the slaveowners and landlords, because private property suited their interests better. Therefore, unable to rally the mass, the aristocrats turned to idealism, essentially gave up the fight and only dreamed about the days of philosopher-kings. In Ancient China, the counterpart of Platonism was Confucianism.
Christianity was the ideology of the slaves and poor men, who were also at the short end of the stick when private property became dominant. However, because they were fighting a losing battle (Spartacus was an example), and also because of their uneducatedness, they turned to God and miracles, or in other word, a religious worldview, in constrast with the more refined philosophical worldview of Platonism.
I agree with the first part. But the second part is not true. Atheism isn't a relic of the bourgeosie. Atheism is the self-confidence of men when they are the winners and history stands at their sides. That why almost every ancient and before-industrial-era socialists were idealistic or religious, because they were the losers and history still not belong to them. Now the tide of history has turned, it is actually the bourgeosie who turns to idealism and religion.
God(s) do exist, but not as something sacred and divine as the religious people said. In the very ancient time, the Sky, the Lightning, the River, the Rain, the Storm, etc. were considered as gods or godness, because human wasn't understand them, but his everyday was depended on them, therefore he could only pray to the gods. In the industrial era, we have finally understood what are the "ancient gods", and used their powers for our own.
The same thing can be said about social forces. When private property became dominant, the politic and economic forces of society bring much pain and sorrow to mankind, because they could not understand them. They almost explained everything by the will of God. In the era of Marxism, the essence of those forces has been disclosed, and the mankind can be confident that they can become one with the society and use its powers for their own interests.
Thus, God(s), in essence, is the unknown Matter(s) (or the unknown Whole) which directly influence our lives. Our mission is to disclose the true essence of God and bring his powers into our own. However, by doing that, mankind will developed to a higher stage, and come into the influence of new God(s). The mission will repeat again, until the day humankind must perish.
My opinion is different, but writing it in here would make this post too long. When I have more free time, I will create a thread about this problem.
annatar1914 wrote:First, I am a devout Orthodox Christian, and also a Communist. Each one informs and enlightens and grants meaning to the other, the Hitlerites being correct that Bolshevism is the natural consequence of Christianity.
Platonism, Christianity and Marxism are basically the ideological weapons of the social classes who want to protect/or promote public property, instead of private property. Thus, they all have the same point, that is - humankind, in order to achieve happiness must strive to follow the common, the whole, instead of only acting for himself. (Heraclitus also stated the similar thing, but somehow, he wasn't actively against private property, despite he also detested it. Perhaps he knew it was inevitable) However, they are also different from each other, for they are the ideology of different of classes.
Platonism was the ideology of the ancient aristocrats, who needed to fight against the slaveowners and landlords. The slaveowners and landlords were challenging the position of ancient aristocrats by promoting private property. The freemen and peasants (the majority of the mass) also followed the slaveowners and landlords, because private property suited their interests better. Therefore, unable to rally the mass, the aristocrats turned to idealism, essentially gave up the fight and only dreamed about the days of philosopher-kings. In Ancient China, the counterpart of Platonism was Confucianism.
Christianity was the ideology of the slaves and poor men, who were also at the short end of the stick when private property became dominant. However, because they were fighting a losing battle (Spartacus was an example), and also because of their uneducatedness, they turned to God and miracles, or in other word, a religious worldview, in constrast with the more refined philosophical worldview of Platonism.
annatar1914 wrote:I don't mind working with Atheists. If you are an Atheist and a true Bolshevik, you're still doing more to build up the Kingdom of God, sadly enough, than many 'Christians' today. However I do think Atheism is a peculiar bourgeosie relic that hobbles and undermines Communist work in reality.
I agree with the first part. But the second part is not true. Atheism isn't a relic of the bourgeosie. Atheism is the self-confidence of men when they are the winners and history stands at their sides. That why almost every ancient and before-industrial-era socialists were idealistic or religious, because they were the losers and history still not belong to them. Now the tide of history has turned, it is actually the bourgeosie who turns to idealism and religion.
annatar1914 wrote:I go to Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, for understanding the true political and socio-economic sciences, not on their relations with spirituality or lack thereof.
God(s) do exist, but not as something sacred and divine as the religious people said. In the very ancient time, the Sky, the Lightning, the River, the Rain, the Storm, etc. were considered as gods or godness, because human wasn't understand them, but his everyday was depended on them, therefore he could only pray to the gods. In the industrial era, we have finally understood what are the "ancient gods", and used their powers for our own.
The same thing can be said about social forces. When private property became dominant, the politic and economic forces of society bring much pain and sorrow to mankind, because they could not understand them. They almost explained everything by the will of God. In the era of Marxism, the essence of those forces has been disclosed, and the mankind can be confident that they can become one with the society and use its powers for their own interests.
Thus, God(s), in essence, is the unknown Matter(s) (or the unknown Whole) which directly influence our lives. Our mission is to disclose the true essence of God and bring his powers into our own. However, by doing that, mankind will developed to a higher stage, and come into the influence of new God(s). The mission will repeat again, until the day humankind must perish.
annatar1914 wrote:This way i've worked out seems to work for me, no apparent unresolved internal contradictions. The main thing and thrust of why i'm here is that i'm convinced the Soviet Union didn't truly 'collapse from internal contradictions and an inferior system to Capitalism' as we were told, but because of treason at the very top of that system; Gorbachev, Yeltsin, etc...
My opinion is different, but writing it in here would make this post too long. When I have more free time, I will create a thread about this problem.
22 Dec 2015, 02:42
Hi Engelsist, thanks for the welcome! I obviously cannot agree with most of the points you elucidate on, but I will say that your comments are a fairly common Marxist response of the late 19th and early 20th century. When I go to Marx or Engels or Lenin or Stalin on political and socio-economic questions, I go to them much as I would go to ask a plumber about pipes and faucets, and not about electronics or classical music, to use an analogy. An analogy even more apt as I am actually a Proletarian with a Proletarian's concerns. I do not therefore blithely dismiss the spiritual in relation to the actual Toiling Masses.
Concerning Atheism and it's questions they are not very useful, being committed Atheists themselves. Concerning the socio-economic and political relations of Religion in the public sphere, they have a bit more utility to me. Religion really is the 'Opiate of the Masses', but is 'Religion' the final answer on questions of ultimate concern? Or does even God consider it 'Idolatry'?
To every hammer, everything looks like a nail, another hammer, or is irrelevant. The bigger and more important thing to me in a practical sense is what happened to the Soviet Union, and why did it happen when and where it did? And who was involved in it's death? What happens to Communism now? Can we revive the Soviet Union someday, should we?
These latter questions are the main reason why I am here.
Concerning Atheism and it's questions they are not very useful, being committed Atheists themselves. Concerning the socio-economic and political relations of Religion in the public sphere, they have a bit more utility to me. Religion really is the 'Opiate of the Masses', but is 'Religion' the final answer on questions of ultimate concern? Or does even God consider it 'Idolatry'?
To every hammer, everything looks like a nail, another hammer, or is irrelevant. The bigger and more important thing to me in a practical sense is what happened to the Soviet Union, and why did it happen when and where it did? And who was involved in it's death? What happens to Communism now? Can we revive the Soviet Union someday, should we?
These latter questions are the main reason why I am here.
19 Jan 2016, 11:44
Hello and welcome! It was not disillusionment that caused the implosion of the Soviet Union. It was subversion! plus a bunch of conniving Mossad agents.
30 Apr 2016, 01:10
lev wrote:Hello and welcome! It was not disillusionment that caused the implosion of the Soviet Union. It was subversion! plus a bunch of conniving Mossad agents.
I can buy that idea! Mercenary Traitors and Rootless Cosmopolitans.