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 24 Jul 2012, 14:50
I think the failure of perestroika most proper expression
Soviet cogitations: 2171
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 01 Nov 2003, 13:17 Ideology: Other Forum Commissar 24 Jul 2012, 17:21
Disaster
They were a disaster caused by perestroika and a gradual liberalisation of the Soviet and Warsaw Pact societies. Happiness is in your ability to love others. - Leo Tolstoy
24 Jul 2012, 19:31
faliure of stalinism first, disaster second. disaster caused by the failure of stalinism maybe.
24 Jul 2012, 19:43
Mabool wrote: This.  24 Jul 2012, 22:42
Stalinism succumbing to its inherent internal contradictions.
Perestroika just helped push it over the edge (i.e. it provided an alternative within the USSR that could replace Stalinism). 24 Jul 2012, 23:18
This should most definitely be the kinda poll where you can vote more than one answer. It was a disaster caused by the failure of perestroika. That capitalist roaders like Gorbachev could manage to wring control of the Party is, on itself, a testament to the failure of Stalinism.
Political Interest wrote: I draw the opposite conclusion: Top-down, authoritarian socialist countries in practice rely on the mass intelligentsia a whole goddamn lot. The lack of sociocultural liberalization alienated this mass intelligentsia from the Soviet project... To the point that they were willing to back anyone who'd deliver them another 'thaw'. Capitalist roaders saw an opportunity in this political climate and seized upon it, with a significant amount of foreign backing. Cm'on baby, eat the rich!!! - Motörhead
25 Jul 2012, 00:17
PI wrote: Very much this. KW wrote: I can agree with this statement. KW wrote: This I cannot agree to. There weren't very many liberals among the Soviet intelligentsia, much less in the mass intelligentsia. Vladimir Shlapentokh, who has been studying perestroika since it was going on, notes that in the socio-cultural sphere, a tiny handful of editors, writers and academics were able to convince much of the rest of the intelligentsia of the need for liberalization and the adoption of the political and economic theories of liberalism. They were able to do this because they were put in positions of power and authority by a small group of reformers within the Kremlin. This supports your criticism of Stalinism's top-down leadership, where a single traitor in the driver's seat can start an destructive and unstoppable campaign that collapses the whole system, which is what occurred. "The thing about capitalism is that it sounds awful on paper and is horrendous in practice. Communism sounds wonderful on paper and when it was put into practice it was done pretty well for what they had to work with." -MiG
25 Jul 2012, 00:32
Other - disaster, failure of perestroika (but, to be more precise, of revisionism in general, and that process started decades earlier), but nevertheless only a temporary withdrawal of socialism.
25 Jul 2012, 01:28
Since stalinism was very bad, and since stalinist USSR failed because of stalinism, I would say that this is actually a VICTORY of stalinism.
Long live stalinism! Voted disaster.  "Mao was just a degenerated Trotsky." Dagoth Ur "fishing is part of agriculture" Gred 
Soviet cogitations: 698
Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 04 Aug 2007, 23:25 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Komsomol 04 Jan 2013, 20:29
I voted disaster. I must admit to have little pity with these "activists" that have been repressed by Warsaw Pact authorities in the 1980s. Although I suppose many of them were deluded petty-bourgeois intellectuals rather then true reactionaries.
 "Communism is more about love for mankind than about politics." Me |
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