I mean it was the first ever attempt at creating a worker state, so not really surprising that it wasn’t perfect. Furthermore, USSR was under duress from the imperialist west throughout the entirety of its existence. It was invaded right after formation in 1918, then it was plunged into WW2 that caused unimaginable destruction, and then US started the Cold War right after that. The fact that the country was under siege throughout its existence obviously had a huge impact on how it developed. We’ve also seen what happened to more liberalized societies like Chile that didn’t become militant. The government was quickly overthrown by counterrevolutionaries. In fact, Gorbachev’s liberalization reforms were ultimately what allowed counterrevolution to take place in USSR. I think that’s important context to keep in mind.
If USSR was allowed to develop peacefully, I think it could’ve turned out very differently from the way it did. If all the resources could’ve been devoted towards the socialist cause of improving lives of the people, and if there was no threat of counter revolution then it would’ve been a much more open society.
I agree that Yugoslavia managed to find a better model, and Goulash Communism approach Hungary used was another good example.
Again, to be clear here, I’m not advocating remaking USSR as it was. Clearly the model failed in the end, and it’s important to study it to understand how to create a better system that’s more stable and more egalitarian.
I do like the ideas behind Venus project, I think the big question that remains is how people wrestle power away from the oligarchs in order to put the means of production to start building things the Venus project talks about. We need a systemic change in the structure of the economy, and people who benefit from the current system aren’t just going to let go of their power and privilege without a fight.
I mean it was the first ever attempt at creating a worker state, so not really surprising that it wasn’t perfect. Furthermore, USSR was under duress from the imperialist west throughout the entirety of its existence. It was invaded right after formation in 1918, then it was plunged into WW2 that caused unimaginable destruction, and then US started the Cold War right after that. The fact that the country was under siege throughout its existence obviously had a huge impact on how it developed. We’ve also seen what happened to more liberalized societies like Chile that didn’t become militant. The government was quickly overthrown by counterrevolutionaries. In fact, Gorbachev’s liberalization reforms were ultimately what allowed counterrevolution to take place in USSR. I think that’s important context to keep in mind.
If USSR was allowed to develop peacefully, I think it could’ve turned out very differently from the way it did. If all the resources could’ve been devoted towards the socialist cause of improving lives of the people, and if there was no threat of counter revolution then it would’ve been a much more open society.
I agree that Yugoslavia managed to find a better model, and Goulash Communism approach Hungary used was another good example.
Again, to be clear here, I’m not advocating remaking USSR as it was. Clearly the model failed in the end, and it’s important to study it to understand how to create a better system that’s more stable and more egalitarian.
I do like the ideas behind Venus project, I think the big question that remains is how people wrestle power away from the oligarchs in order to put the means of production to start building things the Venus project talks about. We need a systemic change in the structure of the economy, and people who benefit from the current system aren’t just going to let go of their power and privilege without a fight.