“Putin has also on multiple occasions praised Communism and Communist figures of the past.” I just want to point out that whenever he does it’s usually prefixed or followed by a decent amount of condescension. Until he’s no longer in power, Russia is unlikely to go full socialism.

Imma wait a while until I see enough stuff to believe this. Putin himself is a rich upperclassman with one of the largest mansions in Russia. The fact that a liberal country can become socialist without a revolution is almost revisionist.

Jesse , what the fuck are you talking about?

OK , I relatively agree with the first paragraph , except Medvedev is pretty much can be seen as a Putin’s puppet and a way for Putin to abuse 2-term election limit (for those who don’t know , in Russia you only can’t be elected more than 2 times IN A ROW , which basically means nothing stops you from becoming a president again after there was a diffirent president elected before you)

Having NEP and Gosplan doesn’t imply that he actually believes in ideals of communism. Even South Korea used 5-year plans to their advantage and yet it didn’t move closer to communism by even an inch. It might instead be done for purely pragmatic reasons , such as reduction of significant oligarchic influence or perhaps him trying to replicate China’s success (we may never know).

The thing which you call “a praise of Communist figures” isn’t actually a praise , but might be quite the opposite. He compares communism to religion and Lenin’s mausoleum to relics of saints. Considering that Putin is a religious conservative it may be not a necessarily negative remark , but his intention doesn’t really matter , as no principled communist would compare communism with religion in the first place. May I also remind you , that he recently criticised and blamed Lenin for existence of Ukrainian state.

Zyuganov has a bad reputation among russian communists. It’s believed that he’s just a controlled opposition and judging by his party’s manifesto , CPRF is just a succdem party with Soviet Aesthetics.

By far , even his critique of capitalism doesn’t seem to come from socialist perspective , either. He believes in his own thing , which he himself calls “a reasonable conservatism”.

Now , about him supposedly “declaring oligarchs as traitors” , I understand Russian and there was no ‘oligarchs’ mentioned in his speech in the video. It looks like he bashes pro-western liberals more than anything.

At his early years he actually wanted to join NATO and the reason he now opposes them because NATO rejected him , not the other way around.

But ngl , it would be hilarious if he really was one of those “conservative socialist” types , but I doubt it.

Russia is moving towards socialism out of necessity. It has long been said in Russia that there are only two paths that can be taken by the country. Either a return to socialism or capitulation to the West. Socialism is the only way forward if Russia want true sovereignty.

There has been real talk in the last couple of years about a Union State, this would provide a Chechen like arrangement (similar to the U.S.S.R.) for all countries that join, they would effectively be independent but the states would be united around the Union State. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko recently said in December 2021 that Russia, Belarus and Ukraine would all be united soon. Belarus held a referendum in February 2022, the purpose of which was to make the Belarusian constitution become compatible with the Russian constution. The vote passed strongly with 65% support. The vote was also a litmus test of the popularity of Lukashenko showing that he is still popular. All of this was despite threats by the United States of of cybersecurity attacks and the forming of a ‘government in exile’ by the opposition on behalf of their Western masters. The passing of the vote opens up the establishment of the Union State as the official successor to the RF. Armenia also expressed a desire to join such a formation. As do Kazakhstan although for the time being their application has been rejected. Unity around the CSTO had been seen in early 2022 with the Central Asian republics all contributing to ridding Kazakhstan of the Western-backed terrorists.

There have been serious talks of a union state uniting the former Soviet States, since 1991 there has been the CIS as well as the CSTO peacekeeping force, which we recently saw prevent a colour revolution succeeding in Kazakhstan. More recently the Shanghai Pact includes, Russia, China and the central asian republics. These countries all have close economic ties.

Three things unite the former Soviet Union - Communism, religion (Orthodox Christianity and Islam) and language (Russian) - principally Communism could be said to be the greatest common denominator, so it is no suprise that the Soviet flag could be seen atop Russian tanks. Given that the breakway Donbass republics, of the Lugansk Peoples Republic (LPR) and the Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) (as well as Transnistria) are led by Communists it should be assumed that the ideology of Communism will continue to more and more be brought to the forefront. In fact it was actually the KPRF’s bill to recognise the republics, no matter what government was in power in Russia it would have had to intervene militarily in Ukraine. Had the KPRF been in power, they would have intervened all the way back in 2014. It is very likely that more people’s republics will be created by the people themselves in Ukraine (in 2014 the Kharkhiv People’s Republic was crushed) and as they become more and more important we will see Communism become more relevant. The KPRF are likely to become even more and more popular and we could see the pressure they put on Putin continue. To all Communists who claim that the KPRF are controlled by United Russia, you just have to look at the pressure they put on them (such as with the bill to recognise the Donbass republics) to see that they are a thriving, independent party representative of a broad section of the Russian masses. They are currently the most popular party and I only expect them to become more popular as the Soviet Union becomes closer to being revived.

The Soviet Union still lives on, it is engrained in the Russian civilisation and collective national consciousness. It has left a permanent mark that remains, Russia has for the last two decades taken on the mantle of the main anti-imperialist power, this was supported by the national bourgeoisie. When there was effectively no resistance to the uni-polar world order there was Russia resisting, whether it be in Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, they have had and are having an objective net positive effect, unlike the West which trys to keep countries poor and divided, Russia on the otherhand has been a force of stability. Russia is a far more collective civilisation and out of all of the Former Soviet Republics it has recovered well from shock therapy, while Turkmenistan, Belarus and Tajikistan never really opened up or privatised in the same way, while Ukraine is a state that still has not surpassed the GDP the country had in 1990 due to all the corruption and looting by foreign powers. What we will see in the next few years as Russia moves towards a socialist system and the union state unites the former Soviet Union is the old returning in new way, the dialectic coming to it’s fruition. The sanctions following the Russian intervention in Ukraine have caused Russia to move even closer to (Socialist) China. When the Nordstream 2 pipeline was cancelled by Biden, straight away a new deal was made to redirect the export of gas to China instead, and when sanctions banned the importing of Russian grain into the West, it was China who made a new deal. We are seeing China and Russia develop a strong and resolute alliance. With the fruition of the Union State and the construction of socialism in Russia we will have two strong Socialist superpowers side by side.

Ironically the Western sanctions could cause the collapse of the West themselves rather than Russia as Russia has effectively made themselves immune to their worst effects. All that is left for the West to do is decouple Russia from SWIFT, however that would backfire even more spectacularly than the current sanctions as it would lead to the anti-imperialist bloc creating their own alternative.

Recently we saw Communists in America of the Center for Political Innovation (CPI) openly celebrate the breakaway republics in the Donbass and state how there is no contradiction between being patriots of their own country (despite the U.S. causing the whole conflict) and supporting the revolutionary movements of the world. American Communists should desire the victory of Russia against Ukraine as any victory of an anti-imperialist state against their own ruling class is a victory not just for Russia but for the American working class. Russia has a long history of supporting the American working class, from the Russians sending ships to prevent the British supplying the confederates to the solidarity and internationalism of the CPSU and CPUSA towards each other for decades.

As Russell Bentley, a proud American fighting on the frontlines of the Donbass against the Ukrainian neo-nazis said:

“I’m a patriotic American. I love the American people, but I hate the American government. It is the Fourth Reich. It is the equivalence of Nazi Germany today” - Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley

To all the detractors to this post (to which I expect many), Russia unlike most of the Eastern Bloc is erecting statues to Stalin, a majority of Russians see the Soviet Union as the greatest period in Russian history. Majority also regret the collapse, Putin himself states that it was the greatest geopolitical disaster and celebrates the Red Army and victory in WW2 unlike other countries of the Former Eastern Bloc (such as Ukraine, Latvia and other Neo-Nazi infested countries). To conclude we should support Russia on anti-imperialist grounds, have critical support for the government and be supportive of efforts in recent years towards a return to the socialist past, which we now see being accelerated. I have high hopes that in the coming years we will see the emergence of a strong, socialist Union State.

reading this post and its comments has temporarily restored my psychic strength

I do believe Russia is getting pushed towards socialism to survive but that doesn’t mean the Russian ruling class is willing to let that happen

Why We Should Support Russia in Ukraine Masterpost:

– Introduction:

– Russia -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8

– Western Hypocrisy -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9

– Ukraine -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 – Neo-Nazis -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9

– Fake News -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 – Good Sources -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9

I actually find comrade’s viewpoint extremelly interesting, to say the least. First, he didnt claim that Russia is socialist, he said that Russia is moving towards socialism. Second, i believe we should think a little bit more on what the “dictatorship of the proletariat” is, or could be.

Firstly, DoP requires the existence of a proletariat. This means that a ruling class still exists, otherwise the proletariat wouldnt be called “proletariat” but something else (productive forces maybe?) , in a process of transformation. It also requires a dictatorship and a dictator, who will actually supress and repress somebody, but IN FAVOR of the proletariat. This somebody has to be the totality of the capitalist ruling class? Couldn’t it be a part of it, under certain historical circumstances? (late stage capitalism that we are now eg?) That somebody couldnt be also various more “progressive” minorities that want more freedom? Anarchists and the deeply individualistic ideology they bear is only a small example, and there is experience of that. Putin himself can surely be considered a dictator (at least in terms of western democracy), being in power so many years, yet his peoples seem to love him. Of course a lot probably hate him as well, but we need to see who they are, and that NOT through the western liberal point of view, but through a close, carefull and openminded observation of the Russian society. The fact that he doesnt present himself as a socialist, means nothing, because what matters is what he does for the people of his country, i would say. It is misleading to try to strictly apply terms that were coined in a specific historical context, on a different historical context, because we might miss the substance of the actual happening.

I am not arguing that Russia is going towards socialism, but i believe this particular matter is extremely important, and we should rather open the conversation, instead of close it. Comrade offered a thought out of the box and we should more seriously consider on it.