The Russia as "Imperialist" Thesis Is Wrong and a Barrier to (Ukrainian) Solidarity

[newthinking]

50. Because life is not black and white. I would imagine many Native Americans

and African Americans might feel that way to some extent about our country. The truth is no country in this age is really "rightious". We still have a lot of work to do.
If you are white middle class of course the country was not a "bastard" to you.

One cannot honestly compare two very different countries. But the penal system here is pretty much as harsh now, though not in exactly the same ways, as it was in the latter period of the USSR. Including a move towards criminalizing forms of dissention.

The USSR was two different countries in many ways: early years/Stalin/WW2; and a later period where the country rejected Stalin (that is why there are Lenin and not Stalin Statues in Russia and liberalized in some aspects of life there. We painted a pretty broad brush and still do not recognize the differences. There were also exagerations and straight out propaganda lies. Like about the situation with lines and rations. That was not nearly universal and it was certain products that were affected. Granted they did not have as large a variety of foods, but in the last 40 years of the 1900's the only period where the general population did not have enough food was during the change to capitalism.

It's unfair to say everything was wrong.
They had no homelessness, which is an achievement
They had no real unemployment
Vacation benefits etc were some of the most generous in the world. You don't hear about it, but while indeed travel was limited for many to their sphere of influence, they did provide a wide variety of resorts and their people took lots of vacations across large distances just like we do.
Everyone had access to those things, not just the the population with money as in the west.
Everyone had access to schools, etc
Social life was extremely rich.

of course that is only one side of the story.

Of course we had many good things here during that period but it really depended on who and what class of citizen you were.
The middle class could afford great vacations, but the poor here were often lucky to travel outside their state, much less outside the country.
The middle class had aplenty of food and food varieties, but not the poor.
During that period we give ourselves a pass on a few really "bastard
We definitely had a superior common infrastructure (as long as gas was cheap and available to most).


I would not advocate a return to the USSR, but it was not as bleak as portrayed. As wth most things the truth is somewhat more nuanced.
Have you been to either Ukraine or Russia? Studied and discussed all these things with people there?