Russian Youths Hip to Communism

[Loonman]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7311060.htm

:shrug:

Go figure....

[TexasMexican]

1. not real communists.

I dont think they are really supporting communism.

They just want "the good old days," back. The ones that thier parents told them about, the ones that never really existed.

Sounds like they are becoming more "conservative."

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. after watching the new capitalist "oligarchs" and the new Capitalist China

I can understand where they are coming from. They still don't have civil rights, or freedom of speech, but they work just as hard for less money and less control of their own government. They see China moving to a capitalist state and still no freedoms, just serfdom. Scary, huh?

[Blue_Chill]

9. less money?

prove that. Chinese workers have never made much.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

12. Russian living standards have stagnated

Capitalism has brought little if anything to Russia, except for the same rhetoric Communism did - "all in the glorious future, comrade"!

[Blue_Chill]

16. But at least they have a chance

Capitalism for all it's faults at least has proven to work. Communism can make no such claim. The USSR was built on lies as all communist nations are, they have massive faults that threaten the population that are completely ignored by the state controlled press.

[youngred]

19. the USSR wasn't communist

sorry, but it wasn't which invalidates the rest of your statement

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. Communist China is doing fine, never made so much money, like you said

"Capitalism for all it's faults at least has proven to work."

How so? The United States did not become an economic superpower through capitalism and free markets, that's for damned sure.

[tom_paine]

22. "they have massive faults...that are completely ignored by the state

controlled press."

Now I am no Commie, but for Christ's sake is this not an accuratew description of Imperial Amerika as it currently stands?!?

Just thought I'd point that out.

We have a collapsing and untrustworthy electoral system, we are rapidly moving towards a Third-World justice system and economy...and none of these things can dare be spoken of in Coporate TV Pravda.

Ok, it isn't quite as ham-fisted as the Soviets for two reasons, IMHO...

1) The Busheviks aren't nearly finished transitioning Imperial Amerika into a Tyranny yet. There is much more fraud and theft and injustice and murder to do yet...

2) It would be foolish to assume that the 60 years of progress in the psychomanipulative arts such as advertising, public relations, and marketing would not result in a much more subtle and pernicious form of Totalitarian Propaganda that is far more effective at convincing slaves they are free, at telling the BIG LIE, and all the other the things the Soviets and Nazis did.

[Scott Lee]

2. Why? Well let's look at what post-Soviet Russia has offered...

Unemployment

Taxes

Enrichment of the few, stagnation of the many

Rise in crime

Press censorship

Decline and fall as a military countersink to US imperialism



I don't know about you, but I'd be jonesing for the Good Old Days, too.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Well, they did have press censorship before

but they went through some incredibly tough years after the Chicago School economists urged a "shock therapy" transition to capitalism.

The end result is a massive gap between the rich who spend money without thinking about it, and the poor who have to resort to selling their furniture to survive. This is as bad as or even worse than the days when Communist Party members got special privileges.

Part of the shock therapy was instant privatization of industries, which involved selling them to people who either mismanaged them completely (since no one had run a private business since 1917) or just sold the assets off. You heard of workers not getting paid for months at a time. Unemployment exists for the first time.

I knew people who studied in Russia during the 1970s, and while they reported that it was not a pleasant place to live, the people had developed ingenious ways of coping, and everyone was guaranteed at least a minimum living standard, as well as free education and medical care.

Now the social safety net is gone.

If people are nostalgic for Communism, what they're nostalgic for is low crime, guaranteed employment with steady wages, egalitarianism, and a social safety net. Most Soviet citizens were never in danger of being thrown into the Gulag, so that doesn't enter into their calculations.

[Scott Lee]

6. You're right - and then that drunk Yeltsin made it worse....

Good observations you had on post-soviet Russia.

As a Russian language major at GMU during the last years of the Soviet empire, we were watching this stuff all the time. We had to read Pravda and Izvestia almost daily as part of our classwork. Yeah, it was propaganda trash. But you know, what I see lately coming from our own press isn't much better. In fact, it woke me up to the reality that a "free press" can actually be lost to more than one thing like government tyranny. It can also be lost to corporate control.

Another thing that many Westerners are shocked by is the tendency in some of the real elderly in Russia to continue to carry Uncle Jo Stalin's picture around with them. We tend to think these oldsters are insane or pro-fascist. In fact, they long for him because it was under him that a fascist invader was repelled from Mother Russia. They long for the "good old days" of security and all of the gaurantees you mentioned in your post.

"Pust' Goluboye Nyebo, pust' Rossiya, pust' Mama"
("May there always be blue skies, may there always be Russia, may there always be Mama")

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Big dick syndrome

Communism may be perceived as having made their country powerful and feared. People get a kick off these petty sensations of power. This is PRECISELY the same reason B*sh has a chance of being (not-really-re)elected.

[Classical_Liberal]

7. It is just a russian youth

and he was mad at his fellow young people for not being hip to it. The trouble is that free market fundyism is a shitty and undemocratic as well. They should have imitated the western europeans rather than Pinochet's Chile.

[IndianaGreen]

8. "the ones who read and think, they're starting to come to the party"

"But the ones who read and think, they're starting to come to the party more and more. So are young workers who have been hurt by the system. They're starting to think for themselves and take action. They're all starting to wake up from their long sleep."

Even the deluded Americans are beginning to get a taste of what capitalism is really like, thanks to Bush.

[LastTime2BeFree]

10. And what good has EVER come from communism?

I can't think of one much less two or more.

[Blue_Chill]

11. It's better then the USSR and China

sorry but communism is a cruel joke, always has been.

[Scott Lee]

13. Really? What communism?

As there has never been a truly communist state on the earth yet, upon what do you base your comments?

[Blue_Chill]

15. It is what it is.

It is what it is, a system that can not exist and eventually becomes what you saw in the USSR. You don't get to go on claiming communism is great and ignore the reality of what it becomes.

[youngred]

18. but it doesn't have to

like other great movements of history implication of a great idea is snatched by power hungry conservatives out to gain power.

socialism/communism has NEVER existed thusfar, and there is no reason to believe it ever will as long as attitudes like that remain in place

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

21. "a system that cannot exist"

I agree completely - same with Capitalism - sounds good on paper, doesn't work in the real world. The USSR was never "true communism" and the USA has never been "true capitalism" - thank God!

[the_real_38]

14. Thanks for posting this...

... wow, what a possibility - "thinking man's communism", instead of Strong man's. Stalin and Lenin really took things in the wrong direction - it was all to dependent on militancy, but those were the times.

I

[Zorra]

17. Russia has always been a subject population.

The Russians don't seem to be capable of establishing and maintaining a national identity without some monarch or dictator telling them how to be and what to do.

Can you imagine an American yearning for the good old days when the government would not let you travel out of the country? Not.

Yet.