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Showing posts with the label "the Soviet Union"
This was written in 1984:  The extent of criticism varies greatly from one part of the Left to another, but there is at least no disposition now to take the Soviet regime as a “model” of socialism: indeed, there is now a widespread disposition on the Left to think of the Soviet regime as an “anti-model.” How could it be otherwise, given some of the most pronounced features of that regime? The socialist project means, and certainly meant for Marx, the subordination of the state to society. Precisely the reverse characterizes the Soviet system. Moreover, the domination of the state in that system is assured by an extremely hierarchical, tightly controlled, and fiercely monopolistic party aided by a formidable police apparatus. Outside the party, there is no political life; and inside the party, such political life as there exists is narrowly circumscribed by what the party leadership permits or ordains — which means that there is not much political life in the party either. Ess
The BBC: ignoring criminal consequences of an era In its " Russia's bitter taste of capitalism ", there is an omission of the major consequence of the restoration of capitalism in Russia and the USSR, which is that  the restoration of capitalism in the former Soviet Union took more lives than the Iraq and Syrian wars put together : 1.9 million excess deaths in Russia alone in 1990–95; around 4 million for the  USSR in the 1990s.  Sources:  – Vladimir Shkolnikov and Giovanni Andrea, "Population Crisis and Rising Mortality in Transitional Russia’, in Cornia and Renato Paniccià, eds,  "The Mortality Crisis in Transitional Economies", Oxford 2000, p. 256; Michael Marmot,  "The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects our Health and Longevity", New York 2004, p. 196. –  Jospeh Stiglitz's Globalisation and Its Discontents, 2002 Then add the plunder of the wealth and the rise of the oligarchs. Compare that with the way the BBC deals wi