The idea of somehow looking back fondly, romanticizing, upon a period of history that resulted in so much death and destruction seems somewhat strange to me. Perhaps it's just a process of acceptance, as after all, it's done and can't be changed. Your post summarizes some of the tragedy fairly well, though, IMHO perhaps skipping a little too lightly over the death of millions and the poverty the system created. * First was the abandonment of the ideals of communism and the revolution.
What came after could be termed state capitalism - with the Party members, being the effective owners, acting as capitalists. What came after could be termed state capitalism - with the Party members, being the effective owners, acting as capitalists.
the first gulags (in which the inmates' deaths were planned in) were created along the White Sea Canal under Lenin,,,,,
The decrepit wooden houses in those villages reached by no paved road have electricity and flowing water. Pension is not much, public transport crappy, but neither existed 100 years ago.
Overall it just doesn't seem to properly treat an incredibly dark period of history, that I think in your view (if I interpret you correctly) and others, was just an incredible human tragedy.
I will let the author respond point my point to your comment, but I hardly found this post to be an apologia for the atrocities committed in the Soviet Union. Not at all. Just a challenge to the narrow views that 1)The Communists were the only bad guys, (or) 2)Lenin was a great lefty and it was Stalin who really fucked things up, 3)If there had been no Revolution there would have been no atrocities and everything would have been fine, 4) Absolutely nothing good came about as a result of the Revolution, 5)and that absolutely nothing bad has resulted from the end of that regime.
It does seem to me, an American, that Europe is now sincerely searching for an "alternative" in which the socialization of services and a reasonably fair distribution of wealth and opportunity is balanced with a free market economy and the protection of civil rights.
The US is still firmly trapped in the false dichotomy of Cold War propaganda. So I found this post especially refreshing. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
I hardly found this post to be an apologia for the atrocities committed in the Soviet Union
Lenin wasn't the purity whose legacy got corrupted by Stalin - the first gulags (in which the inmates' deaths were planned in)
You must excuse me, I will answer your post in more detail when I have more time (I don't have much this week, preparing for a French exam - I even wrote this post in advance, and right now I comment at the expense of sleeping time...), but I will say that poemless got those five points dead right. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
the above rant was intended to be a more provocative version...
