Fisrt 40 years of Soviet Union?

[Rusty Shackleford]

I read some posts saying the early days of the USSR were much more socialistic and such in goals and the way it worked then after Stalin died.
Also, the idea of being more productive drove them to more capitalistic ideals. such ad China and well, the Soviet Union in its latter days.

all i can really come up with is that after Stalins death, and the Soviet's acquisition of the Atom Bomb that now since they were at war with the West they then needed to produce for survival. and also rebuilding post WWII.

What im interested is in societal policies within and outside(internationalism) of the USSR which would have made them more true to their name and i know Stalin will come up as it just did, but nevermind the purges and political prisoners and so on. just the policies.

I'm genuinely interested in find out if this is true, ill surf the bored later for more info but if anyone could, please post here if its true or false.

P.S. please dont make this a Stalin debate thread, apparently theres been milions of them (exaggeration)

[mikelepore]

I wouldn't "make this a Stalin debate thread" but I can't help but turn it toward: yes or no -- did the workers participate democratically in the control of the industries and services? If you say yes, then please tell me how that could be, in a situation that doesn't allow unrestricted debating and contested elections? If you say no, then I have to wonder about the intended meaning of the phrase "the early days of the USSR were much more socialistic and such in goals and the way it worked then after Stalin died."

[Cumannach]

http://www.stalinsociety.org.uk/ :lol:

But seriously, see: http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html

http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/russia/sp001861/bolintro.html :lol::laugh:

[Cumannach]

I wouldn't "make this a Stalin debate thread" but I can't help but turn it toward: yes or no -- did the workers participate democratically in the control of the industries and services? If you say yes, then please tell me how that could be, in a situation that doesn't allow unrestricted debating and contested elections?

The proletariat had reasonable democratic control through the soviets and the communist party, not perfect, but for the first exercise in mass democracy in human history, quite impressive. This democracy degenerated gradually until control over the state by the working class was loose enough to be disrupted, though not openly.

[Rusty Shackleford]

ah well thanks for the links, bookmarked em.
dont get the lol faces though :/

[Revy]

sorry but it's impossible for this not to be a Stalin thread. You've started out with this whole premise, that Stalin's era was somehow "more socialist" than the one after. How do you expect nobody to discuss Stalinism?

[Rusty Shackleford]

well, it wasnt meant to be that way, i just wanted to know how it was. i guess it was rather naive of me, to think it wouldn't turn that way. I just wanted to hear points that would justify that it could have been more socialistic than the later years.