If RevLeft existed during the Cold War

[Bolshevik Sickle]

If RevLeft existed during the Cold War


What would be the popular opinion of the Soviet Union if RevLeft existed during the Cold War (every year)?


I think we would all side with the Bolsheviks during the
Russian Revolution, and would all side with the Soviet Union (but not neccesarily Stalin) during World War 2.

Outside of that, I think opinions on the CCCP would be pretty mixed and ambiguous.

[Comrade Jacob]

1917-1924 - Everyone loves it (except those left-communists)
1924-1953 - Massive split (although some war-time support)
1953-1989 - Anti-Stalinists are glad about him being gone but think it's still non-socialist
1989-1991 - Oh god why? (everyone)

[Bolshevik Sickle]

1917-1924 - Everyone loves it (except those left-communists)


Why wouldn't they like it?

[Comrade Jacob]

Why wouldn't they like it?

Lenin wrote something called "Left-communism: an infantile disorder". Understandable it pissed them off a bit.

[RedHal]

would Schatchmanites be restricted or would they dominate the discussions and eventually turn this site to revneocon.com?

[ВАЛТЕР]

We probably wouldn't exist...considering there would be a lot more real-life shit going on that we could take part in. Also, every single poster would automatically be on the CIA's list.

[Comrade Jacob]

We probably wouldn't exist...considering there would be a lot more real-life shit going on that we could take part in. Also, every single poster would automatically be on the CIA's list.

We probably are to be honest.

[Zukunftsmusik]

1917-1924 - Everyone loves it (except those left-communists)

I think "those left communists" have different views of the SU in this period, but I think the absolute majority of them supports/ed the Russian revolution.


Lenin wrote something called "Left-communism: an infantile disorder". Understandable it pissed them off a bit.

This is hardly an adequate explanation.

[Bolshevik Sickle]

We probably wouldn't exist...considering there would be a lot more real-life shit going on that we could take part in. Also, every single poster would automatically be on the CIA's list.

I find that flattering.

[Thirsty Crow]

I think we would all side with the Bolsheviks during the
Russian Revolution, The formulation is unclear. If you mean, side with the Bolsheviks and the working class for social revolution and toppling the Kerensky government, yes.

But that was only the prelude (important, but still) to the revolution and its eventual degeneration.


and would all side with the Soviet Union (but not neccesarily Stalin) during World War 2.Wrong. "We" would not. The working class has nothing to pick out from the two imperialist camps.


Lenin wrote something called "Left-communism: an infantile disorder". Understandable it pissed them off a bit.
Well, given that the communist left was an avid sympathizer of the Bolsheviks, and one of its most fervent supporters in Central Europe (along with, of course, workers' revolution), no wonder that infantile arguments of supposed impatience (when Gorter for instance urged that the revolution in mainland Europe will be longer fought for than in Russia and much more difficult) arising from speculation on the age demographics of the nuclei that went on to be expelled from the KPD by a shameless bureaucratic measures on behalf of the minority (still refusing to see the USPD and the unions for what they were), and afterwards to form the KAPD - then no shit Sherlock, you'd be pissed by that kind of crap as well (but in actuality, Gorter replied, and geez what wonder that elderly man didn't throw a tantrum)


1917-1924 - Everyone loves it (except those left-communists)Yeah you've got no idea what you're talking about. Either that or you're actually slandering those revolutionaries, and by extension the people who uphold that proletarian tradition. As I said, the communist left defended the revolution in Russia tooth and nail. Guess what happened to the current around Otto Ruhle which assessed the Octiber Revolution as bourgeois?

[Blake's Baby]

CIA list? A bunch of us, I hope, would also be on the KGB list.

Some of us would have 'disappeared'.

[ВАЛТЕР]

It would be a far more exciting place I bet. Imagine the topics that would have been going on? Especially considering the fact that we wouldn't have any way of knowing the outcomes of these things since we would be in the moment.

Black Panthers
Vietnam
RAF
May '68
Palestine
Red Brigades
etc.

[Blake's Baby]

We'd also, obviously, be on both sides of the Iron Curtain. So it wouldn't really happen anyway.

[Per Levy]

well, since i was born and still live in east germany, i wouldnt be on here during the cold war, the stasi would make sure of that. the horror if i could come into contact with communist thought and currents that arnt realexisting state-socialism type.

[Sea]

The CIA would be sneering at us. Now that the cold war is over, the CIA is just laughing at us.

[tachosomoza]

In the 1950s, each and every one of us would be unemployed due to blacklisting and possibly would be comparing mugshots.

[Blake's Baby]

Maybe not so much in Europe.

Probably in the US.

Those in Brazil, would likely be dead. Perhaps the same with Spain and Portugal. Yugoslavia? Not so sure. East Germany? Definitely being spied on by the Stasi.

[Red_Banner]

well, since i was born and still live in east germany, i wouldnt be on here during the cold war, the stasi would make sure of that. the horror if i could come into contact with communist thought and currents that arnt realexisting state-socialism type.


Or maybe they would block this site the same way China blocks YouTube and you can simply get around with a proxy. :lol:

[Hrafn]

Maybe not so much in Europe.

Probably in the US.

Those in Brazil, would likely be dead. Perhaps the same with Spain and Portugal. Yugoslavia? Not so sure. East Germany? Definitely being spied on by the Stasi.

So much in Europe. At the very least in Sweden, where I'm from. The government practiced extensive surveillance and registration (as during the war) of anarchists, communists, syndicalists, etc.

[Blake's Baby]

I was more thinking Italy and France. In Britain, communists were kept under surveillance by the security services but not much interferred with.

Of course those communists weren't actually in constant instant communication with other communists from all over the globe, so there was less for the state to be worried about.

[Super international]

1917-1924 - Everyone loves it (except those left-communists)
1924-1953 - Massive split (although some war-time support)
1953-1989 - Anti-Stalinists are glad about him being gone but think it's still non-socialist
1989-1991 - Oh god why? (everyone)

^ This.

[RedBen]

We probably are to be honest.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a248/skinheadoioicrap/grumpy-cat-good.jpeg

[Sea]

In the 1950s, each and every one of us would be unemployed due to blacklisting and possibly would be comparing mugshots.
We'd also probably be drawing immature things on eachother's mugshots.

[Comrade Samuel]

We'd all probably be deported or killed depending on what the guys in black fancy on the particular day they pick us up spreading 'them commie lies'.

[CyM]

On that note, I'm sending this to chit chat where it belongs

[Hrafn]

Imagine if arevleft existed in 1968/1969. Ouch.

[Bolshevik Sickle]

Imagine if arevleft existed in 1968/1969. Ouch.

Why? Because of the Vietnam War?
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________________________________________
Also, I can guarantee the houses of every RevLeft user would be swarmed during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[Blake's Baby]

Why do you write as if you assume everyone comes from the US?

[Bolshevik Sickle]

Why do you write as if you assume everyone comes from the US?

Well the USA became a superpower in 1945, so the world pretty much revolved around the USA and the USSR at those times. Of course I suppose it is bias.

[Prometeo liberado]

Oh the cold war! The good ole' days. Lines were drawn and you knew who to throw rocks at. I for one tried to get into the Patrice Lumumba Uni in Moscow. Didn't have the right(analogy not lost on me) connections within the CPUSA I assume. :(

[Hrafn]

Why? Because of the Vietnam War?
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________________________________________
Also, I can guarantee the houses of every RevLeft user would be swarmed during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I was rather considering the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, primarily. Also the 1968 protests, I guess.

[Bolshevik Sickle]

Does anyone know exactly why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War?

[Remus Bleys]

Does anyone know exactly why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War?
Inherent contradictions of Stalinism claiming to be proletarian, whilst it was state capitalist.
The US had an economic advantage from the start.
The US was smarter with its domination of NATO than USSR was of Warsaw.