Indepth explantion to why the USSR isnt communist

[I H8 THE RIGHT]

Hey, I was wondering if someone could give me a full explantion to why the USSR isnt communist. I know the basics but I keep on getting people saying the USSR wasnt communist blah blah and I am tired of it. Thank You!

[KC]

Communism is a classless, stateless society. The USSR was a state with classes.

[Storming Heaven]

I think we have to be very careful that the USSR etc. isn't/wasn't 'Communist' or 'Socialist' etc. Obviously they made mistakes, and they didn't acheive what we are aiming for when we use these words, and perhaps they didn't even realise their own aims, but I am disturbed at the general flavor of criticism of these reigemes by leftists. My reasons are as follows.

When someone objects to 'Communism' on the basis of the experience of the USSR and co., hte first reaction of leftists is to deny that these states were 'Communist'. The usual line is that they deviated in some way from Communist ideals, that they did not follow the proper plan; and thus did not acheive Communism because they were not Communist, and hence that Stalin was not a Marxist etc. One of the most common complaints is that Stalin took power away from the people, and ran the USSR as an Authoritarian dictatorship of a person and a party, rather than as one of the people.

Such a position stinks of dogmatism. What they are really saying (whether they intend to or not) is that Stalin and co, in deviating from 'Communist' ideals, deviated from my idea of what Communism is. They then attempt to establish their idea pf Communism as an authority by equating it (usually) to Marx's. In other words, they assert that the USSR failed to achieve Communism because Stalin did not follow 'the Book of Marx' (or followed an incorrect interpretation of it).

My objection is that this attitude is dogmatic, and so is itself Authoritarian. This is all the more worrying by the fact that most such criticism comes from left communists and libertarians, who usually claim to be anti-authoritarian. Indeed, often the objection to the USSR centres around issues about 'dictatorship' etc.

My apologies for not answering the original question, but I believe my point is an important one. I believe the USSR and it leaders can and should be criticised, but we should not do so dogmatically. This matters because if the Communist critics that I refer to were ever to come into power, we would only replace one example of Authoritarian Socialism with another (I also think that it was due to Authoritarianism that these reigemes failed to acheive their aims).

Beware of Authoritarian revolutionaries!!!!

[( R )evolution]

Thanks for the help! Are there any articles about this subject that goes into depth about the failures of Mao, Stalin and other Soviet-Era Communist regime. Thank You!