The Virgin Lands Campaign

[Phalanx]

Brief overview, in 1954 the Soviet Union 'relocated' (ie forceably settled) 300,000 Soviets of European descent in Central Asia. This changed the demographics in the region drastically and was designed to migitate the threat of Central Asia revolting.

My question is, to at least the people defending the Soviet Union, how can you possibly defend the USSR when it used racial settlement in areas, yet criticize Israel when it does the same thing? Not to mention the fact that many ethnicities were sent to Siberia based soley on their ethnicity (see Chechens).

[Prairie Fire]

We defend the USSR at different points. By 1954, Niki Kruschev would have been at the helm. I don't support anything Kruschev has ever done.

Now, as a whole, I would still critically defend the USSR under Kruschev, because despite the many policy flaws, it still had a socialist economic structure, and was overwhelmingly preferable to the wonderful capitalist nations that it split into in the ninetys.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Umm.. what the fuck are you talking about? Do you know what the Virgin Lands Campaign was?

It was a program to utilize unused (thus, the "Virgin" part) land. You know, like Marx and Engels called for in the Communist Manifesto when they said "... the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan."

Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the USSR moved to the areas, and with the help of students and soldiers, cultivated the unused land.

In the beginning it was a HUGE success, allowing the USSR to produce more than double the wheat the imperialist countries were producing, per capita.

Problems soon came though, caused by a lack of planning (of all things, in a planned economy). They didn't build enough storage for the wheat harvested, so alot wasted away. They also failed to rotate the crops, or switch up what they grew, causing the land to be sucked of all nutrients.

No one was displaced. No apartheid system was put in place. The campaign has nothing in common with Israel's theft of land the Palestinian people were living on.

[The Author]

Originally posted by Tatanka [email protected] February 12, 2007, 06:50 pm
many ethnicities were sent to Siberia based soley on their ethnicity (see Chechens).

You forgot to add that the Chechens were sent because of their collaboration with the Nazis during the war. Were all Chechens guilty? No. Were the Chechens under the influence of local leaders who sympathized with Nazis? Yes. Were mistakes made by the Soviet government (think an entire government now, not Stalin the one man) in administering these nationalities before the war, who, when they became discontented as a result of such actions, went over to the Nazis? Yes. Hence the need to adhere to the Marxist-Leninist principles of "criticism" and "self-criticism" in order to learn from practical experience and theoretical development.

However, this bit of information about the U.S.S.R. and other socialist countries supposedly forcibly relocating national minorities based on racist motives is nothing but pure anti-communist propaganda, aimed by the bourgeoisie at disuniting the internationalism of the world working class and sowing nationalist hatred among nationalities and ethnic groups.