I published this Several Weeks Ago, I Personally believe it Is Decent - some revisions could have been made but It gives a good general overview (Note: Footnotes and Pictures/Font couldn't make it through to the Forum)
Why did the USSR Fail?
1917, Saint Petersburg. From the rooftops of all houses, the bloody red banner of freedom is raised amid glorious cries. The USSR is declared. Workers, peasants, and intellectuals vow on their lives to stand for, defend, and progress towards a communist nation, and a communist world.
84 years later; 1991. Tens of millions dead, a slaughtered economy, and workers and peasants themselves revolting against their “Socialist state”, not just in the USSR, but all around the world. What happened? Was this the destiny of communism? Was this that bastard’s Stalin’s doing? Was this because of capitalist powers striking at the socialist development? Was Lenin wrong? What happened?
Behind the Scenes of the Revolution
The failure, purpose, and results behind the rise and fall of the world Soviet empire can be explained easily, it just depends where one starts. There is not a single reason, but multiple reasons combined together. The original socialist revolution in “Red October” 1917, was a time of glorious ambitions. The workers in the cities revolted and took control in a true proletarian style uprising. The only problem was, it was in the cities. Russia, back then, was a terribly backward nation; nationalist, poor, weak from WWI, starving, and refusing any sort of outside influence or changes. In other words, its wheel of history was halted in Feudalism, and capitalism seemed impossible to develop in Russia due to the Tsar’s stubbornness. And thus, with no capitalism, no socialism can ever appear (Will be explained later). Over 90% of the nation was compromised of peasants, with the workers actually being a minority, not a majority. Thus the resulting dictatorship of the proletariat was actually another elite rule like under the aristocracy, and even that soon degenerated into party-rule of a mere one or two percent. Workers in the cities enjoyed slight benefits, while the peasants starved and died. A Socialist nation is not supposed to have peasants; capitalisms purpose is to convert them all into workers first, as they migrate from their villages into cities in search of jobs and money. But this was not the case in Russia – explaining why the peasants lived in such terrible conditions – the state simply didn’t know what to do with them. Thus the doom of the Leninist Republic was already ensured before the first banner was raised. Socialism could not be created from a feudal society, where the blockades of a peasant class, religion, traditions, loyalty to ones village, not to mankind, and personal not social production existed. Yet the whole experiment only worsened when Joseph Stalin grabbed the reigns of power in the late 1920’s.
Some claim it would have been better if the revolution never took place. Damned feudalist pigs. An interesting, and little known fact about the 1917 October Revolution, is the Allied power’s hand in it. During the revolution, thousands upon thousands of allied troops, from Britain, America, France, Canada…and dozens of other capitalist nations were sent in to quell the revolution. Why, you ask? A very plain and obvious reason – the allied powers wanted Russia to stay in the war. It was not truly communism at the moment they feared, even though the allied powers propagandized it at their home front as the “Red Scare”, but it was the fear of a concentrated German front in the west once Lenin made peace with the Germans, as he eventually did. Russians were being slaughtered, most Russians didn’t even have weapons to fight with, and German tanks simply rolled over their hay barricades and dirt bunkers. The allied powers were sacrificing millions of Russians so that they could relax in their silk beds and sleep a bit longer while the Germans fought Russia instead of them. In the end, 2,000,000 Russians lay dead, the 2nd highest after the German death toll. Who could have not justified the revolution but pampered bourgeois scholars? The revolution saved millions of Russians – and ensured a peace that no bourgeois government on this Earth would have ever allowed. It was the allies and their cronies who began the massive bloody civil war that followed, not the Bolsheviks.
Yet back to the great despot, “Uncle Joe” . Stalin declared the grand plan of “Socialism in One Country”. (Sounds like National Socialism? AKA Fascism? Not coincidentally), and once that was declared, he began a new plan for the peasants to “jump” the stage between feudalism and socialism, meaning collectives and terrible repressions. It didn’t matter to Stalin that that was impossible. With the peasants and majority of workers still very religious, Stalin’s police state began an immediate purge of priests, monks, and worshippers. Churches were bulldozed and clergymen executed. The attack then went from on ideas to on the physical body as well. Food was scooped out of the peasant’s very hands and thrown away or given to fat party delegates. Peasants had no will to work, as they were supposed to after the real socialist Revolution. Labor slumped, and agricultural production collapsed, so much that the propaganda papers had to sometimes triple the yearly outputs to appear stable. The economy of the USSR collapsed, only maintaining occasional stability through millions in forced labor camps and starving the peasantry.
The Socialist nation had collapsed into an outright dictatorship and elite rule, of one man, Joseph Stalin, and his dozen or so cabinet, which he himself appointed and executed at personal whims. But what about after Stalin’s death in 1953? Well, “Whoever believes that one person’s death can change fundamentally an economic, social and political order is himself a victim of the cult of the individual. Even the megalomaniac Stalin did not believe that the history of Russia, and of the world, would be affected greatly by his death.” . After Stalin’s death, elections continued normally, with set party candidates being unanimously elected, legislation was passed without hesitation or dissent, opponents still purged, and millions remained in labor camps, and thus the cult of Stalinism remained, even after Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s “Secret Stalin” speech.
If not convinced, another reason other than “wrong place, wrong time” may be given. Marx had stated that after the true socialist revolution, the “State will wither away”, as will the revolutionary party, and all organizations as such, to prevent such a class system from emerging as it did in the USSR. Clearly, in the USSR, it was very different. The Bolsheviks didn’t want to abolish their “great revolutionary party”, and thus they stuck with it, at the sacrifice of the revolution. Thus the party created pointless jobs in managing and such, thus lowering output in itself. The USSR was also a more idealist nation than materialist(Marx was a unmovable materialist and hater of idealism). The USSR focused more on giving propaganda to the people, calling for better morale, and proclaiming great victories intellectually, thinking that would make them work harder, rather than giving people the food they needed to live. The USSR valued quality (for the ruling class that is) over quantity (for the people), which is also a trait of the capitalist system. The party became the new bourgeois, ruling both over the military, food supply, and the means of production.
The USSR was not a complete useless waste though. Everything serves a purpose in this world, however small it may be. The purpose of Stalin’s Russia was this – forced and hasty industrialization. Industrialization was forced through at an incredible pace, speeding through hundreds of years of backwardness. Factories stood where once were farming fields, and instead of grain for the picking guns and metals were manufactured. The Revolution of 1917 was turned from a proletarian revolution into a bourgeois revolution, allowing the development of capitalism and industrialization ironically. While industrialization certainly could have taken place without Stalin, Stalin helped Russia and its satellite Eastern European nations became industrialized machines, yet at the cost of millions. The Tsars would have never westernized, they were too self-righteous and autocratic, like China, thinking they were the “Middle-Kingdom” and that all other races had to be to subordinate to them. The revolutionary movement was doomed to become a bourgeois revolution even before the start – the stages of history cannot be skipped. The purpose of the USSR was thus to create capitalism, ironically. And it succeeded, and now Russia is a breeding ground for capitalism. According to a US study, 3,000,000 would have been alive now that aren’t in Russia if the old Soviet Life expectancies had been maintained. A Tragedy is unfolding itself; Crime runs rampant, streets are filled with pollution and dirt, and life expectancy is plummeting. Russia may have been scared by Stalin’s reign, but the people of Russia do not blame communism – only a small minority of intellectuals, bourgeois, and autocrats do so. In recent polls taken, results showed that an overwhelming majority think Stalin’s goal was industrialization, not communism, and so communism’s face is not smudged terribly by this soviet experiment in the eyes of the Russian People.
The International Communist Movement
Then one may ask – what about all those other “communist” nations, such as China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam…what happened there? Why did they fail? Well, through examination, the same case in the USSR is nearly applied to these nations. The Proletarian Revolutions brought capitalism ironically, not socialism. All of the countries in which these communist parties took power were backward nations – 3rd world nations, with an immense majority of peasantry, feudal lords, and lack of workers, cities, and capital. Any socialist movement in those nations was thus as doomed as in Russia.
Yet a contributing reason to the failure of the revolution’s, is going back to Soviet Russia. For those who don’t know, the Soviets had a “UN” of sorts, based on previous forms led by Marx and his followers, called the “3rd Communist International”, or abbreviated “Comintern”, and later on “Cominform”. This was a meeting ground for all communist and revolutionary parties of the world, formed in the youth of the USSR. It first began as a place to discuss strategies, theory, and plans of action for world revolution. But as Lenin died and Stalin’s dictatorship began to manifest itself, the Comintern meetings became more and more like a master dictating orders to dogs. The parties had to ruthlessly obey Stalin’s whims, and the parties who didn’t were expelled, and the members who disagreed or expressed doubt or ambition were executed on their trips to Moscow. Stalin purged every movement that he could get his hands on, reaching from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and even the little islands in Oceania. Nowhere was beyond the reach of Stalin, symbolized by America as a giant red octopus squirming itself and its tentacles over the world. An Italian newspaper once read – “Nobody has killed as many Communists as Stalin”, and so right they were. He stocked revolutionary movements full of his own cronies, caring more about his own personal dynasty than for the world revolution. This is what caused the Soviet takeovers in industrialized worker nations like Germany to fail as well – every state was forced to model itself after the devastating Soviet Union – mass repressions, intense propaganda, starving economics, and mass executions.
Those other “Socialist” states also mimicked the USSR in its other mistakes – at the time the USSR was supposedly the “model” for all socialist nations around the world, and so it and all its problems were copied everywhere else, namely those of a stranglehold state, idealist over materialist, unequal distribution of living supplies to people’s needs, and also extensive compromises with Bourgeois nations around the world …and strangely enough, all those nations still heavily relied on capital currency as well.
The case of China is very different, and deserves an explanation on its own. Mao, at the beginning, was just as much a pawn as other communist leaders in the world were…but then, through great calculations and risks, managed to situate himself in a spot so that he became a Stalin of his own. Mao’s revolution in 1949, openly declared itself based on peasantry, an extreme betrayal of Marxist principles. The communes organized, thus failed miserably like in the USSR, with over 30,000,000 dying in Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”. Idealist notions were followed to the extreme in Maoist China, with pictures idolizing Mao being found everywhere, along with even greater repressions, mass and brutal executions, and a increasing sense of deadly nationalism and imperialism, such as the takeover of Tibet in the 1950’s. Then what of industrialized nations? Like the DDR in Germany? The USSR, like with its other crony nations, severely restricted political rights in East Germany. People simply hated their government, and productivity ceased as people directed their laboring power to surviving, trying to escape the “Iron Curtain”, or trying to destroy the DDR. Political right was the banner of the revolution against feudalism, and must not be lost as the world transits to true socialism. A loss of political right is as good as going back to the days of Kings, even the people as far back as republican Rome recognized that fact.
Of course, with such an obvious betrayal of revolutionary principles in so many nations, countless communists fled and formed their own parties and movements, most notably the Trotskyites. Of course, that movement was weakened when Stalin had Trotsky assassinated in Mexico by a man with an ice pick. Why didn’t these parties succeed? The other movements around the world, such as the Industrial Workers of the World, the Socialist Parties, 2nd Socialist International, and others, had all been made unnoticeable either by the capitalists ruthless executions and repressions, their own pacifism and refusal to act, or the overwhelming superiority of Stalin’s propaganda machine, which butchered their membership. Every revolution had to clear itself before the feet of Stalin, and if Stalin dictated no, the revolution would fail, and if yes, the USSR would send arms and soldiers over to ensure the revolution succeeds – in favor of the USSR. A Bourgeois republic allied to the USSR was more desirable than a true independent socialist nation in the eyes of Stalin and his successors. Stalin’s personal ambition, random whims, and madness are what drove the world into such a terrible ideology of Stalinism – this fascist-autocratic ideology of deranged intellectuals. The tradition of Stalin which lasted nearly three decades continued to manifest itself in the Soviet Union after, and it was only because of Gorbachev 's reformist policies was this terrible false-communist state finally ended, and Marxist movements allowed to develop finally outside the boundaries of some autocratic controller.
Marxism Today
Today, Marxist movements can breathe fresh and free new air without the dominating form of the USSR looming over them. There are plenty of movements today – only a blind and arrogant fool would say Marxism is finished after the USSR fell. Most parties have renounced Stalinism, and many have released documents against their former Soviet masters. Yet not all present communist, socialist, and worker parties are sincere. Some still manifest Stalinist motives and ideals, praising Stalin, such as the “Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin” movement in Botswana, but thankfully, these sorts of parties receive little to no support, and that party itself only won 0.29% in the last elections.
The true socialist, communist, and revolutionary parties retain a strong backing in the minds of the working class, and are growing. The only problem is that – there are so many parties. In the last French elections that elected the corrupt president Chirac (who only got 19% of the vote), if all the socialist and worker parties had been united, they would have formed an majority opposition. Yet, being divided, as the bourgeois desire, they collapsed in the face of capitalist ideology. In nearly every nation across the world, there exists some sort of Socialist, Communist, or people’s movements. Be selective though before allying yourself with one organization or the other – many organizations will refuse you if you come from another, suspecting you’re a spy or possess fragile loyalties. The disunity of the parties of the world is the main reason why socialism is struggling today. Also, beware of parties that are either too reckless, and sacrifice you needlessly for no reason, or parties that are too soft and willing to compromise with capitalists and fascists. Socialism remains as strong, if not stronger today than ever before, with more workers rallying around the cause of the red flag, growing public opinion against bourgeois lies and their pathetic economics of slavery. While many deny the label of Socialism, their ideas are symmetrical with Marxism despite their denials. The path to communism and freedom can be seen as a bumpy road – the destination is set forth, clearly, and you know the path to get there, but it is difficult to see until one has neared it. Some don’t believe you are able to get there, while others do not want you to get there. There are bumps and holes in the road, some which may disable those attempting to reach socialism, and others delaying the travelers, but the travelers learn from their mistakes – and avoid the next bumps on the road. It is only a matter of time, before the red sun of freedom shines above the world.
"Brought up in the darkness of barbarism, they have no idea that it is possible for them to attain any higher condition; they are not even sentient enough to desire to change their situation...
They eat, drink, breed, work...and die." - 19th Century English Capitalist
