http://andreworsak.com/2008/10/discontinuity-and-the-soviet-union/ the thoughts and works of andrew orsak Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:26:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://andreworsak.com/2008/10/discontinuity-and-the-soviet-union/comment-page-1/#comment-88 jose Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:26:00 +0000 http://blog.openthreaded.com/?p=148#comment-88 THE USSR SHALL RETURN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER TO PROTECT ITS COUNTRY LIKE IT WAS MADE FOR NOT TO LET ITS COUNTRY GET TAKEN AWAY FROM SOME SAILORS AND FAT PEOPLE THE USSR SHALL RETURN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER TO PROTECT ITS COUNTRY LIKE IT WAS MADE FOR NOT TO LET ITS COUNTRY GET TAKEN AWAY FROM SOME SAILORS AND FAT PEOPLE

]]> http://andreworsak.com/2008/10/discontinuity-and-the-soviet-union/comment-page-1/#comment-6 MothraAttack Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:34:31 +0000 http://blog.openthreaded.com/?p=148#comment-6 I think your analysis is spot on, and your emphasis on Castro and Chavez doesn't go unnoticed. A lot of people ignore their autocratic tendencies in favor of promoting their ostensibly progressive policies. I've heard from backpackers that in Caracas, one of the most crime-ridden capitals of South America, lines for staple food items have become mandatory since Chavez's economic reforms. Likewise it will be interesting to see how Evo Morales of Bolivia contends with the renegade province of Santa Cruz. As a minor nitpick, I think modern academia tends to cite a number of under 1,000,000 victims for Stalin's Great Purge. This isn't to minimize the utter horror of the Purge; rather, the opening of Soviet archives has shed significant light in recent years on the tragedy, dispeling larger numbers that were once favored in the West, like those once promulgated by Robert Conquest and other vociferous opponents of the Soviet model. This does not, however, factor in the liquidation of the kulak class, which possibly led to more deaths than the Great Purge. From a sociological standpoint it is interesting to note the relative popularity that Stalin and Lenin still enjoy in the CIS -- although this peculiar trend is certainly not replicated in western Ukraine or the Baltic states. A notable footnote to the Russian Civil War was Nestor Makhno's anarchist rebellion in Ukraine. It, perhaps above all, was the most succinct rendition of Marxist theory seen since the Parisian communards, yet his refusal to ally with Kerensky, the Bolsheviks or the Whites quickly sealed the fate of his movement. I think your analysis is spot on, and your emphasis on Castro and Chavez doesn’t go unnoticed. A lot of people ignore their autocratic tendencies in favor of promoting their ostensibly progressive policies. I’ve heard from backpackers that in Caracas, one of the most crime-ridden capitals of South America, lines for staple food items have become mandatory since Chavez’s economic reforms. Likewise it will be interesting to see how Evo Morales of Bolivia contends with the renegade province of Santa Cruz. As a minor nitpick, I think modern academia tends to cite a number of under 1,000,000 victims for Stalin’s Great Purge. This isn’t to minimize the utter horror of the Purge; rather, the opening of Soviet archives has shed significant light in recent years on the tragedy, dispeling larger numbers that were once favored in the West, like those once promulgated by Robert Conquest and other vociferous opponents of the Soviet model. This does not, however, factor in the liquidation of the kulak class, which possibly led to more deaths than the Great Purge. From a sociological standpoint it is interesting to note the relative popularity that Stalin and Lenin still enjoy in the CIS — although this peculiar trend is certainly not replicated in western Ukraine or the Baltic states. A notable footnote to the Russian Civil War was Nestor Makhno’s anarchist rebellion in Ukraine. It, perhaps above all, was the most succinct rendition of Marxist theory seen since the Parisian communards, yet his refusal to ally with Kerensky, the Bolsheviks or the Whites quickly sealed the fate of his movement.

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