On the spaceflight note, it’s rather sad that the Soviets harassed and imprisoned Yuri Kondratyuk since his work was vital in the moon landing and orbital mechanics in general.
If his work in space flight was supported and not repeatedly crushed by authorities, the USSR might’ve landed on the moon first. Instead, he was imprisoned by the NVKD for some of his engineering designs (for “sabotage” of not using nails, which is a dumb thing on its own).
And eventually, he gave all his aerospace notes to a friend to smuggle them out of the country because he feared the govt would accuse him of treason like they had Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (the guy who made Sputnik 1).
The Soviets could have won the space race, if it weren’t for the “authoritarianism” you’re trying to make light of
The Soviets could have won the space race
A) that’s actually good meme haha
B) the space race ended when the US landed on the moon, if you run a 5k and get to 4.9k ahead of everyone but then don’t cross the finish line, you’ve still lost the race
Anyway the point of my comment wasn’t “the US beat the Soviets because they’re authoritarian” it was “the Soviets had everything they needed to absolutely dominate space travel but their authoritarianism hindered their scientific progress significantly”
B) the space race ended when the US landed on the moon, if you run a 5k and get to 4.9k ahead of everyone but then don’t cross the finish line, you’ve still lost the race
Im not sure how to explain to you that if youre the one declaring what the goal is, you essentially declare yourself the winner. If I declare that the first person to be in space is the winner of the space race, the UDSSR won? It’s what the meme is hinting at
the Soviets had everything they needed to absolutely dominate space travel but their authoritarianism hindered their scientific progress significantly
A) every single state in this planet is authoritarian. What matters is the class character. Read this: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm
B) habe you considered that the reason the Soviet had everything they needed to absolutely dominate space travel was due to the system they had?
There’s no benefit in linking theory. They will read it once, not interpret a single thing of value, and then simply say they don’t agree with it even though their view completely contradicts the material reality.
Meh it cost me nothing and the convenient link from other comrades got me to read theory. So I return the favor. I usually post it less for the person im directly talking to and more for the lurkers
You’re placing far too much importance on the potential excessive actions taken by a state under constant infiltration and siege against a scientist. As we showed, the soviet space program, without said scientist, took numerous firsts over the US. The soviets weren’t incompetent and needed a super-scientist to save them, they had an extremely competent team that took them to space before the US while being a semi-feudal backwater 50 years prior. If anything, the fact that they took so many firsts despite their dramatic hinderances, including recovering from World War II, is an excellent showcase of the effectiveness of soviet science.
This is what the lack of dialectical & historical materialism does to a motherfucker. You shall serve as a great example of what happens to the chumps who refuse to read theory.
Oh hey it’s that weird undergrad who keeps lying about being being involved in research (and who keeps calling himself an engineer while still in school). Now you’re here vomiting up garbage about how bad the USSR was? When aren’t you cringe as fuck?
Really? Lmao.
Oh look it’s the creep who calls me a liar for not specifying I was a student in a single comment section where I’d previously mentioned I was a student.
I even apologized last time you made a comment like this (once I figured out that was the “lie” in my comments), and I edited that old comment for clarity just for you. Your reply to my apology ended up getting removed by the mods before I could see it, so I guess that didn’t help, and here you are again this time claiming I’m not even involved in research.
Idk what to say anymore man, just block me if my username pisses you off enough that you feel compelled to keep bringing this shit back up. It’s not healthy
Yeah it’s crazy what you can achieve when you turn millions of people into a slave army for a dictatorship
You’re thinking of Tsarist Russia, not the USSR.
So, uh, did communism work for them?
Socialism did work in the USSR, yes. They doubled life expectancies, ended famine, passed prison reforms, dramatically expanded democracy, nearly eliminated homelessness, transformed a semi-feudal backwater into a modernized industrial country, passed free universal healthcare and education, and plenty more. There were problems and struggles, and obviously it no longer exists, but socialism absolutely worked for the soviets for neaerly a full century.
The dissolution of socialism in Eastern Europe was multi-faceted and complex, and had more to do with conditions particular to the soviets as compared to universal to socialism. Today, the CPRF is rising in popularity and is the most significant opposition to United Russia, and the majority of Russians wish to return to socialism.
It was socialism and yes it worked tremendously considering the fact that they sacrificed 20M+ lives in WW2 and were subject of western imperialism forcing them to spend most resources on the cold war
Yeah, right up until the US successfully ruined it as usual
I grew up in USSR, it worked fine. The real horrors started after the wonders of markets and capitalism were introduced.
My confusion is why collapse back to capitalism?
Let’s start with some axioms. There is a continuum of stages of human societal progression with socialism following after capitalism. Under socialism the workers run the state. USSR socialism was great for the worker.
Given the axioms, why would the USSR decide to create a capitalist class again?
The USSR’s results in the face of outside pressure were great however. Why buckle after putting up such a fight?
Why can struggle against external power move human societal progression backwards?
The USSR didn’t “decide” to do so, it was couped and hollowed out by Yeltsin and co. These are the new “oligarchs.” While the economy had started to slow, the combination of the devastation of World War II resulted in the deaths of 27 million soviets, many of which were some of the most dedicated to socialism and defending it. This was also combined with growing nationalist movements, often supported by the west. This complicated mish mash gave favorable conditions for a coup, despite popular support for retaining the soviet union.
Removed by mod
Based
Ah yes, life was just a peach for ppl living behind the iron curtain for the bulk of the 20th century.
Overall it was indeed pretty good, and got significantly worse after the dissolution of socialism and restoration of capitalism.
Was it peach for others?
Compared to where they were, their progress was quite cool. Their revolution also motivated a lot of the anticolonial movements.
kindly shut your hole
Removed by mod
That’s right I’m sensitive to seeing imbecilic drivel spewed in public.
Removed by mod
Here’s an idea: read a single book
I’ve read a few on the subject. My favourite of which was called the anti Humans by Dimitru Bacu. Have you read it?
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a Romanian anti-communist organizer has a bad opinion of socialism, nor do I think it especially worth reading over better books.
Exchange of ideas implies having actual ideas to exchange which you clearly do not.
Removed by mod
The only thing that’s delicious here is your dedication to making a clown of yourself in public.
My dude, just because you don’t agree with my position on communism doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Are you 10?
It’s not me not agreeing with your drivel, it’s literally every piece of empirical research showing that you’re spewing utter nonsense.
- Life expectancy decreases by 10 years. 2. 7.7 million excess deaths in the first year. 2
- 40% of population drops into poverty.
- GDP instantly halves.
- One in ten children now live on the streets. Infant mortality increases. Was 29.3 in 2003 which is around (current) Syria and Micronesia, 7.9 in 2013. Infant mortality in USSR was 1.92, literally the lowest in the world.
- 1996 election rigged by the US, Yeltsin sends in tanks to disperse the supreme soviet.
- Adult mortality increased enormously in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union when the Soviet system collapsed 30 years ago. https://archive.ph/9Z12u
-
Former Soviet Countries See More Harm From Breakup https://news.gallup.com/poll/166538/former-soviet-countries-harm-breakup.aspx Professor of Economic History, Robert C. Allen, concludes in his study without the 1917 revolution is directly responsible for rapid growth that made the achievements listed above possible:
Study demonstrating the steady increase in quality of life during the Soviet period (including under Stalin). Includes the fact that Soviet life expectancy grew faster than any other nation recorded at the time:
A large study using world bank data analyzing the quality of life in Capitalist vs Socialist countries and finds overwhelmingly at similar levels of development with socialism bringing better quality of life:
This study compared capitalist and socialist countries in measures of the physical quality of life (PQL), taking into account the level of economic development.
This study shows that unprecedented mortality crisis struck Eastern Europe during the 1990s, causing around 7 million excess deaths. The first quantitative analysis of the association between deindustrialization and mortality in Eastern Europe.
Romania, the inustrialization of an agrarian economy under socialist planning
We can also look at how people who lived under communism feel now that they got a taste of capitalism?
To be fair, I’m not endorsing capitalism. Capitalism is the 21st century blight as communism was in the 20th.
Socialism was never a blight, while capitalism in the 20th century absolutely was, and had already reached the imperialist stage.
I can get onboard with socialism. I understand the need to have a strong social safety net. But many here seem to be falsely conflating socialism and communism.
Socialism isn’t safety nets, it’s a mode of production characterized by public ownership as the principle aspect of the economy with the working class in control of the state. Communism is a post-socialist mode of production by which all of production and distribution have been collectivized, are oriented towards satisfying the needs of everyone, and the state, class, and money have withered away. States like the PRC, DPRK, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, the former USSR, etc are socialist, not communist yet, even if most of those are governed by communist parties.
How can you not know what socialism is if you’re gonna bark all fucking day long about it? How sad are you?
straight up nazi shit
Thing #1 bad. The thing that destroys the thing #1 and solves the problems created by it is also bad. I swear centrists are the peak of historical illiteracy! Communism was never achived, you idiot! Communism is the end state where every society on earth has overthrown capitalism and has become stateless, moneyless, and classless society. Before that it’s socialism: the transitory phase of fully-realized communism. There was no fully-realized Communism in the 20th century. It was Capitalism vs socialism. Socialist states work towards Communism. So what you call socialism is also an ‘early phase communism’. And Capitalism was also the blight in 20th century. As it was in the 17th, 18th, and the 19th century, idiot.
Go read a fucking book, kid. I beg you! 🙏 Your lack of education embarrasses me.
Go read a fucking book
I don’t think just “a book” is a good advice for deprograming the anticommunists, the bookstores and libraries are full of anticommunists lies pretending to be true by virtue of nearly entire academia of anticommunists and state/publishing market censorship of communism.
Like in Poland we had something like 5 communist publications in 36 years, of which three were printed in very small numbers, one was accidental selfown by illiterate succdems and one was highly contextual. For comparison Orwell shit or Ossendowski slander against Lenin has literally new edition every year.
You would need to be more specific, unless you want them to read Pipes, Montefiore or one of the million other propagandists of capitalism.
Removed by mod
I lived under communism and I can definitively tell you that you’re full of shit.
The majority of people who lived in the USSR want it back. This is increasing over time, a desire for socialism is on the rise, especially in Russia and Belarus.
