Search Results
6/20/2025, 2:37:20 AM
>>63863843
>I can only imagine how socialism would be different if it had metastasized in Germany or France instead of Russia.
In a way, it did, but diverged and produced reformist social-democratic parties. That's basically what it turned into in Western Europe. This goes back to Eduard Bernstein. In the U.S. today it's really Bernie/AOC and that's what it is. The fringe groups who call themselves Leninists are politically irrelevant.
My take on why it metastasized in Russia, and why it took the form it did there, was because of particular reasons in Russia. The system collapsed and there were many different revolutionary parties, and revolutionary movements had existed there for decades before Marxism arrived on the scene. This is because Russia was very backwards, and the Bolsheviks won because they were the most go-go industrial party. The revolution was also anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist (read: anti-western) because a lot of industry they had did have was under the control of foreign owners. The petroleum industry was basically owned by Brits. The Russian capitalists were like middlemen and fairly weak as a group, so the revolution targeted them as well. The Bolsheviks slid down the path of least resistance really.
The Bolsheviks were also very militarized. This was an empire that had zero tradition of democratic politics. Never ever. They achieved none of their goals except industrialization, and the reality of their rule was the opposite in many ways of what they said socialism was going to be. You can give them credit for the industry, but they came to find themselves in an unusual predicament as Marxists for whom "historical necessity" had rendered their services obsolete by the 1970s or so.
>>63864965
>It was literally this and nothing else which put tge FSB and Putin in the position they are in today.
That's interesting. It was like a deep state / black market takeover that grew up like an alien-baby embryo inside the Soviet system.
>I can only imagine how socialism would be different if it had metastasized in Germany or France instead of Russia.
In a way, it did, but diverged and produced reformist social-democratic parties. That's basically what it turned into in Western Europe. This goes back to Eduard Bernstein. In the U.S. today it's really Bernie/AOC and that's what it is. The fringe groups who call themselves Leninists are politically irrelevant.
My take on why it metastasized in Russia, and why it took the form it did there, was because of particular reasons in Russia. The system collapsed and there were many different revolutionary parties, and revolutionary movements had existed there for decades before Marxism arrived on the scene. This is because Russia was very backwards, and the Bolsheviks won because they were the most go-go industrial party. The revolution was also anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist (read: anti-western) because a lot of industry they had did have was under the control of foreign owners. The petroleum industry was basically owned by Brits. The Russian capitalists were like middlemen and fairly weak as a group, so the revolution targeted them as well. The Bolsheviks slid down the path of least resistance really.
The Bolsheviks were also very militarized. This was an empire that had zero tradition of democratic politics. Never ever. They achieved none of their goals except industrialization, and the reality of their rule was the opposite in many ways of what they said socialism was going to be. You can give them credit for the industry, but they came to find themselves in an unusual predicament as Marxists for whom "historical necessity" had rendered their services obsolete by the 1970s or so.
>>63864965
>It was literally this and nothing else which put tge FSB and Putin in the position they are in today.
That's interesting. It was like a deep state / black market takeover that grew up like an alien-baby embryo inside the Soviet system.
Page 1