• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    I am aware of the Soviet Union expelling fascists and Tsarists from the party, and punishing those found corrupt, criminals, or had been members of the White Army. I am aware of the GULAG administration that formed the early Soviet prison system, read Russian Justice for more on how that functioned. I am aware of the famine in the 1930s. I have read these articles, as pretty much every Western Communist has had to, these are not “gotchas.”

    The real truth of the matter is that the western anti-Communist “Left” that denounces the USSR and every real attempt at building Socialism plays into the hands of the US Empire. The Soviet Union was a massive victory for the working class, the first real Socialist state in history, and with it came dramatic improvements in key life metrics and working class dignity.

    1. Life expectancy doubled.

    2. The economy was democratized, following the method of Soviet Democracy

    1. Wealth inequality shrank, while economic growth boomed:

    1. Large expansions in social safety nets were made, such as free and high quality education and healthcare.

    2. Housing rates skyrocketed, and literacy rates over tripled to 99.9%.

    3. Food security was achieved in a country that was always food insecure.

    4. The Red Army defeated the Nazis, with 80% of the combat of World War II on the Eastern Front.

    5. The Soviet Union supported countless liberation movements, such as in Cuba, Algeria, and more.

    And many, many more achievements. People who denounce the USSR maintain unstated approval for the other Great Power, the United States, which without the USSR would have been entirely unopposed. The US, which committed Imperialist slaughter and even genocide in Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Angola, Palestine, and many, many more countries, was opposed primarily by the Soviets.

    The Soviet Union was by no means perfect, nobody asserts that, but to claim that the Soviet Union did “more harm than good to the Leftist movement” is ludicrous. This is the sentiment of Western Chauvanists that don’t want to support Socialism unless they are the ones who acheive it. Jones Maonel was spot on in Western Marxism Loves Purity and Martyrdom, but not Real Revolution.

    You should read Dr. Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds, or at the very least the sections on “Left” Anti-Communism.