Re: Why did the USSR fall?

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> "ÁÎ×Ó¹â Henry C.K.Liu  ¹ù¤l¥ú" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 04/24/00 08:18PM >>>
The USSR fell not because its economic system was dysfunctional.  The CPSU
threw in the towel after losing the Cold War politically.

(((((((((((((((((((

CB: If I might pick up on this, I think we have to see that the "Cold War" on 
the
Soviet Union started not after WWII , but after the  "hot"  Civil 
War/Imperialist
encirclement of 1919. Then back to Hot War ( literally the hottest in human 
history;
20 million Soviets killed, incredible economic and all around destruction). 
Then back
to Cold War. This forced the SU to militarize in order to survive. Stalin and
"Stalinism" were merely the concrete expression of this objective condition ( 
this
doesn't deny the personal responsibility of Stalin and Stalinists for their 
crimes and
shortcomings, but at some level our analysis must focus on the objective and not
personal).  And socialism could not survive with less democracy than capitalism.
Socialism must have the conscious active support and control by the masses, real
democracy. Capitalism needs elite rule accompanied by very limited democracy. 
Even the
authors of the U.S. Constitution openly said this. So, by forcing the contest 
with SU
onto to militarized and undemocratic competition, the US and imperialism had an
advantage. Socialism needs democracy more than capitalism.

Then we must add in that there was no socialist revolution in an advanced 
capitalist
country, so that through  almost all of the permanent war setting the SU was 
forced
into, they had the whole weight of the imperialism against them.

What I say here dovetails with Henry's comment. It is the longer historical 
background
to the final fall in the 80's he discussses here.

In my opinion, the main cause of the fall of the USSR was the ABSENCE of 
revolution in
an advanced capitalist country to take some of the imperialist heat off of the 
SU. Of
course, the rule of Stalin and Stalinists was quite imperfect , but no leaders 
would
have been perfect. Lenin's and Leninists' leadership was not perfect. The 
critical
failure was not in Big Men, but in the objective condition of socialism in only 
one
big country.


CB