Re: Why did the USSR fall?

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> Julio Pino <jpino@xxxxxxxx> 04/25/00 03:51PM >>>
CB: This was, of course, Trotsky's position  all along; that Stalinism was
not the creation of one evil man or a set of erroneous policies but rather
the concrete expression of the encirclement of the USSR after the failure
of the Bolshevik Revolution to spread outwards.But, an important proviso
must be added.The triumph of Stalinism, which set the stage for the end of
the Soviet Union, was not inevitable(an impression easy to get from reading
Deutscher).

_____________

CB: In none of the first efforts to build socialism in history has a liberal 
communist
state been established , except perhaps Chile, let alone survived. So, some 
form of
sharp centralism was inevitable, if there was to be a socialist country at all 
in the
face of total imperialist war on all socialist countries, no revolution in 
another ,
big , industrial country, etc.

The personage of Stalin is highly contingent. Stalin could have been hit by a
lightening bolt in 1917, and there still would have been a militarized , 
centralized
task to be fulfilled to survive the Civil War and the inevitable hi tech 
imperialist
hit that the Nazi attack actualized.

____________


Stalin turned vice into virtue by argunig for "socialism in one
country", putting the interests of the Soviet Union above that of the world
revolution and thus assuring the eventual collapse of the USSR itself.I'd
say the same thing is rue of China today.

_____________

CB: The best thing the Soviet Union could and China can do for the world 
revolution is
survive, and survive as socialist. It is not their main job to make 
_revolution_ in
other countries, though there is proletarian internationalism. Also, they have 
(had)
little ability to effect revolution in other countries as they are notorious as 
founts
of revolution ( See the whole history of anti-Bolshevism in the U.S.from the 
git,
confiscation of John Reed's documents from 1917 by the INS, etc. ).


____________




Without going into a discussion
of just "how socialist" is China, the fact remins that it too is encircled
and will go capitalist unless A) the present pro-market course of the CPC
is reversed. B)proletarian revolution is once again on the agenda in a
significant part of the world.

___________

CB:  True, China might go capitalist, and it is only one country, though it is 
also
1/5 of the human population. That is in a way more than one country.

By the way, Russia is not quite got its capitalist act together sufficient that 
we can
say it is a capitalist country. So, it is not clear that China can go all the 
way
capitalist on historical examples.





Viva la Republica Popular De China!
Julio Cesar


Viva !

CB