ProleWiki - User contributions [en]

Organization of American States

2021-02-13T04:21:47Z

TeeOS: changed "castro" to "fidel castro"

The '''Organisation of American States''', or '''OAS''', is an international organisation founded in April 1948 by the [[United States|USA]] to advance [[American Imperialism|their imperialism]] on the American continent and to push back against the spread of [[communism]] during the [[Cold War]].

The OAS was instrumental in the 2019 reactionary coup in [[Bolivia]] as well as the [[2019 Venezuelan coup attempt|attempted coup]] in [[Venezuela]] in early 2019. The conveniently found irregularities during the count, from policies that they require members to adopt (such as the inaccurate early count), and used this in both cases as justification to push for their preferred candidate to seize power and instantly recognize them as the legitimate president. Famously in Venezuela's case, the USA recognized Juan Guaidó mere hours after he claimed that he was allowed to become interim president.

After the 1959 [[Cuban Revolution|Cuban revolution]], and as it became clear that [[Fidel Castro]] would not bow down to US interests like his predecessors, [[Cuba]] was excluded as a member from the OAS.

Juche

2021-02-01T03:30:14Z

TeeOS:

'''''Juche''''' (Korean: 주체/主體, lit. 'subject'; usually left untranslated or translated as "self-reliance") is the official ideology of the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]].<ref name="North Korea: State of Paranoia">{{cite book|author=Paul French|date=2014|title=North Korea: State of Paranoia|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-78032-947-5}}{{page needed|date=July 2015}}</ref>

[[Kim Il-Sung]] (1912–1994) developed the ideology, with his ''[[Library:On The Juche Idea|On The Juche Idea]]'' which was originally viewed as a variant of [[Marxism-leninism|Marxism–Leninism]] until it became distinctly Korean in character. It incorporates the [[Historical materialism|historical materialist]] ideas of Marxism–Leninism and strongly emphasized the [[individual]], the [[nation state]] and its [[sovereignty]].

==External Links==
''please use these external links to improve this page''
*[[wikipedia:Juche|Wikipedia]] ([[Wikipedia|about]])
*[https://leftypedia.org/index.php?search=juche&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=1 Leftypedia] ([[Leftypedia|about]])
*EcuRed ([https://www.ecured.cu/index.php?search=juche&title=Especial:Buscar&fulltext=1&searchToken=1liqc6ighxvwc8gwf23ovjxtn Spanish], [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecured.cu%2Findex.php%3Fsearch%3Djuche%26title%3DEspecial%3ABuscar%26fulltext%3D1%26searchToken%3D1liqc6ighxvwc8gwf23ovjxtn English auto translated]) ([[EcuRed|about]])

== References ==

German Reich (1933–1945)

2021-02-01T02:47:46Z

TeeOS: Created a page for Nazi Germany. Added a first, comprehensive introductory paragraph so the article can be expanded with more detail later on.

'''Nazi Germany''' (also known as the '''German Reich''', the '''Greater German Reich''', the '''Third Reich''', and the '''Thousand Year Reich''') was a right-wing [[Fascism|fascist]] dictatorship ruled by the [[Nazi Party|Nazi party]], which existed in [[Europe]] between 1933 and 1945. It was preceded by the [[Weimar Germany|Weimar Republic]] before its dissolution with the issuance of the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] and the [[Enabling Act of 1933]], which allowed for the then [[Chancellor of Germany]] [[Adolf Hitler]] to act outside of parliamentary control. The Nazi government would, over the course of its existence, [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland|aggressively]] [[Anschluss|expand]] [[Annexation of the Sudetenland|into]] [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|neighboring]] [[1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania|countries]], ultimately resulting in the beginning of the [[Second World War]] with the [[Nazi Invasion of Poland]]. Internally, [[Concentration camp|concentration camps]] were set up for the forced labor, detention, and execution of Jewish and Roma people, political prisoners, communists, socialists, and trade-union activists. A [[Aktion T4|program of involuntary euthanasia]] was adopted for the state-sponsored mass murder of the disabled. This campaign of mass detention and extermination was based on [[Nazism|pseudo-scientific racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic eugenic beliefs]], which culminated in a systematic [[genocide]] commonly known as [[the Holocaust]]. With [[Death of Adolf Hitler|Hitler's suicide]] and the [[Battle of Berlin|fall of Berlin]], the [[German Instrument of Surrender]] legally declared the surrender and dissolution of Nazi Germany, which ended both the Holocaust and [[End of World War Two in Europe|World War Two in Europe]]. The succeeding [[Allied Occupation of Germany]] would result in the creation of separate [[West Germany|West]] and [[German Democratic Republic|East German]] states.

Adrian Zenz

2021-02-01T01:35:12Z

TeeOS:

'''Adrian Zenz''' (born 1974) is a German anthropologist. He claims to be an "independent researcher" with a particular interest in [[China]] and the Xinjiang region, while notably not speaking a word of Chinese <ref>https://twitter.com/adrianzenz/status/1175499119139405824</ref>. He was the subject of a Grayzone article in December 2019 <ref name=":0">https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/</ref> which exposed his fraudulent research and hypocritical indignation, which partly led [[Wikipedia]] to ban the Grayzone as a source from their whole website <ref>https://thegrayzone.com/2020/06/10/wikipedia-formally-censors-the-grayzone-as-regime-change-advocates-monopolize-editing/</ref>.

== Religious fundamentalism ==
A born-again Christian who claims to preach at his local church, Adrian Zenz is a lecturer at the European School of Culture and Theology. This anodyne-sounding campus is actually the German base of Columbia International University, a US-based evangelical Christian seminary which considers the “Bible [to be] the ultimate foundation and the “final truth in every aspect of our lives,” and whose mission is to “educate people from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the message of Christ.” Zenz’s work on China is inspired by this biblical worldview, as he recently explained in an interview with Wall Street Journal. “I feel very clearly led by God to do this,” he said. “I can put it that way. I’m not afraid to say that. With Xinjiang, things really changed. It became like a mission, or a ministry.” Along with his “mission” against China, heavenly guidance has apparently prompted Zenz to denounce homosexuality, gender equality, and the banning of physical punishment against children as threats to Christianity<ref name=":0" />.

In his 2012 book ''Worthy to Escape: Why All Believers Will Not Be Raptured Before the Tribulation''<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=lRtSQB3HHJcC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref>, which he co-authored, Zenz wrote some of the following quotes:

* Through notions of gender equality...the enemy is undermining God’s unique but different role assignments for men and women
* Another important God-given authority structure that Satan is attacking through the postmodern spirit is that of gender authority structures
* true scriptural spanking is loving discipline
* countries are banning all forms of physical punishment of children, the primary scriptural method for instilling respect
* It is very likely that the global persecution of true believers will center on the charge that they promote "intolerant views," especially related to preaching against homosexuality.
* ... anti-discrimination laws put in place throughout the European Union ... forbid employers to discriminate based on gender or sexual orientation. That way, it becomes illegal for churches or Christian organizations to refuse to hire homosexuals into important positions.

Notably, he claims that "God's refining process will wipe out all unbelieving Jews" which raises questions as to probable anti-Semitic views.

In September 2019, Zenz tweeted the following:<blockquote>Many Germans liked [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s control mechanisms. They reduced crime and rid society of unpopular minorities<ref>https://archive.vn/AVs6t</ref>. </blockquote>To the question "Were Germany’s concentration camps an overreaction to a real problem?".

== Imperialist ties ==
Adrian Zenz has many ties to imperialist organisations, notably being employed as a "senior fellow" by the [[Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation]] as per his own Twitter page<ref>https://archive.is/esnu5</ref>.

He is also invited to many different news shows all over the world to share his shoddy research, which solely comes from publicly-available documents published by various PRC agencies. Since Zenz does not speak Chinese, he relies on various unknown sources to translate these documents. None of this is challenged by the news anchors who invite him on set.

== Debunked claims ==
Zenz takes a particular interest against China, claiming that he feels "led by God" in his mission against communism. To that end, he has largely "researched" the re-education initiative by the [[Communist Party of China|CPC]] to combat terrorism and far-right radicalisation in the [[Xinjiang autonomous region]]. His work has been examined by less biased researchers who exposed his amateur methods and clearly ulterior motives.

For example, his initial assertion that up to 1.5 million Uyghurs were interned in "concentration camps" came from a pro-Xinjiang separatist group who interviewed 8 people, asking them how many people from their village they thought were in such centres, and averaging the results to the whole population of Xinjiang. This is presented as unquestionable fact by Zenz.

More recently, Zenz has started moving his interests towards the autonomous region of Tibet, claiming that much the same thing is happening in Xinjiang -- Tibetans, he claims, are being arrested en masse and driven to concentration camps where they are forced to work for free, cannot express their culture, and are not allowed to speak their language. Reuters themselves were unable to confirm his claims<ref>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-tibet-exclusive-idUSKCN26D0GT</ref>. What is actually happening is that the CPC, in their decades-long program to eradicate poverty in China, are providing populations in less-developed regions the possibility of working manufacturing jobs which pay more and teach them skills that may be useful on the labour market. Most of the money these workers receive, they send back to their family.

== References ==
<references />

Democratic centralism

2021-02-01T01:33:02Z

TeeOS:

'''Democratic centralism''' is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the [[political party]]. Although mainly associated with [[Leninism]], wherein the party's [[political vanguard]] composed of professional revolutionaries practiced democratic centralism to elect leaders and officers as well as to determine policy through free discussion, then decisively realized through united action,<ref name="freedomunity">Lenin, Vladimir (1906). [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/rucong/index.htm "Report on the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P."] [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/rucong/viii.htm "VIII. The Congress Summed Up"]. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 February 2020.</ref> democratic centralism has also been practiced by [[social democratic]] parties.<ref>Lih, Lars (2005). ''Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? in Context''. Brill Academic Publishers. {{ISBN|978-90-04-13120-0}}.</ref><ref>Sunkara, Bhaskar (15 January 2020). [https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/social-democracy-democratic-socialism-capital-unions-strategy "The Long Shot of Democratic Socialism Is Our Only Shot"]. ''Jacobin''. Retrieved 14 February 2020.</ref>

== In practice ==
In party meetings, a motion (new policy or amendment, goal, plan or any other kind of political question) is proposed. After a period of debate, a vote is taken. If one vote clearly wins (gaining a share of 60% or above among two options, for example) all party members are expected to follow that decision, and not continue propagandizing or otherwise working against it, aiming to act in unity. In the development of [[socialism]] in the [[Soviet Union]] and [[China]], it was largely taken up in response to instability following their respective revolutions which required faster mechanisms of decision-making. A constellation of practices surround this in order to encourage participation and debate, such as Don't Blame the Speaker.<ref name="criticism">{{cite web|author=Mao Tse Tung|year=1944|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch15.htm|title=Mao Tse Tung Quotations from Mao Tse Tung 15. Democracy in the Three Main Fields|access-date=9 August 2002}}</ref>

== Vladimir Lenin's conception and practice ==
The text ''[[Library:What is to be done?|What Is to Be Done?]]'' from 1902 is popularly seen as the founding text of democratic centralism. At this time, democratic centralism was generally viewed as a set of principles for the organizing of a revolutionary workers' party. However, [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s model for such a party, which he repeatedly discussed as being "democratic centralist", was the German [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]], inspired by remarks made by the social democrat [[Jean Baptista von Schweitzer]]. Lenin described democratic centralism as consisting of "freedom of discussion, unity of action".<ref name="freedomunity" />

The doctrine of democratic centralism served as one of the sources of the split between the [[Bolsheviks]] and the [[Mensheviks]]. The Mensheviks supported a looser party discipline within the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] in 1903 as did [[Leon Trotsky]], in ''[[Our Political Tasks]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1904/tasks/index.htm|title=Our Political Tasks|last=Trotsky|first=Leon|year=1904|access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref> although Trotsky joined ranks with the Bolsheviks in 1917.

The Sixth Party Congress of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)]] held at [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] between 26 July and 3 August 1917 defined democratic centralism as follows:

# That all directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected.
# That Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations.
# That there shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority.
# That all decisions of higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members.<ref>''[[History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)]]'' (1939). New York City: International Publishers. p. 198.</ref>

After the successful consolidation of power by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]<nowiki/>following the [[October Revolution]] and the [[Russian Civil War]], the Bolshevik leadership, including Lenin, instituted a [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|ban on factions in the party]] as Resolution No. 12 of the [[10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|10th Party Congress]] in 1921. It was passed in the morning session on 16 March 1921.<ref>''Protokoly'' (1933). ed. 585–7; 1963 ed. 571–573.</ref> Trotskyists sometimes claim that this ban was intended to be temporary, but there is no language in the discussion at the 10th Party Congress suggesting such.<ref>''Protokoly'' (1933) ed. 523–548.</ref>

The [[Group of Democratic Centralism]] was a group in the Soviet Communist Party who advocated different concepts of party democracy.

== Arguments for ==
In ''On Party Unity'', Lenin argued that democratic centralism prevents factionalism. He argued that factionalism leads to less friendly relations among members and that it can be exploited by enemies of the party.

By the [[History of the Soviet Union (1964–82)|Brezhnev period]], democratic centralism was described in the [[Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1977)|1977 soviet constitution]] as a principle for organizing the state: "The Soviet state is organized and functions on the principle of democratic centralism, namely the electiveness of all bodies of state authority from the lowest to the highest, their accountability to the people, and the obligation of lower bodies to observe the decisions of higher ones". Democratic centralism combines central leadership with local initiative and creative activity and with the responsibility of each state body and official for the work entrusted to them.

== Soviet practice ==
For much of the time between [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)|the era]] of [[Joseph Stalin]] and the 1980s, the principle of democratic centralism meant that the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet]], while nominally vested with great lawmaking powers, did little more than approve decisions already made at the highest levels of the Communist Party. When the Supreme Soviet was not in session, the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]] performed its ordinary functions. Nominally, if such decrees were not ratified by the full Supreme Soviet, they were considered revoked. However, ratification was usually a mere formality, though occasionally even this formality was not observed.<ref name="Armstrong">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH9nkBOxrZQC&q=Supreme+Soviet+rubber+stamp&pg=PA165|title=Ideology, Politics, and Government in the Soviet Union: An Introduction|last=Armstrong|first=John Alexander|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|date=1986|isbn=0819154059}}</ref> Thus, decisions made by the Party's top leaders ''de facto''had the force of law.

The democratic centralist principle extended to [[elections in the Soviet Union]]. All Communist countries were—either ''de jure'' or ''de facto''—[[One-party state|one-party states]]. In most cases, the voters were presented with a single list of unopposed candidates,<ref name="Smith_1976">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Hedrick|year=1976|title=The Russians|isbn=978-0-8129-0521-2|publisher=[[Quadrangle Books|Quadrangle]]/[[New York Times Book Company]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/russians00smit/page/261 261, 286–287]|url=https://archive.org/details/russians00smit/page/261}}</ref> which usually won 90 percent or more of the vote.<ref name="Smith_1976" /> In some countries, those who did not vote for the lone candidate on the ballot could face serious reprisals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sebetsyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York City|year=2009|isbn=978-0-375-42532-5|url=https://archive.org/details/revolution1989fa00sebe}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2015}}<ref name="DN">Nohlen, Dieter; Stöver, Philip, eds. (2010). ''Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook''. Nomos. p. 457. {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}.</ref>

== China ==
Democratic centralism is also stated in Article 3 of the [[Constitution of the People's Republic of China|present Constitution]] of the [[China|People's Republic of China]]: <blockquote>Article 3. The state organs of the People's Republic of China apply the principle of democratic centralism''.'' The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at different levels are instituted through democratic election. They are responsible to the people and subject to their supervision. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the people's congresses to which they are responsible and under whose supervision they operate. The division of functions and powers between the central and local state organs is guided by the principle of giving full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of the local authorities under the unified leadership of the central authorities.<ref name="art3">English language text of [http://en.people.cn/constitution/constitution.html Constitution of the People's Republic of China] adopted 4 December 1982. Chapter 1. Article 3. Retrieved 29 December 2014.</ref></blockquote>This idea is translated into the supremacy of the [[National People's Congress]], which represents China's citizens and exercises legislative authority on their behalf. Other powers, including the power to appoint the head of state and head of government, are also vested in this body.

== Vietnam ==
The [[Communist Party of Vietnam]] is organized according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism.

== See also ==
*[[Autonomy]]
*[[Blanquism]]
*[[Cabinet collective responsibility]]
*[[Disagree and commit]]
*[[Dominant-party system]]
*[[Eastern Bloc politics]]
*[[Federalism]]
*[[One-party state]]
*[[Organic centralism]]
*[[Revolutionary spontaneity]]
*[[Twenty-one Conditions]]
*[[Vanguardism]]

== References ==

Democratic centralism

2021-02-01T01:28:14Z

TeeOS: changed the wording of the link to the 1977 USSR constitution and changed the redirect

'''Democratic centralism''' is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the [[political party]]. Although mainly associated with [[Leninism]], wherein the party's [[political vanguard]] composed of professional revolutionaries practiced democratic centralism to elect leaders and officers as well as to determine policy through free discussion, then decisively realized through united action,<ref name="freedomunity">Lenin, Vladimir (1906). [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/rucong/index.htm "Report on the Unity Congress of the R.S.D.L.P."] [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1906/rucong/viii.htm "VIII. The Congress Summed Up"]. Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 February 2020.</ref> democratic centralism has also been practiced by [[social democratic]] parties.<ref>Lih, Lars (2005). ''Lenin Rediscovered: What Is to Be Done? in Context''. Brill Academic Publishers. {{ISBN|978-90-04-13120-0}}.</ref><ref>Sunkara, Bhaskar (15 January 2020). [https://jacobinmag.com/2020/01/social-democracy-democratic-socialism-capital-unions-strategy "The Long Shot of Democratic Socialism Is Our Only Shot"]. ''Jacobin''. Retrieved 14 February 2020.</ref>

== In practice ==
In party meetings, a motion (new policy or amendment, goal, plan or any other kind of political question) is proposed. After a period of debate, a vote is taken. If one vote clearly wins (gaining a share of 60% or above among two options, for example) all party members are expected to follow that decision, and not continue propagandizing or otherwise working against it, aiming to act in unity. In the development of [[socialism]] in the [[Soviet Union]] and [[China]], it was largely taken up in response to instability following their respective revolutions which required faster mechanisms of decision-making. A constellation of practices surround this in order to encourage participation and debate, such as Don't Blame the Speaker.<ref name="criticism">{{cite web|author=Mao Tse Tung|year=1944|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch15.htm|title=Mao Tse Tung Quotations from Mao Tse Tung 15. Democracy in the Three Main Fields|access-date=9 August 2002}}</ref>

== Vladimir Lenin's conception and practice ==
The text ''[[Library:What is to be done?|What Is to Be Done?]]'' from 1902 is popularly seen as the founding text of democratic centralism. At this time, democratic centralism was generally viewed as a set of principles for the organizing of a revolutionary workers' party. However, [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s model for such a party, which he repeatedly discussed as being "democratic centralist", was the German [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]], inspired by remarks made by the social democrat [[Jean Baptista von Schweitzer]]. Lenin described democratic centralism as consisting of "freedom of discussion, unity of action".<ref name="freedomunity" />

The doctrine of democratic centralism served as one of the sources of the split between the [[Bolsheviks]] and the [[Mensheviks]]. The Mensheviks supported a looser party discipline within the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] in 1903 as did [[Leon Trotsky]], in ''[[Our Political Tasks]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1904/tasks/index.htm|title=Our Political Tasks|last=Trotsky|first=Leon|year=1904|access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref> although Trotsky joined ranks with the Bolsheviks in 1917.

The Sixth Party Congress of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)]] held at [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] between 26 July and 3 August 1917 defined democratic centralism as follows:

# That all directing bodies of the Party, from top to bottom, shall be elected.
# That Party bodies shall give periodical accounts of their activities to their respective Party organizations.
# That there shall be strict Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority.
# That all decisions of higher bodies shall be absolutely binding on lower bodies and on all Party members.<ref>''[[History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)]]'' (1939). New York City: International Publishers. p. 198.</ref>

After the successful consolidation of power by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]<nowiki/>following the [[October Revolution]] and the [[Russian Civil War]], the Bolshevik leadership, including Lenin, instituted a [[Ban on factions in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|ban on factions in the party]] as Resolution No. 12 of the [[10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)|10th Party Congress]] in 1921. It was passed in the morning session on 16 March 1921.<ref>''Protokoly'' (1933). ed. 585–7; 1963 ed. 571–573.</ref> Trotskyists sometimes claim that this ban was intended to be temporary, but there is no language in the discussion at the 10th Party Congress suggesting such.<ref>''Protokoly'' (1933) ed. 523–548.</ref>

The [[Group of Democratic Centralism]] was a group in the Soviet Communist Party who advocated different concepts of party democracy.

== Arguments for ==
In ''On Party Unity'', Lenin argued that democratic centralism prevents factionalism. He argued that factionalism leads to less friendly relations among members and that it can be exploited by enemies of the party.

By the [[History of the Soviet Union (1964–82)|Brezhnev period]], democratic centralism was described in the [[Constitution of the Soviet Union (1977)|1977 soviet constitution]] as a principle for organizing the state: "The Soviet state is organized and functions on the principle of democratic centralism, namely the electiveness of all bodies of state authority from the lowest to the highest, their accountability to the people, and the obligation of lower bodies to observe the decisions of higher ones". Democratic centralism combines central leadership with local initiative and creative activity and with the responsibility of each state body and official for the work entrusted to them.

== Soviet practice ==
For much of the time between [[History of the Soviet Union (1927–53)|the era]] of [[Joseph Stalin]] and the 1980s, the principle of democratic centralism meant that the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet]], while nominally vested with great lawmaking powers, did little more than approve decisions already made at the highest levels of the Communist Party. When the Supreme Soviet was not in session, the [[Presidium of the Supreme Soviet]] performed its ordinary functions. Nominally, if such decrees were not ratified by the full Supreme Soviet, they were considered revoked. However, ratification was usually a mere formality, though occasionally even this formality was not observed.<ref name="Armstrong">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZH9nkBOxrZQC&q=Supreme+Soviet+rubber+stamp&pg=PA165|title=Ideology, Politics, and Government in the Soviet Union: An Introduction|last=Armstrong|first=John Alexander|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|date=1986|isbn=0819154059}}</ref> Thus, decisions made by the Party's top leaders ''de facto''had the force of law.

The democratic centralist principle extended to [[elections in the Soviet Union]]. All Communist countries were—either ''de jure'' or ''de facto''—[[One-party state|one-party states]]. In most cases, the voters were presented with a single list of unopposed candidates,<ref name="Smith_1976">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Hedrick|year=1976|title=The Russians|isbn=978-0-8129-0521-2|publisher=[[Quadrangle Books|Quadrangle]]/[[New York Times Book Company]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/russians00smit/page/261 261, 286–287]|url=https://archive.org/details/russians00smit/page/261}}</ref> which usually won 90 percent or more of the vote.<ref name="Smith_1976" /> In some countries, those who did not vote for the lone candidate on the ballot could face serious reprisals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sebetsyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York City|year=2009|isbn=978-0-375-42532-5|url=https://archive.org/details/revolution1989fa00sebe}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2015}}<ref name="DN">Nohlen, Dieter; Stöver, Philip, eds. (2010). ''Elections in Europe: A Data Handbook''. Nomos. p. 457. {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}.</ref>

== China ==
Democratic centralism is also stated in Article 3 of the [[Constitution of the People's Republic of China|present Constitution]] of the [[China|People's Republic of China]]: <blockquote>Article 3. The state organs of the People's Republic of China apply the principle of democratic centralism''.'' The National People's Congress and the local people's congresses at different levels are instituted through democratic election. They are responsible to the people and subject to their supervision. All administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the state are created by the people's congresses to which they are responsible and under whose supervision they operate. The division of functions and powers between the central and local state organs is guided by the principle of giving full play to the initiative and enthusiasm of the local authorities under the unified leadership of the central authorities.<ref name="art3">English language text of [http://en.people.cn/constitution/constitution.html Constitution of the People's Republic of China] adopted 4 December 1982. Chapter 1. Article 3. Retrieved 29 December 2014.</ref></blockquote>This idea is translated into the supremacy of the [[National People's Congress]], which represents China's citizens and exercises legislative authority on their behalf. Other powers, including the power to appoint the head of state and head of government, are also vested in this body.

== Vietnam ==
The [[Communist Party of Vietnam]] is organized according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism.

== See also ==
*[[Autonomy]]
*[[Blanquism]]
*[[Cabinet collective responsibility]]
*[[Disagree and commit]]
*[[Dominant-party system]]
*[[Eastern Bloc politics]]
*[[Federalism]]
*[[One-party state]]
*[[Organic centralism]]
*[[Revolutionary spontaneity]]
*[[Twenty-one Conditions]]
*[[Vanguardism]]

== References ==

World War I

2021-01-31T02:31:37Z

TeeOS: redirected 'ww2' to 'wwii'

'''World War I,''' also known as the '''First World War''' and abbreviated as '''WW1''' or '''WWI''', was a conflict taking place from the years of 1914 to 1918. It is called a world war due to the fact that most countries in the world at the time directly participated in the conflict. Most of these participants were colonies of the main powers, as much of the conflict took place in Europe.

== Causes ==
[[File:World 1914 empires colonies territory.png|link=https://prolewiki.org/wiki/File:World%201914%20empires%20colonies%20territory.png|thumb|Map of colonial empires in the world in 1914. Note the relative size of each. Smaller possessions would form the Triple Alliance, while bigger possessions would form the Triple Entente.]]
Although the German 'blank check' for Austro-Hungary to initiate aggression against Serbia was the immediate cause, structural issues of the world capitalist order at the time can be identified. The main branches of bourgeois historiography pin down Imperial Germany as responsible for the war , noting the firebrand nature of Kaiser Wilhelm II (The Fischer thesis), or surmise that the war occurred due to a diplomatic breakdown, with each side 'sleepwalking' into the war. As the Industrial Revolution was winding down and several countries were turning towards imperialism to keep capitalism afloat, others were going to their industrial revolution still, which they had started at a later date (such as Germany). The former countries had already colonised the world and so had enjoyed the benefits of [[imperialism]] for decades. The latter countries on the other hand were barely reaching their imperialist phase, and as such entered the war to redistribute colonial possessions to their advantage.

== Alliances ==
Two major alliances faced off in the conflict. The '''Triple Entente''', composed of:

* France,
* the British Empire,
* and Tsarist Russia

Against the '''Triple Alliance''', composed of:

* the German Empire,
* Austria-Hungary,
* and Italy

== Major Events ==

=== The 'July Crisis' ===

=== Entry of Italy and the Battles of the Isonzo ===

=== The Brest-Litovsk Treaty and withdrawal of Russia ===

== Reliance on colonies ==
Colonies played a primordial role in this conflict, with their masters requiring soldiers and resources be sent to aid in the war effort.

A major rebellion against the Tsarist colonial government broke out in the Central Asian region in 1916. Another uprising against the British colonists, the Easter uprising also took place in 1916.

In his book ''The Wretched of the Earth'', Franz Fanon recalled a poem by Keita Fodeba, ''African Dawn'', in which a Malian youth is sent to fight for France in World War 1. Picked by the village for his bravery, he leaves in a ship soon after heading for the French front. During his time in the army, his wife receives sparse letters from him and fears for the worst every day. Eventually near the end of the war, she learns that he will be coming back. But on the day his ship arrives back in his home country, he is killed in an undisclosed altercation with two white colonial police officers.

Fanon notes that "There is not a single colonized person who will not receive the message that this poem holds." He further writes that "this is Sétif in 1945, this is Fort-le-France, this is Saigon, Dakar, and Lagos".

== Consequences of World War I ==
Ultimately, the forces of the Triple Alliance failed to upset the balance like they sought to, instead surrendering in 1918 and losing their meagre colonial possessions. The infamous Versailles treaty was imposed upon members of the Alliance.

Faced with heavy penalties from the victors and coupled with the fact that they had become unable to enter an imperialist phase and sustain capitalism, fascism was able to take hold in Germany, Italy, and Austria, ultimately leading to [[World War II]]. It should be noted that fascism was already starting to appear in Italy under an ultranationalist veneer, and as such it wasn't WW1 by itself that was the triggering factor for fascism as an ideology to exist.

== Resistance to World War I ==
Several European socialist parties confirmed their commitment against the warmongering machinations of their respective ruling classes at the [[Basel Conference]] in 1912. However, most parties turned back on this commitment and joined their ruling classes to wage war against workers from other countries. Russia, after having undergone the Bolshevik Revolution, withdrew from the war in 1917 and appealed to all countries to cease the war.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

2021-01-31T02:06:10Z

TeeOS: Added the flag of the DPRK.

[[File:The Flag of the DPRK.png|thumb|The state flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.]]
The '''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''' ('''DPRK''' or '''DPR Korea'''), commonly referred to as North Korea, is a country in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

According to article 1 of the constitution of North Korea, the DPRK is an "independent [[socialist state]]".<ref>pg. 4 of the [https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peoples_Republic_of_Korea_1998.pdf?lang=en Constitution of the DPRK]</ref> The [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK), led by [[Kim Jong-un]], holds absolute power in the state and leads the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland of which all political officers are required to be members. According to article 3 of the constitution of the DPRK, ''[[Juche]]'' is the North Korean official ideology.

In 1965 [[Che Guevara]] said that the DPRK "was a model to which revolutionary Cuba should aspire"<ref>https://gowans.blog/2007/03/03/understanding-north-korea/</ref><ref>Bruce Cumings, “Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern History (Updated Edition),” W.W. Norton & Company, 2005; p. 404.</ref>

== History ==
Following the defeat of [[Japanese Empire|Japan]] and the end of the [[Second World War]], Japan lost control of its colonies, including what was formerly the [[Korean Empire]]. As a result of negotiations between the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[United States]], the Korean Peninsula was divided into occupation zones along the 38th Parallel North. Although there was an attempt at establishing the [[People's Republic of Korea]], the nascent state was outlawed by American forces.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was founded the 9th of September, 1948. The illegitimate government of [[Occupied Korea]] (often referred to as "South Korea") was also established the same year, when the dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] came to power due to American influence. [[Kim Il-Sung]] became the first [[Premier of the DPRK]], a position he would hold until 1972.

The Occupied Korean government was hostile to socialism and to the DPRK. Even though Western media accuses the DPRK of initiating the [[Fatherland Liberation War]] (often referred to as the "Korean War"), numerous acts of violence were perpetrated by the illegitimate southern government that were tantamount to war. Namely the [[Jeju Uprising|massacre on Jeju Island]] that targeted communists. The death toll was composed of civilians, many of whom were not affiliated with the [[Workers' Party of South Korea]] or communism at all. Paramilitary groups from Occupied Korea illegally crossed the border into the DPRK on multiple occasions.

During the Fatherland Liberation War, DPRK forces almost repelled the illegal occupation army; however, additional forces were sent by the [[United Nations]] the United States to fight DPRK troops. Western forces pushed DPRK forces all the way to the border of the newly formed [[China|People's Republic of China]], which had itself repelled reactionary [[Kuomintang]] forces from the [[Mainland China|mainland]]. PRC forces intervened to protect Korean sovereignty, repelling Western troops once more as part of [[The War to Resist the U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea]] campaign. The majority of the fighting during the rest of the Fatherland Liberation War took place near the 38th Parallel North, with only minor border changes occurring after a ceasefire was signed. The DPRK technically remains at war with its illegitimate southern neighbour.

== Economy ==
North Korea has maintained one of the most closed and centralized economies in the world since the 1940s. For several decades, it followed the Soviet pattern of five-year plans with the ultimate goal of achieving self-sufficiency.

The economy is heavily nationalized. Food and housing are extensively subsidized by the state; education and healthcare are free; and the payment of taxes was officially abolished in 1974.

Foreign trade surpassed pre-crisis levels in 2005 and continues to expand. North Korea has a number of special economic zones (SEZs) and Special Administrative Regions where foreign companies can operate with tax and tariff incentives while North Korean establishments gain access to improved technology.

==External Links==
''please use these external links to improve this page''
*[[wikipedia:North_Korea|Wikipedia]] ([[Wikipedia|about]])
*[https://leftypedia.org/wiki/Democratic_People%27s_Republic_of_Korea Leftypedia] ([[Leftypedia|about]])
*EcuRed ([https://www.ecured.cu/Corea_del_Norte Spanish], [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecured.cu%2FCorea_del_Norte English auto translated]) ([[EcuRed|about]])
*[https://dprkstudyguide.wordpress.com DPRK Study Guide]

File:The Flag of the DPRK.png

2021-01-31T02:05:39Z

TeeOS:

The flag of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as of September 8th, 1948. It consists of several horizontal stripes of varying thickness (at the top and bottom, a thick blue, a thin white line on the inside of each, and a thick red stripe in the center), with a white circle which holds inside of it a red star off-centered slightly to the left.

Soviet (governmental body)

2021-01-31T01:54:57Z

TeeOS:

[[File:The 27th Congress of the CPSU.jpg|thumb|The 27th Congress of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1986.]]
'''Soviets''' (Russian for 'council') are governmental bodies with legislative and executive powers, comprised of elected delegates who are directly accountable to their constituencies. Elected delegates operate on an imperative mandate, meaning they are bound to vote and represent their constituents based on the instructions and demands of those same constituents rather than their own judgement. Delegates are subject to recall or dismissal at any point should their constituents be unsatisfied with their work, at which point new elections will be held.

Soviets as a form of governance first took shape during the experience of the [[Paris Commune]] in 1871, in which the workers of Paris elected and campaigned for their own governance in the earliest real-world example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. Soviets would later appear in the years preceding and during the [[February Revolution|February]] and [[October Revolution]]<nowiki/>s in the [[Russian Empire]]. These constituted the governments of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], and subsequently, the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]]. In the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, similar government structures using soviet democracy appeared and still exist in countries such as [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] and the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]].

In the early years of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union, soviets were ran by and exclusively represented the workers and peasants in society. These soviets existed on local, regional, national, (and with the establishment of the Soviet Union) [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|union-wide]] levels. The adoption of the [[Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1936)|1936 Constitution]] extended electoral rights and the right to be elected into office to all members of society above the age of 18.

It is worth noting that, while 'soviet' is a term typically associated with the Soviet Union specifically, they have existed under different names in various countries and are not exclusive to the USSR. For instance, in the DPRK, citizens elect and are eligible for election to a 'People's Assembly' on a similar local, regional, and [[Supreme People's Assembly|national]] level.

Soviet (governmental body)

2021-01-31T01:54:06Z

TeeOS:

[[File:The 27th Congress of the CPSU.jpg|thumb|The 27th Congress of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1986.]]
'''Soviets''' (Russian for 'council') are governmental bodies with legislative and executive powers, comprised of elected delegates who are directly accountable to their constituencies. Elected delegates operate on an imperative mandate, meaning they are bound to vote and represent their constituents based on the instructions and demands of those same constituents rather than their own judgement. Delegates are subject to recall or dismissal at any point should their constituents be unsatisfied with their work, at which point new elections will be held.

Soviets as a form of governance first took shape during the experience of the [[Paris Commune]] in 1871, in which the workers of Paris elected and campaigned for their own governance in the earliest real-world example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. Soviets would later appear in the years preceding and during the [[February Revolution|February]] and [[October Revolution]]<nowiki/>s in the [[Russian Empire]]. These constituted the governments of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], and subsequently, the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]]. In the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, similar government structures using soviet democracy later appeared and still exist in countries such as [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] and the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]].

In the early years of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union, soviets were ran by and exclusively represented the workers and peasants in society. These soviets existed on local, regional, national, (and later with the establishment of the Soviet Union) [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|union-wide]] levels. With the adoption of the [[Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1936)|1936 Constitution]], electoral rights and the right to be elected into office were extended to all members of society above the age of 18.

It is worth noting that, while 'soviet' is a term typically associated with the Soviet Union specifically, they have existed under different names in various countries and are not exclusive to the USSR. For instance, in the DPRK, citizens elect and are eligible for election to a 'People's Assembly' on a similar local, regional, and [[Supreme People's Assembly|national]] level.

Soviet (governmental body)

2021-01-31T01:53:05Z

TeeOS:

[[File:The 27th Congress of the CPSU.jpg|thumb|The 27th Congress of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1986.]]
'''Soviets''' (Russian for 'council') are governmental bodies with legislative and executive powers, comprised of elected delegates who are directly accountable to their constituencies. Elected delegates operate on an imperative mandate, meaning they are bound to vote and represent their constituents based on the instructions and demands of those same constituents rather than their own judgement. Delegates are subject to recall or dismissal at any point should their constituents be unsatisfied with their work, at which point new elections will be held.

Soviets as a form of governance first took shape during the experience of the [[Paris Commune]] in 1871, in which the workers of Paris elected and campaigned for their own governance in the earliest real-world example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. Soviets would later appear in the years preceding and during the [[February Revolution|February]] and [[October Revolution]]<nowiki/>s in the [[Russian Empire]]. These would later constitute the governments of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], and later the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]]. In the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, similar government structures using soviet democracy later appeared and still exist in countries such as [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] and the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]].

In the early years of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union, soviets were ran by and exclusively represented the workers and peasants in society. These soviets existed on local, regional, national, (and later with the establishment of the Soviet Union) [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|union-wide]] levels. With the adoption of the [[Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1936)|1936 Constitution]], electoral rights and the right to be elected into office were extended to all members of society above the age of 18.

It is worth noting that, while 'soviet' is a term typically associated with the Soviet Union specifically, they have existed under different names in various countries and are not exclusive to the USSR. For instance, in the DPRK, citizens elect and are eligible for election to a 'People's Assembly' on a similar local, regional, and [[Supreme People's Assembly|national]] level.

Soviet (governmental body)

2021-01-31T01:50:34Z

TeeOS: Created a page for Soviets (councils). Could combine with a potential 'soviet democracy' page? Already includes links to several pages that are tangentially related, such as the DPRK, Cuba, Supreme Soviet, Supreme People's Assembly, and Paris Commune.

[[File:The 27th Congress of the CPSU.jpg|thumb|The 27th Congress of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, 1986.]]
'''Soviets''' (Russian for 'council') are governmental bodies with legislative and executive powers, comprised of elected delegates who are directly accountable to their constituencies. Elected delegates operate on an imperative mandate, meaning they are bound to vote and represent their constituents based on the instructions and demands of those same constituents rather than their own judgement. Delegates are subject to recall or dismissal at any point should their constituents be unsatisfied with their work, at which point new elections will be held.

Soviets as a form of governance first took shape during the experience of the [[Paris Commune]] in 1871, in which the workers of Paris elected and campaigned for their own governance in the earliest real-world example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. Soviets would later appear in the years preceding and during the [[February Revolution|February]] and [[October Revolution]]<nowiki/>s in the Russian Empire. These would later constitute the governments of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], and later the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]]. In the years following the establishment of the Soviet Union, similar government structures using soviet democracy later appeared and still exist in countries such as [[Republic of Cuba|Cuba]] and the [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea]].

In the early years of the RSFSR and the Soviet Union, soviets were ran by and exclusively represented the workers and peasants in society. These soviets existed on local, regional, national, (and later with the establishment of the Soviet Union) [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|union-wide]] levels. With the adoption of the [[Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1936)|1936 Constitution]], electoral rights and the right to be elected into office were extended to all members of society above the age of 18.

It is worth noting that, while 'soviet' is a term typically associated with the Soviet Union specifically, they have existed under different names in various countries and are not exclusive to the USSR. For instance, in the DPRK, citizens elect and are eligible for election to a 'People's Assembly' on a similar local, regional, and [[Supreme People's Assembly|national]] level.

File:The 27th Congress of the CPSU.jpg

2021-01-31T01:48:44Z

TeeOS:

The 27th Congress of the CPSU, meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, March 1986. | V. Akimov / Novosti Press Agency Archive (Creative Commons)

Erich Honecker

2021-01-31T01:09:12Z

TeeOS: Replaced the usage of "East Germany" with "German Democratic Republic" and "GDR". Redirected a link from a non-existent East Germany page to a non-existent German Democratic Republic page.

'''Erich Honecker''' (25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the [[German Democratic Republic]] (the GDR, or East Germany) from 1971 until its annexation in 1989. He was the chairman of the [[the National Defense Council of East Germany|National Defense Council]] and an influential figure in late Soviet politics. Honecker is known for his progressive policies in the GDR, and critiques against Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]].

=== Later Life ===
After the annexation of the GDR, Honecker sought asylum in Chile. He and his wife Margot Honecker (who served as minister of education under the socialist state) defended the cause down to their last breath.[https://www.workers.org/2015/11/22846/]

== Read Further ==
* [[My Life (Honecker's memoirs)]]

Republic of Cuba

2021-01-31T01:06:15Z

TeeOS: Added the Cuban flag.

[[File:The Flag of the Republic of Cuba.png|thumb|The state flag of the Republic of Cuba.]]
'''Cuba''', officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba'') is a country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Having fought against European and American colonizers and military occupation for its independence, the now-independent state is governed by the [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

Its economy is run within the context of [[Marxism-leninism|Marxism-Leninism]], it began as a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-style planned economy, but having seen the recent economic successes of the [[China|People's Republic of China]] with to [[Ideology of the Communist Party of China|Socialism with Chinese Characteristics]], the Communist Party of Cuba has recently been liberalizing to attract foreign investment and build up a more prosperous socialist society.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20130730061603/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/cuba%20economy%20feinberg/cuba%20economy%20feinberg%209.pdf</ref>

Cuban healthcare is widely renowned throughout the world due to the healthcare diplomacy of sending doctors to poor nations which do not have advanced healthcare systems, as well as impressive innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/30/cuba-first-eliminate-mother-baby-hiv-transmission

</ref><ref>https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/</ref>

== History ==

=== Colonization period ===
In 1510, Diego Velázquez, one of the richest settlers in Spain, was in charge of colonizing Cuban territory, beginning the conquest with a prolonged reconnaissance and conquest operation, plagued by bloody incidents. To safeguard trade, Spain decided to organize large fleets that would have the port of Havana as an obligatory stopover point, strategically located at the beginning of the Gulf Stream. It's prime exports were coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The Spanish aristocracy imported a lot of African slaves for this colony.

From 1790, In just thirty years, more African slaves were introduced into Cuba than in the previous century and a half. With a population that in 1841 already exceeded a million and a half inhabitants, the Island harbored a highly polarized society; Between an oligarchy of Creole landowners and Spanish merchants and the slave masses. Slavery was an important source of social instability, not only because of the frequent rebellion by slaves - both individually and in groups - but also because the repudiation of the said institution gave rise to conspiracies with abolitionist purposes, none of which were indigenous-led.

Around 1850 the colony received an influx of lower-class Spanish immigrants, but even they were treated poorly by the aristocracy: sixteen or eighteen-hour workdays, seven days weekly, were common, and work conditions in for example the tobacco industry were rife with poor pay, monotony, and health hazards.

After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of US $20 million and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States.

The Popular Socialist Party of Cuba was formed in Havana in 1925. It was later renamed the "'''Communist Revolutionary Union'''". In 1961 the party merged into the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI), the precursor of the current [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

=== The Batista Era ===
Before learning about the achievements of Cuban socialism, we should take a moment to examine what life was like before the revolution. Fulgencio Batista's defenders will typically claim that living standards were better before the revolution. However, a quick examination of the facts will show this to be nonsense. It is true that Batista's reign saw relatively high GDP growth; however, human development indicators paint a far bleaker picture. According to a [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Opinions aside, although Cuba ranked as one of the most prosperous developing countries in the 1950s based on gross domestic product (GDP), social indicators for this period portray dismal social conditions, particularly among the rural peasants.</blockquote>Batista's regime left the Cuban people (especially the large rural population) mired in poverty and illness. According to the aforementioned paper, contemporary studies reported a 91% malnutrition rate among agricultural workers. Though some commentators consider this figure to be too high, "it nonetheless conveys the magnitude of rural impoverishment." Health conditions are summarized by a [https://caribbean.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0043-31442013000300015&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt study] in the ''West Indian Medical Journal:''<blockquote>Poor hygiene, inefficient sanitation and malnutrition [contributed] to the infant mortality rate of 60 per 1000 lives, maternal mortality rate of 125.3 per 1000, [and] a general mortality rate of 6.4 per 1000.</blockquote>The rural population in particular suffered from dismal health conditions; according to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859/ study] published in the ''American Journal of Public Health:''<blockquote>Cuba had only 1 rural hospital, only 11% of farm worker families drank milk, and rural infant mortality stood at 100 per 1000 live births.</blockquote>Infrastructure was also pitifully underdeveloped under Batista. According to the aforementioned Cornell paper:<blockquote>According to the 1953 census, 54.1 percent of rural homes had no toilets of any kind. Only 2.3 percent of rural homes had indoor plumbing, compared with 54.6 of urban homes. In rural areas, 9.1 percent of houses had electricity, compared with 87 percent of houses in urban areas.</blockquote>Illiteracy and unemployment were widespread under Batista:<blockquote>Nearly one-quarter of people 10 years of age and older could not read or write, and the unemployment rate was 25 percent.</blockquote>The high illiteracy rate is hardly surprising when one remembers the shoddy state of education in pre-revolutionary Cuba. According to an [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/05/cuban-development-model article] in the ''Guardian:''<blockquote>In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba's children did not attend school.</blockquote>All of this is not even mentioning the imperialist domination, organized crime, and rampant exploitation that the Cuban people endured throughout Batista's reign. With all of this in mind, let us move on to examining the Cuban revolution and its achievements.

=== Revolutionary movement 1953–1958 ===
Due to the inertia and inability to govern of the bourgeois political parties, a movement of a new type was born, headed by [[Fidel Castro]], a young lawyer whose first political activities had developed in the university environment and the ranks of orthodoxy. On July 26, 1953, a crew of revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, assaulted Fort Moncada but failed. Nonetheless, the Cuban working classes were growing increasingly restless, and consequently, the neocolonial government (headed by Fulgencio Batista) suppressed trade unions, strikes, and censored much of the press. The failed attack inspired the creation of The 26th of July Movement, a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro.

In 1955, Fidel Castro was introduced to [[Che Guevara]]. During a long conversation with Fidel on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak, he had signed up as a member of the July 26 Movement.

On 2 December 1956, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara along with 82 men landed in Cuba, having sailed in the boat Granma from Tuxpan, Veracruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. While in the Sierra Maestra mountains the guerrilla forces attracted hundreds of Cuban volunteers and won several battles against the Cuban Army. By January of 1959, the Cuban masses had successfully overthrown the neocolonial government and Batista fled to Europe.

Having discussed the revolutionary war itself, we may now move on to discussing the achievements of the Cuban socialist state.

=== Economic and Nutritional Indicators After the Revolution ===
Since the very beginning, the Cuban revolution has been committed to the improvement of life for the people in both the economic and social spheres. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>When Cuba’s revolution came to power in 1959, its model of development aimed to link economic growth with advances in social justice. From the start, transforming economic changes were accompanied by equally transforming social initiatives. For example, in 1959, Cuba carried out a profound agrarian reform which ended ''latifundia'' [the land estate system] in the island and distributed land to thousands of formerly landless small farmers.</blockquote>Despite economic pressure, Cuba has largely succeeded in providing a decent quality of life for its people. According to United Nations data, the unemployment rate in Cuba [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html remains below 2%] as it has for many years. Unofficial rates may be slightly higher, but even ''twice'' this rate would still place Cuba well below the regional average (and ''far'' lower than under Batista).

According to the [https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html 2019 Global Hunger Index], Cuba is one of only seventeen nations on Earth (and only four in Latin America) to have a score lower than 5, signifying impressively low levels of hunger. Cuba's rate of undernourishment is below 2.5%.

According to a [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CUB+USA report] from Our World in Data (based at the University of Oxford), Americans are more than twice as likely as Cubans to die from malnutrition.

According to a [http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm report] from the FAO, "remarkably low percentages of child malnutrition put Cuba at the forefront of developing countries."

According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf report] from the United States Department of Agriculture, the average Cuban consumes approx. 3300 calories per day, far above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and only slightly lower than in the United States. Approx. 2/3 of nutritional needs are met by monthly food rations, while the rest is bought independently. The report also states:<blockquote>The Cuban economy has made remarkable progress toward recovery from the economic disaster generated by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.</blockquote>In its [https://www1.wfp.org/countries/cuba report] on Cuba, the World Food Program (the food-assistance branch of the United Nations) states the following:<blockquote>Over the last 50 years, comprehensive social protection programs have largely eradicated poverty and hunger. Food-based social safety nets include a monthly food basket for the entire population, school feeding programs, and mother-and-child health care programs.</blockquote>This is especially impressive when Cuba is compared to other developing countries, and considering the decades of economic blockade that the nation has endured. The report also states:<blockquote>The largest island in the Caribbean, Cuba ranks 72th out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index and is one of the most successful in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba article] in the ''Guardian'' addresses this topic:<blockquote>...the evidence suggests that Cuba has made excellent progress towards the MDGs in the last decade, building on what are already universally acknowledged to be outstanding achievements in equitable health and education standards.

According to a new MDG Report Card by the Overseas Development Institute, Cuba is among the 20 best performing countries in the world.</blockquote>The article also includes a statement from a Cuban economist on how this progress is made:<blockquote>The Cuban economy is planned and we redistribute income from the most dynamic sectors, which generate most foreign exchange, towards those that are less dynamic but necessary for the country. That's how we maintain a budget to keep health and education high quality and free of charge to the user.</blockquote>The revolution greatly improved the housing situation in Cuba, and also brought significant urban development. According to Oxfam America:<blockquote>Initiatives in the cities were no less ambitious. Urban reform brought a halving of rents for Cuban tenants, opportunities for tenants to own their housing, and an ambitious program of housing construction for those living in marginal shantytowns. New housing, along with the implementation of measures to create jobs and reduce unemployment, especially among women, rapidly transformed the former shantytowns.</blockquote>Finally, the social security and pensions system in Cuba has drastically improved since the revolution, as evidenced by this statement from the aforementioned Oxfam America report:<blockquote>Both coverage and distribution have improved significantly since the revolution. With a pension system since the 1930's, Cuba was one of the first Latin American countries to establish one. It consisted of independent pension funds and by 1959 covered about 63% of workers, but the system varied greatly in terms of benefits and relied almost exclusively on workers' contributions. Since 1959, the program has been funded completely by the government. In 1958, about 63% of the labor force was covered for old age, disability, and survivors insurance; today, the coverage is universal.</blockquote>All in all, living standards have improved greatly since the revolution.

=== Sustainable Development and Environmental Preservation ===
According to a [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386 study] in the journal ''Ecological Economics,'' Cuba is [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index/#4ce6dd7618bc the most sustainably developed country in the world]. This is based on the [https://www.sustainabledevelopmentindex.org/ Sustainable Development Index], which measures a nation's human development outcomes (health and education, per-capita income, etc.) and factors in the country's environmental impact. This result was confirmed in a separate [https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html report from the World Wildlife Fund].

Cuba is also [https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/ one of the only nations to meet conditions for sustainable development], and has been [https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?1944/the-other-cuban-revolution praised by the WWF] for its "enlightened environmental policies." Considering the increasingly urgent threat posed by climate change and environmental catastrophe, Cuba provides a model for the rest of the world to aspire to.

=== Healthcare Indicators ===
Cuba's healthcare system is one of its most impressive and well-known achievements. According to the aforementioned [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Cuba’s superior health indicators—highly ranked both regionally and globally—are attributed to the country’s universal primary healthcare services.</blockquote>The Cuban health system is based on public investment and universal provision. According to a [http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf report] from the National Association of Social Workers:<blockquote>Cuba has the largest number of doctors per capita of any country in the world... the country devotes almost a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP) to education and health care—nearly twice the percentage of U.S. GDP allotted to the same expenses. As a result, the country guarantees free education and health care for all citizens, and women receive six weeks of paid prenatal maternity leave and up to one year of paid leave after giving birth.</blockquote>According to a 2019 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] published in the ''Journal of Developing Societies'', Cuba's health indicators surpass those of developed nations, despite far lower expenditures:<blockquote>While Cuba spends about one-twentieth per capita on healthcare compared to the USA... people in Cuba nevertheless enjoy longer life expectancy (79 years) than do people in the USA (78 years)... Cuba also has a superior childhood mortality rate (the number of deaths to age 5 per 1,000 live births per year) of six, compared to eight in the USA.</blockquote>According to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's life expectancy is slightly ''longer'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban life expectancy was approximately six years shorter than the American life expectancy.

Also, according to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's infant mortality rate is approximately one-third ''lower'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban infant mortality rate was nearly ''double'' that of the USA.

Cuba has also made some amazing healthcare developments. According to the WHO, Cuba is the [https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ first nation in the world to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and syphilis transmission].

According to the ''Washington Post'', Cuba has [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine/?utm_term=.9a6205587548 developed a potential vaccine against lung cancer], which has shown very promising results, and is being tested in the USA.

The Cuban experience provides an important model for other nations to follow. According to a [https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547 study] in the ''International Journal of Epidemiology'':<blockquote>Cuba represents an important alternative example where modest infrastructure investments combined with a well-developed public health strategy have generated health status measures comparable with those of industrialized countries... If the Cuban experience were generalized to other poor and middle-income countries human health would be transformed.</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews article] in the ''Guardian'' summarizes this topic quite well:<blockquote>Whether it is a consultation, dentures or open heart surgery, citizens are entitled to free treatment. As a result the impoverished island boasts better health indicators than its exponentially richer neighbour 90 miles across the Florida straits.</blockquote>As one aforementioned [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] put it:<blockquote>Cuba is an anomaly, a poor nation that has very good public healthcare... Cuba’s public healthcare system, all in all, provides a strong example of progress, an inspiration for other less developed nations to emulate.</blockquote>This is an enormously impressive achievement.

=== Educational Developments ===
Since the revolution, enormous strides have been made in education. One of the most significant developments was the National Literacy Campaign, spearheaded by Che Guevara. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>The National Literacy Campaign of 1961, recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind, mobilized teachers, workers, and secondary school students to teach more than 700,000 persons how to read. This campaign reduced the illiteracy rate from 23% to 4% in the space of one year.</blockquote>Before the revolution, literacy in Cuba was between 60% and 76%, depending on the estimates used. Today, the [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html CIA World Factbook] gives Cuba's literacy rate as 99.8%.

In addition, Cuba [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU spends a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other nation in the world]. This has resulted in impressive results; according to a 2014 [https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf study] from the World Bank, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-bank-cuba-has-the-b_b_5925864 Cuba has the only "high quality" educational system in Latin America].

=== Infrastructural Developments ===
In 1959, approx. 50% of Cuban households had access to electricity. According to a [https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf report] from the Environmental Defense Fund, by 1989, more than 95% of households had access to electricity, including in rural areas, which had previously been almost entirely deprived. Cuba also surpassed many of its neighbors in terms of electricity generation:<blockquote>By 1990 Cuba had roughly 1.8 times more generating capacity per person than the Dominican Republic and 1.3 times more than Jamaica.</blockquote>In Cuba, access to clean water and sanitation has greatly improved since the revolution. According to United Nations [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html data], as of 2018, 96.4% of the urban population and 89.8% of the rural population had access to clean drinking water, while 94.4% of the urban population and 89.1% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation services:

An excellent [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'' discussed this issue quite well:<blockquote>This is Fidel’s legacy. Clean water and electricity for all. And universal free education and healthcare. Cubans often joke that they’re healthier and better educated than Americans despite the 50-year-plus US blockade.

So for me, rural Cuba is Fidel’s Cuba. His ideals live on here – and the rural poor of Cuba have benefited the most from his cradle-to-grave policies. Here, the grandchildren of peasants really do go on to become consultant surgeons and commercial airline pilots.</blockquote>This is an enormous credit to the revolution.

=== Social Policy ===
The Cuban revolution has also made great strides in eliminating discrimination and inequality. As the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America states:<blockquote>Social policy has also favored the development of equity across society, including the equitable distribution of benefits across all sectors of the population, sometimes favoring the most vulnerable. In the last 40 years Cubans have greatly reduced differences in income between the lowest and the highest paid persons. Women have benefited significantly from the revolution as they have educated themselves and entered the labor force in large numbers. The differences among Cubans of different races have also been reduced.</blockquote>Considering the widespread racial and gender discrimination that existed before the revolution, these achievements must be admired.

=== Popular Opinion in Cuba ===
According to an [https://newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans article] published in the ''New Republic'', Cubans are significantly more satisfied with their political system than Americans are with theirs. The same holds true for the healthcare and education systems:<blockquote>More than two-thirds of Cubans—68 percent—are satisfied with their health care system. About 66 percent of Americans said the same in a November 2014 Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent of Cubans are satisfied with their education system, while an August 2014 Gallup poll found that less than half of Americans—48 percent—are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education.</blockquote>The Cuban people also recently ratified a new constitution, which reasserts the role of the Communist Party, and affirms that Cuba is a socialist state advancing towards communism. The constitution also includes some political and economic reforms, such as the recognition of small businesses, and the presumption of innocence in the court system. According to an [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y article] from ''Reuters'', independent evidence supports the official vote tally (approx. 90% support):<blockquote>The independent online newspaper ''El Toque'' asked readers to send in local tallies, a dozen of which showed overwhelming support for ratification.</blockquote>Yoani Sanchez, "Cuba's best-known dissident," witnessed the count at her local polling station, reporting the results as "400 yes votes, 25 no votes and 4 blank ballots." This suggests that the official results were correct, and the Cuban people did overwhelmingly support the new constitution.

An aforementioned [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'', written by an author whose family lives in Cuba, sums this issue up well:<blockquote>Most Cubans I speak to support the reshaping of the economy and the greater ties with the US. Just like us, they want to better their lives, they want a better mobile phone, a bigger house, they want to travel. But none of them would want to live in a Cuba, no matter how rich, without universal free education, free healthcare, cheap public transport and the lowest rates of violent crime in the Americas. None of them. This is Fidel's legacy.</blockquote>While the Cuban people largely support economic reform and normalization of relations with the USA, their overall support for the achievements of their socialist system remains high. As the ''New Republic'' puts it:<blockquote>Objective indicators, like the country's low infant mortality and illiteracy rates, have long shown that Cuba has relatively strong social services. This new polling data suggests that Cubans are well aware of it.</blockquote>This is an important credit to the revolution.

=== "But What About the Cuban Exiles?" ===
The most common argument against Cuban socialism is that the Cuban exile population (and their strong distaste for socialism) somehow "proves" that socialist Cuba is terrible. However, this omits a key fact: the exiles come primarily from the wealthy class of Cuba. According to a [https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents study] in the journal ''Social Problems:''<blockquote>Comparison of the occupational, age, and educational composition of the community with the Cuban population indicates that the refugees are better educated and come from higher status occupations than the population from which they have exiled themselves... more recent exiles are more representative of the Cuban population, but the rural worker is still vastly underrepresented.</blockquote>Another thing to consider is that the exile took place during a time of conflict and difficulty for Cuba; the revolution was still very new, and the government had not entirely established itself yet. This likely explains why there were some outliers (i.e. exiles from the working-class population), although the majority were still from the wealthy sectors of Cuban society.

=== Conclusion ===
Cuba is a nation with many problems; the economy has slowed since the fall of the Soviet Union (losing your only major trading partner tends to hurt a nation's economy), and international pressure from the USA continues to place Cuba under strain. However, the enormous achievements of the revolution cannot be overlooked; Cuba has provided first-world health and educational standards on a third-world budget, as well as above-average nutrition and infrastructure, all while standing up to the world's most powerful imperialist force, only ninety miles off its shores.

One struggles to find a proper statement with which to sum up the achievements of the Cuban revolution. Perhaps this one, from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (from April 11, 2000):<blockquote>Cuba’s achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [Cuba] demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities – health, education, and literacy.</blockquote>Perhaps the best statement is given by Aviva Chomsky in her [https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf book] ''A History of the Cuban Revolution:''<blockquote>The Revolution has been wildly audacious, experimental, and diverse. It has evolved under often adverse circumstances. It created unprecedented socioeconomic equality, and showed the world that it is indeed possible for a poor, Third World country to feed, educate, and provide health care for its population... If we want to imagine a better world for all of us, I can think of no better place to start than by studying the Cuban Revolution.</blockquote>That's something which we can all appreciate.

== External links ==
{{External links|Wikipedia=Cuba|Leftypedia=Cuba|EcuRed=Cuba}}

== References ==

* [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf Cornell University | Cuba's Food-Rationing System and Alternatives]
* [https://caribbean.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0043-31442013000300015&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt West Indian Medical Journal | Cuba: Healthcare and the Revolution]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859/ American Journal of Public Health | The Curious Case of Cuba]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/05/cuban-development-model The Guardian | Cuba: A Development Model That Proved the Doubters Wrong]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf Oxfam America | Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads]
* [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba]
* [https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html 2019 Global Hunger Index | Cuba]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CUB+USA Our World in Data | Deaths by Malnutrition in the USA and Cuba]
* [http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm Food and Agricultural Organization (United Nations) | Report on Nutrition in Cuba]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf USDA | Cuba Food and Agricultural Situation]
* [https://www1.wfp.org/countries/cuba World Food Program USA (United Nations) | Cuba Has "Largely Eliminated Hunger and Poverty"]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba The Guardian | Why We Should Applaud Cuba's Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386 Ecological Economics | The Sustainable Development Index: Measuring the Ecological Efficiency of Human Development in the Anthropocene]
* [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index/#4ce6dd7618bc Forbes | Every Country in the World is Developing, According to the New Sustainable Development Index]
* [https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html Telesur | As World Burns, Cuba Number One for Sustainable Development]
* [https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/ Global Footprint Network | Only Eight Countries Meet Two Key Conditions for Sustainable Development, as United Nations Adopts Sustainable Development Goals]
* [https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?1944/the-other-cuban-revolution World Wildlife Fund | The Other Cuban Revolution]
* [http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf National Association of Social Workers | Social Services in Cuba]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 Journal of Developing Societies | Cuban Public Healthcare: A Model of Success for Developing Nations]
* [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US World Bank | Life Expectancy in the USA and Cuba]
* [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US World Bank | Infant Mortality in the USA and Cuba]
* [https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ World Health Organization (United Nations) | Cuba First Country in the World to Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmissions]
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine/?utm_term=.9a6205587548 The Washington Post | USA to Test Cuban Lung-Cancer Vaccine]
* [https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547 International Journal of Epidemiology | Health in Cuba]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews The Guardian | Healthcare in Cuba]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html CIA World Factbook | Cuba]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU CIA World Factbook | Country Comparison: Educational Expenditures by Nation]
* [https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf World Bank | Great Teachers: How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean]
* [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-bank-cuba-has-the-b_b_5925864 HuffPost | World Bank: Cuba Has the Best Education System in Latin America and the Caribbean]
* [https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf Environmental Defense Fund | The Cuban Electric Grid]
* [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba]
* [https://newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans New Republic | Polls Show Cubans Have Higher Political Satisfaction Than Americans]
* [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y Reuters | Cubans Overwhelmingly Ratify New Socialist Constitution]
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html The Independent | My Family Live in Cuba - The People May Be Poor, But Fidel Castro's Legacy Will Live On]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents Social Problems | Cubans in Exile: A Demographic Analysis]
* [https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf "A History of the Cuban Revolution" by Aviva Chomsky]

File:The Flag of the Republic of Cuba.png

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TeeOS:

The Cuban flag, as of 1902. With its red triangle and inner white star to the left-most side, alongside its blue and white stripes running from the center to the right-most side of the flag, it is one of the few socialist state flags that does not contain any communist imagery or symbolism.

Private Property

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TeeOS: Condensed the two 'private property' pages into one singular page, by redirecting the shorter and less detailed one to the larger.

#REDIRECT [[Private property]]

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)

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TeeOS:

[[File:The Flag of the USSR.png|thumb|The state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.]]
The '''Soviet Union,''' officially known as the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics''' ('''USSR''') (''Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР)''), was a [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] federal state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.

The USSR was born as a union of four Soviet socialist republics, formed after the [[October Revolution of 1917]], and grew to 15 by 1956.

Over and above the errors that led to [[Overthrow of the Soviet Union|its disappearance]], this country played an essential role in the defeat of [[fascism]] and in the advance of humanity towards new forms of social organization that were more cooperative and in solidarity.

The Soviet Union developed under conditions of extreme pressure, [[wikipedia:American_Expeditionary_Force,_Siberia|facing invasion from capitalist powers]], [[wikipedia:Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)|the Nazi invasion]], and espionage from the West. Given the difficulties that it faced, it is remarkable the USSR managed to provide a positive political role for the working people, especially in a time when workers in the capitalist world were still struggling for basic union rights.

During its socialist period, the Soviet Union made some of the most impressive achievements in modern history. The socialist system transformed a nation of illiterate and half-starved peasants into a superpower, with one of the fastest growing economies on Earth, one of the world's best-educated and healthiest populations, and some of the most impressive industrial and technological achievements to date. It provided a model for the oppressed people's of the world to follow, as was shown in China, Cuba, Vietnam, and many other nations.

The USSR was a legitimate workers' state, in which the proletariat held power in the workplace, and had significant influence on national policy decisions. Contrast this with the utter lack of popular influence in bourgeois states, and this is even easier to appreciate.

== Achievements of Socialism in the Soviet Union ==

=== Revolution, War Communism and the NEP ===
When the 1917 revolution took place, Russia was a backwards, semi-capitalist feudal society. The manor system had only recently been abolished, and replaced by the most brutal and primitive form of capitalism. The nation was dreadfully under-developed, with no sign of improving in the future. Not only that, but what little growth did occur led to massive inequalities. [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.507.8966&rep=rep1&type=pdf According to Professor Robert Allen] (formerly of Oxford University, now at NYU):<blockquote>Not only were the bases of Imperial advance narrow, but the process of growth gave rise to such inequitable changes in income distribution that revolution was hardly a surprise. Real wages for urban workers were static in the late Imperial period despite a significant increase in output per worker... The revolution was also a peasant revolt, and the interests of the peasants were different... As in the cities, there was no gain in real wages.</blockquote>Simon Clarke, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25149595?seq=1 supports these claims]:<blockquote>Agriculture had reached North American levels of productivity by 1913 and wheat prices collapsed after 1914. The expansion of the railroads had run its course and there was no prospect of protected light industry becoming internationally competitive. The appropriate comparators for the prospects for Russian capitalism in the twentieth century are not Japan but Argentina or even India. Moreover, Russian capitalist development had brought little if any benefit to the urban and rural working class, intensifying the class conflicts that erupted in Revolution.</blockquote>With the 1917 revolution (and after the bloody civil war, with its policy of war communism), the Soviet economy began to grow rapidly. The New Economic Policy (which nationalized large-scale industry and redistributed land, while allowing for the private sale of agricultural surplus) succeeded in transforming Russia from a semi-capitalist society into a developing state capitalist society, laying the groundwork for socialism. Professor Clarke states:<blockquote>Following War Communism, the New Economic Policy (NEP) sought to develop the Russian economy within a quasi-capitalist framework.</blockquote>However, economic circumstances came to require the transition to a planned socialist economy:<blockquote>However, the institutional and structural barriers to Russian economic development were now compounded by the unfavorable circumstances of the world economy, so that there was no prospect of export-led development, while low domestic incomes provided only a limited market for domestic industry. Without a state coordinated investment program, the Soviet economy would be caught in the low-income trap typical of the underdeveloped world.</blockquote>Thus, the material conditions of the time made the transition to a socialist economy a necessity.

=== Economic Development and Living Standards ===
In 1928 (after Stalin came to power as head of the Communist Party), Soviet Russia instituted a fully planned economy, and the first Five Year Plan was enacted. This resulted in rapid economic growth. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>Soviet GDP increased rapidly with the start of the first Five Year Plan in 1928... The expansion of heavy industry and the use of output targets and soft-budgets to direct firms were appropriate to the conditions of the 1930's, they were adopted quickly, and they led to rapid growth of investment and consumption.</blockquote>Bourgeois economists often alleged that this rapid growth came at the cost of per-capita consumption and living standards. However, more recent research has shown this to be false. Allen states:<blockquote>There has been no debate that ‘collective consumption’ (principally education and health services) rose sharply, but the standard view was that private consumption declined. Recent research, however, calls that conclusion into question... While investment certainly increased rapidly, ''recent research shows that the standard of living also increased briskly.''</blockquote>Calorie consumption rose rapidly during this period:<blockquote>Calories are the most basic dimension of the standard of living, and their consumption was higher in the late 1930's than in the 1920's... In 1895-1910, calorie availability was only 2100 per day, which is very low by modern standards. By the late 1920's, calorie availability advanced to 2500... By the late 1930's, the recovery of agriculture increased calorie availability to 2900 per day, a significant increase over the late 1920's. The food situation during the Second World War was severe, but by 1970 calorie consumption rose to 3400, which was on a par with western Europe.</blockquote>Overall, the development of the Soviet economy during the socialist period was extremely impressive. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>The Soviet economy performed well... Planning led to high rates of capital accumulation, rapid GDP growth, and rising per capita consumption even in the 1930's.</blockquote>The USSR's growth during the socialist period exceeded that of the capitalist nations:<blockquote>The USSR led the non-OECD countries and, indeed, achieved a growth rate in this period that exceeded the OECD catch-up regression as well as the OECD average.</blockquote>This success is also attributed specifically to the revolution and the socialist system. As Allen states:<blockquote>This success would not have occurred without the 1917 revolution or the planned development of state owned industry.</blockquote>The benefits of the socialist system are obvious upon closer study. As Simon Clarke puts it:<blockquote>...a capitalist economy would not have created the industrial jobs required to employ the surplus labour, since capitalists would only employ labour so long as the marginal product of labour exceeded the wage. State-sponsored industrialization faced no such constraints, since enterprises were encouraged to expand employment in line with the demands of the plan.</blockquote>Economic growth was also aided by the liberation of women, and the resulting control over the birth rate, as well as women's participation in the workforce. Allen states:<blockquote>The rapid growth in per capita income was contingent not just on the rapid expansion of GDP but also on the slow growth of the population. This was primarily due to a rapid fertility transition rather than a rise in mortality from collectivization, political repression, or the Second World War. Falling birth rates were primarily due to the education and employment of women outside the home. These policies, in turn, were the results of enlightenment ideology in its communist variant.</blockquote>Reviews of Allen's work have backed up his statements. According to Simon Clarke:<blockquote>Allen shows that the Stalinist strategy worked, in strictly economic terms, until around 1970... Allen’s book convincingly establishes the superiority of a planned over a capitalist economy in conditions of labour surplus (which is the condition of most of the world most of the time).</blockquote>Other studies have backed-up the findings that the USSR's living standards rose rapidly. [https://web.williams.edu/Economics/brainerd/papers/ussr_july08.pdf According to economist Elizabeth Brainerd] (formerly of Williams College, now at Brandeis University):<blockquote>Remarkably large and rapid improvements in child height, adult stature and infant mortality were recorded from approximately 1945 to 1970... Both Western and Soviet estimates of GNP growth in the Soviet Union indicate that GNP per capita grew in every decade in the postwar era, at times far surpassing the growth rates of the developed western economies... The conventional measures of GNP growth and household consumption indicate a long, uninterrupted upward climb in the Soviet standard of living from 1928 to 1985; even Western estimates of these measures support this view, albeit at a slower rate of growth than the Soviet measures.</blockquote>Unfortunately, after the introduction of market reforms and other revisionist policies, living standards began to deteriorate (although some measures continued to increase, albeit more slowly). Brainerd states:<blockquote>Three different measures of population health show a consistent and large improvement between approximately 1945 and 1969: child height, adult height and infant mortality all improved significantly during this period. These three biological measures of the standard of living also corroborate the evidence of some deterioration in living conditions beginning around 1970, when infant and adult mortality were rising and child and adult height stopped increasing and in some regions began to decline.</blockquote>Economic growth also began to slow around this time. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>After the Second World War, the Soviet economy resumed rapid growth. By 1970, the growth rate was sagging, and per capita output was static by 1985.</blockquote>The Cold War was another factor which contributed to slowing growth rates:<blockquote>The Cold War was an additional factor that lowered Soviet growth after 1968. The creation of high tech weaponry required a disproportionate allocation of R & D personnel and resources to the military. Innovation in civilian machinery and products declined accordingly. Half of the decreased in the growth rate of per capita GDP was due to the decline in productivity growth, and that decrease provides an upper bound to the impact of the arms race with the United States.</blockquote>In short, the USSR achieved massively positive economic results until the 1970's, when revisionist policies and the Cold War began to cause a stagnation. Now, let us move on from economic development, and talk about the health standards of the Soviet population.

=== Healthcare Conditions ===
Health conditions in Czarist Russia had been deplorable; it was among the unhealthiest nations in Europe (arguably in the entire world). [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-95874-8_22 According to Professor Reiner Dinkel (University of Munich):]<blockquote>Without doubt the Soviet Union was one of the most underdeveloped European countries at the time of the October Revolution. In terms of life-expectancy it lagged behind the other industrialized countries of Europe by a gap of about 15 years.</blockquote>However, after the socialist revolution, healthcare conditions began to increase rapidly. By the end of the socialist period, healthcare standards (measured by life expectancy and mortality rates) were superior to those of Western Europe and the USA. Professor Dinkel states:<blockquote>One of the most striking advances of socialism has been and was generally seen to be the improvement in public health provision for the population as a whole. In accordance with this assumption mortality-rates in the Soviet Union declined rapidly in the first two decades after World War II. In 1965 life-expectancy for men and women in all parts of the Soviet Union, which still included vast underdeveloped regions with unfavorable living conditions, were as high or even higher than in the United States. Such a development fits perfectly into the picture of emerging industrial development and generally improving conditions of living.</blockquote>Even reactionary intellectuals were forced to acknowledge these achievements; according to Nicholas Ebserstadt (a conservative think-tank adviser), healthcare standards in the Soviet Union during the socialist period surpassed those of the USA and Western Europe:<blockquote>Over much of this century the nation in the vanguard of the revolution in health was the Soviet Union. In 1897 Imperial Russia offered its people a life expectancy of perhaps thirty years. In European Russia, from what we can make out, infant mortality (that is, death in the first year) claimed about one child in four, and in Russia’s Asian hinterlands the toll was probably closer to one in three. Yet by the late 1950's the average Soviet citizen could expect to live 68.7 years: longer than his American counterpart, who had begun the century with a seventeen-year lead. By 1960 the Soviet infant mortality rate, higher than any in Europe as late as the Twenties, was lower than that of Italy, Austria, or East Germany, and seemed sure to undercut such nations as Belgium and West Germany any year.</blockquote>He even notes that these achievements made socialism seem nearly unbeatable:<blockquote>In the face of these and other equally impressive material accomplishments, Soviet claims about the superiority of their “socialist” system, its relevance to the poor countries, and the inevitability of its triumph over the capitalist order were not easily refuted.</blockquote>While health conditions did start to decline after the introduction of revisionist policies in the mid-60's (this will be discussed in more detail in part three), the healthcare achievements of the socialist system remain unimpeachable.

=== Educational Conditions ===
In the Soviet Union in 1919 at the eighth congress of the Communist Party the fundamentals for socialist education were being laid down.

- All schools of general education were made public; private schools were outlawed

- Education was to become free of charge

- Common education for both sexes were to be implemented

- The church were to be separated from education and the state; religious ceremonies and

education in religious dogmas were outlawed

- Physical punishment was to be outlawed

- All nationalities were given the right to be educated in their own mother tongue (The Soviet

Union housed many peoples, cultures and languages that before were only educated in

Russian.)

- Admission requirements were changed so working people could also study

An enormous battle was fought against illiteracy, which led to all citizens of the Soviet Union being able to read and write in 1959. Education was free and accessible, where the interests of the working and poor peasant population counted the most. There was a demand for adult education where adults could keep on working next to studying. Because of this higher education, institutions were founded where people could study in the evening and where attending was less important.

Students were granted study allowances and housing if they had to move from another town/village. People that worked besides studying were given an adjusted work schedule with less working hours and more free time for studying.

In 1975, 856 higher education institutions existed, which consisted of 65 universities that educated 4,9 million students.

At higher education institutions sport clubs, theatre groups, music bands etc. were founded. The Soviet students were actively involved with international youth and student movements.

In 1913, the Russian Empire housed 11.600 scientists; in 1975, this number was multiplied by a hundred. This year, 1⁄4 of all humankind’s scientists were from the Soviet Union.

All students, regardless of their study, were educated in philosophy, political economy, history. Study programs were made with the goal of a broad, general, scientific education in addition to deeper knowledge of the concrete study that was chosen.

One of the characteristics of Soviet education was the combination of education and productive labour.

Besides lectures and tutorials/seminars, practical experience at the workplace was embedded in the curriculum. The first two years of education were concentrated on general education with lectures, tutorials and papers. The final years would focus on the specialization of the student. From the third year on a big part, 30-40% was devoted to practical experience. These were internships at labs, hospitals, factories, scientific institutions and government institutions, depending on the study.

During the whole internship, there was educational coaching; theoretical questions were being discussed based on the practical labour of the student.

In the last year, there would be an internship that was compatible with the specific work field of the student. The internship would last to a year, depending on the specialization. In the whole period, the internees would receive the wage that normal workers would get in the same position.

In the making of study schedules free time of the students were taking into account so there would be enough time next to studying for other activities.

Studying was completely free of charge. The Soviet student did not have to pay anything for lectures, practicums, books or other materials they needed.

The vast majority (more than 80%) of students received a study allowance that would allow cover their needs so they would not burden their families. The allowance was 25% higher for students with high grades and 15% higher for students that were sent by companies and state farms. Not only didn’t the Soviet student have to pay to study, he or she was paid to study. All higher education institutions had their own student housing. The ones that studied outside of the town or village where their family’s lives were housed in these student houses. The price they paid for these houses was 7% of the allowance they received. In the Soviet Union it was forbidden that renting a house cost more than 10% of someone’s income. Even though the amount of students would rise, they would always be housed because of the social and economic planning.

Students receive discounts at restaurants or other food related places.

During their whole study, students were granted free health and dental care.

Students had free access to gyms, sports fields etc., and to cultural activities where they would receive the necessary good like musical instruments.

For example: Energy Technology Institute in Moscow that was more or less as big as a small town. In 1959, the institute housed 16 accommodations for 6.000 people, shops, dining areas, swimming pools, gyms, sport fields, a centre for preventive health care, a polyclinic and a healthcare centre with 250 beds.

Every university had leisure parks where students could take holidays. In the seventies, every student in the Soviet Union had the right to 12 days of vacation in such a leisure place, including food, for which they paid only 7 rubble.

There were special measures for young families: they would receive a higher allowance and mothers could study a year longer than normal students could. Free nurseries were available for children of students and for higher education institution workers.

Students did not have to have a job to pay for their studies. Everything they needed was provided by the state. However, thousands of workers and others could or wanted to study. Because of this, measures were taken to educate through evening studying or studying by distance. Their work hours were cut, without receiving less salary. The first years they would get a month of extra free time, and in the last years, they would receive an additional 10 days (40 in total). Depending on the expertise, they would be given free time for practical classes and exams. For writing their thesis, working people would receive four months of free time. During all this free time, they would get a salary. In the last 10 months of their thesis, they would get one day off per week, which would be paid half of the normal wage.

Graduates did not have to look for work after studying. Every education institution consisted of a special committee that was made up of representatives from the ministry that were responsible for the work field in which the institution would educate in. The committee also existed out of representatives of the institution itself and representatives of students. The ministries would collect information about the demand of workers in various companies. This information would be given to the education institutions. Most of the time there were more free job positions than the amount of graduates. The committee I mentioned earlier would examine the free job positions. They would check the specific needs of the position but also the interests and qualities of a student. Worth mentioning is that no student would be assigned to a job without his permission. Most of the time it was possible to choose from different positions that were available after information was shared about the work itself, the salary etc. Six months before graduating, students would know in which positions they would get a job, and were given the opportunity to prepare for the responsibilities that came with this position.

The graduated student had to work at least three years at the position he was assigned to after graduating. This was an obligation towards the state that provided free education.

== Workers' Control and Democracy in the Soviet Union ==
One of the most common allegations leveled against the USSR (and socialist states in general) by left-anticommunists is that it was not "real socialism," because the workers did not have direct control over production. This claim may be found in the writings of Noam Chomsky, Murray Bookchin, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and numerous other anti-Soviet leftists. It is claimed that the indisputable gains made by the working class in socialist states ([https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/B2TP-3R5M-Q7UP-DUA2 such as vast improvements to their health and welfare]) are irrelevant, because these revolutions were "bureaucratic," and therefore, illegitimate.

The goal of this post is to demonstrate that, in point of fact, the Soviet working class ''did'' have a degree of workers' control, which successfully gave Soviet workers far more rights and influence than their capitalist counterparts.

=== Workers' Control in the Soviet Workplace ===
When discussing this topic, it is helpful to start at the level of the individual workplace. [https://www.docdroid.net/t9gG4jQ/thurston-robert-reassessing-the-history-of-soviet-workers-opportunities-to-criticize-and-participate-in-decision-making-pdf Professor Robert Thurston (Miami University at Ohio)] states that "at the lower levels of society, in day-to-day affairs and the implementation of policy, [the Soviet system] was participatory." He notes that workers were frequently encouraged to take part in decision making:<blockquote>The regime regularly urged its people to criticize local conditions and their leaders, at least below a certain exalted level. For example, in March 1937 Stalin emphasized the importance of the party's 'ties to the masses'. To maintain them, it was necessary 'to listen carefully to the voice of the masses, to the voice of rank and file members of the party, to the voice of so-called "little people," to the voice of ordinary folk.'</blockquote>These were not empty words or cheap propaganda; while there were limits to criticism, Professor Thurston notes that "such bounds allowed a great deal that was deeply significant to workers, including some aspects of production norms, pay rates and classifications, safety on the job, housing, and treatment by managers." The workers had a voice in various official bodies, and they generally had their demands met:<blockquote>The Commissariat of Justice also heard and responded to workers' appeals. In August 1935 the Saratov city prosecutor reported that of 118 cases regarding pay recently handled by his office, 90, or 73.6 percent, had been resolved in favor of workers.</blockquote>Workers also took part in direct oversight of managers:<blockquote>Workers participated by the hundreds of thousands in special inspectorates, commissions, and brigades which checked the work of managers and institutions. These agencies sometimes wielded significant power.</blockquote>The rights of Soviet workers were often noted in later accounts of the socialist era:<blockquote>One emigre recalled that his stepmother, a factory worker, 'often scolded the boss,' and also complained about living conditions, but was never arrested. John Scott, an American employed for years in the late 1930's as a welder in Magnitogorsk, attended a meeting at a Moscow factory in 1940 where workers were able to 'criticize the plant director, make suggestions as to how to increase production, increase quality, and lower costs.'</blockquote>These facts are all the more impressive when we recall the dismal state of workers' rights in the capitalist nations at this time:<blockquote>This occurred at a time when American workers in particular were struggling for basic union recognition, which even when won did not provide much formal influence at the work place.</blockquote>Thurston makes the following observation:<blockquote>Far from basing its rule on the negative means of coercion, the Soviet regime in the late 1930's fostered a limited but positive political role for the populace... Earlier concepts of the Soviet state require rethinking: the workers who ousted managers, achieved the imprisonment of their targets, and won reinstatement at factories did so through organizations which constituted part of the state apparatus and wielded state powers.</blockquote>He also notes that "no sharp division between state and society existed," though different levels of the state wielded different powers.

In short, while the Soviet Union did have authoritarian elements (as was inevitable given the conditions; the USSR had been ravaged by civil war, and invaded by multiple capitalist nations), there was also a strong element of workers' control, giving the USSR a legitimate claim to being a workers' state.

=== Political Participation of the Workers ===
Working people did not only have the right to take part in decision-making at the workplace; they also had a voice in national policy decisions. [http://jpsa-web.org/eibun_zassi/data/pdf/JPSA_Kawamoto_final_July_9_2014.pdf Professor Kazuko Kawamoto (Hitotsubashi University)] states that the USSR had "a more democratic face than what is usually imagined, especially among Western people." As they put it:<blockquote>The Soviet regime was democratic in its own sense of the word... participation through sending letters and attending discussions gave self-government a certain reality and helped to legitimize the Soviet regime. Therefore, listening to the people was an important obligation for the authorities... the government encouraged people to send letters to the authorities and actively used the all-people’s discussions.</blockquote>These all-people's discussions existed from the early days of the Soviet Union, and they had great significance (contrary to the assumptions of Western scholars):<blockquote>Although the first all-people’s discussion was conducted with the approval of the 1936 Stalin constitution on the grounds that the former ruling classes no longer existed, publication and public discussion of bills had been common before the constitution in the name of participation of the masses. Western scholars usually took this as an attempt to put a face of legitimacy on the process, understanding the discussions to be a mere formality. However, that is not the case with the Principles argued here. The discussions were neither a disguise nor a mere formality.</blockquote>Legislators took direct part in these meetings, altering proposed bills in accordance with popular opinion. Professor Kawamoto states that " it is worth pointing out that members of the subcommittee actively participated in the discussion, rewriting the draft at the same time."

It is also noted that Soviet citizens "believed that they were entitled to demand policy changes, and the draft writers, including specialists, officials, and deputies, felt obliged to respond to those demands." The process of gathering public opinion was intensive enough that it often slowed down the process of legislation:<blockquote>Regarding the process of creating the Principles, direct participation worked largely as expected in the ideology of Soviet democracy, although it took many years.</blockquote>As Professor Kawamoto says, "the reason why it took so long was deeply rooted in the ideas of Soviet democracy." Contrast this with bourgeois democracy, [https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf where legislators typically disregard the opinion of the masses.] This may speed up the legislative process, but it results in extremely high levels of popular discontent.

In addition to the aforementioned means of popular participation, Soviet officials also traveled throughout the nation to gather information on popular opinion. Using the development of Soviet family law as an example, Professor Kawamoto states:<blockquote>The draft makers were not only passive recipients of letters but also traveled throughout the Soviet Union to listen to the people. When the work in the Commissions of Legislative Proposals was reaching its end, members of the subcommittee and officials working for them visited several union republics from April to June 1962 to research the practice of family law and collect opinions on important standards in the draft of the Principles... After these research trips, the commission finished the draft and presented it to the Central Committee of the Party in July.</blockquote>While Soviet democracy was not without its flaws (as mentioned, the process was often rather slow, and there were limits to the extent of criticism), it would be highly inaccurate to describe the USSR as a "totalitarian" society, with no democratic structures; on the contrary, the USSR did practice its own form of democracy, and it did so rather effectively.

== The Question of Stalin ==
Joseph Stalin was the principal architect of the socialist period in the USSR. As a result, he has been the victim of perhaps the most extensive smear campaign in modern history. Claims that he killed tens of millions of people, jailed victims without cause, and deliberately starved Ukrainian peasants are only some of the propaganda charges leveled against him. As such, it is the duty of any informed socialist to combat this propaganda.

Firstly, we must remember the extensive achievements discussed above, which vastly improved life for hundreds of millions of people. These achievements were the result of the socialist system, built primarily under Joseph Stalin. This section will deal with Stalin's successes and failures, correct various misconceptions and falsehoods surrounding him, and place the man in his proper historical context.

It should also be said, this discussion will not gloss over and/or ignore Stalin's various flaws and misdoings; "Stalin did nothing wrong" is a good meme, but it's a bad analysis.

=== The Soviet Economy Under Stalin ===
It is commonly alleged that Stalin presided over a period of economic failure in the USSR, due to his insistence upon industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. However, more recent research has painted a far more positive picture.

According to Professor Robert Allen:<blockquote>The Soviet economy performed well... Planning led to high rates of capital accumulation, rapid GDP growth, and rising per capita consumption even in the 1930's. [...] The expansion of heavy industry and the use of output targets and soft-budgets to direct firms were appropriate to the conditions of the 1930's, they were adopted quickly, and they led to rapid growth of investment and consumption.</blockquote>Professor Elizabeth Brainerd refers to Soviet growth rates as "impressive," noting that they "promoted the rapid industrialization of the USSR, particularly in the decades from the 1930's to the 1960's." She also states:<blockquote>Both Western and Soviet estimates of GNP growth in the Soviet Union indicate that GNP per capita grew in every decade in the postwar era, at times far surpassing the growth rates of the developed western economies.</blockquote>Even still, it is often claimed that this growth did not improve the standard of living for the Soviet people. However, more recent research has also shown this to be false.

According to Professor Allen:<blockquote>While investment certainly increased rapidly, recent research shows that the standard of living also increased briskly. [...] Calories are the most basic dimension of the standard of living, and their consumption was higher in the late 1930's than in the 1920's. [...] There has been no debate that ‘collective consumption’ (principally education and health services) rose sharply, but the standard view was that private consumption declined. Recent research, however, calls that conclusion into question... Consumption per head rose about one quarter between 1928 and the late 1930's.</blockquote>According to Professor Brainerd:<blockquote>The conventional measures of GNP growth and household consumption indicate a long, uninterrupted upward climb in the Soviet standard of living from 1928 to 1985; even Western estimates of these measures support this view, albeit at a slower rate of growth than the Soviet measures.</blockquote>While the economy is not the main purpose of this discussion, it should be acknowledged that under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union experienced rapid economic growth, and a significant increase in the population's standard of living.

=== The Great Purge ===
The purges of the late-1930's are a definite black mark on the legacy of Soviet socialism; this much cannot be denied. That being said, they have been the subject of decades-worth of unjustified and intolerable distortions and exaggerations by bourgeois academics, necessitating a thorough reply.

Firstly, let us establish the facts of how many people actually died in the purges. While Westerners are often treated to numbers ranging from 20 to 50 million, the true figures (while bad enough in their own right) are nowhere near that high. [http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/GTY-Penal_System.pdf According to Professor J. Arch Getty:]<blockquote>From 1921 to Stalin's death, in 1953, around 800,000 people were sentenced to death and shot, 85 percent of them in the years of the Great Terror of 1937-1938. From 1934 to Stalin's death, more than a million perished in the gulag camps.</blockquote>To these figures must be added an important qualification: contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of gulag inmates were not innocent political prisoners. Professor Getty notes that those convicted of "counterrevolutionary crimes" made up between 12 and 33 percent (depending on the year) of the gulag population, with the rest having been convicted of ordinary crimes. He also rejects the common claim that non-Russian nationalities were disproportionately targeted. To quote from his article in the ''American Historical Review:''<blockquote>The long-awaited archival evidence on repression in the period of the Great Purges shows that the levels of arrests, political prisoners, executions, and general camp populations tend to confirm the orders of magnitude indicated by those labeled as "revisionists" and mocked by those proposing high estimates... inferences that the terror fell particularly hard on non-Russian nationalities are not borne out by the camp population data from the 1930's. The frequent assertion that most of the camp prisoners were 'political' also seems not to be true.</blockquote>In addition, the gulags were not death camps like those of the Nazis; they were prisons, albeit harsh ones. Even noted anti-communist scholars (such as those who worked on the infamous ''Black Book of Communism'') have admitted this. To quote again from Professor Getty:<blockquote>Stalin's camps were different from Hitler's. Tens of thousands of prisoners were released every year upon completion of their sentences. We now know that before World War II more inmates escaped annually from the Soviet camps than died there. [...] Werth, a well-regarded French specialist on the Soviet Union whose sections in the ''Black Book'' on the Soviet Communists are sober and damning, told ''Le Monde,'' "Death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union."</blockquote>It must also be noted that, contrary to the popular conception of Stalin's USSR as a place of "total terror" (to quote Hannah Arendt), the majority of the population did not feel threatened by the purges. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bw0h Referring to the time of the Great Purge, Professor Robert Thurston notes] that "my evidence suggests that widespread fear did not exist in the case at hand." He also notes that the Great Purge was an exceptional occurrence, which cannot be used to characterize the Stalinist-era as a whole:<blockquote>I will not simply imply but will state outright that the ''Ezhovshchina'' [Great Purge] was an aberration. Torture was uncommon until August 1937, when it became the norm; it ended abruptly with Beria's rise to head of the NKVD in late 1938. Mass arrests followed the same pattern... A campaign for more regular, fair, and systemic judicial procedures that began in 1933-1934 was interrupted and overwhelmed by the Terror in 1937. It resumed in the spring of 1938, more strongly and effectively than before. Thus more than one trend was broken by the ''Ezhovshchina'', only to reappear after it.</blockquote>He also points out that some arrests which took place during the Great Purge were based on previously-ignored (yet arguably still legitimate) crimes against the Soviet state, such as fighting with the reactionary forces during the Civil War:<blockquote>People were suddenly arrested in 1937 for things that had happened many years earlier but had been ignored since, for example, serving in a White army.</blockquote>The question arises: why arrest former White Army soldiers, among others? The answer lies in the general fear of counterrevolution which pervaded the party at this time. [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163498 According to Professor James Harris:]<blockquote>By the mid-1930's, the rise of the Nazis in Germany and the militarists in Japan, both stridently anti-communist, posed a very real threat to the USSR. War was then on the horizon, and Stalin felt he had no choice but to take preemptive action against what he saw as a potential fifth column – a group that would undermine the larger collective.</blockquote>Remember that since the moment of its founding (still a recent event, at this time), the Soviet Union had been invaded by multiple capitalist powers (including the United States) in the early-1920's, and had also been subject to espionage and internal sabotage. Combined with the looming threat of war with an increasingly powerful Nazi Germany, it is hardly surprising that these factors came together to form an atmosphere of paranoia, which lent itself to the sort of violent excess seen during the Purge. This coincides with Professor Thurston's interpretation of the events, from his book ''Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia:''<blockquote>...between 1934 and 1936 police and court practice relaxed significantly. Then a series of events, together with the tense international situation and memories of real enemy activity during the savage Russian Civil War, combined to push leaders and people into a hysterical hunt for perceived 'wreckers.' After late 1938, however, the police and courts became dramatically milder.</blockquote>This general atmosphere of fear (not of the purges, but of external and internal enemies) is most likely why the majority of the Soviet people seemed to support the government's actions during the Purge period. According to Professor Thurston:<blockquote>The various reactions to arrest cataloged above suggest that general fear did not exist in the USSR at any time in the late 1930's... People who remained at liberty often felt that some event in the backgrounds of the detained individuals justified their arrests. The sense that anyone could be next, the underpinning of theoretical systems of terror, rarely appears.</blockquote>Overall, perhaps the most succinct summary of this issue is the one provided in Professor Thurston's book, in which he states:<blockquote>There was never a long period of Stalinism without a serious foreign threat, major internal dislocation, or both, which makes identifying its true nature impossible.</blockquote>As Marxists, we should be well aware that material conditions shape ideological and political structures. The savagery of the Russian Civil War, the multiple invasions from capitalist powers, and the increasing threat of a war against fascism make the paranoid atmosphere of the late-1930's understandable, if not condonable; yet even while we discuss the genuine causes of the Purge, and reject the hysterical anti-communist mud-throwing of the Cold Warriors, we must still acknowledge the black mark that the Purge leaves on Stalin's legacy.

=== The Ukrainian Famine ("Holodomor") ===
Perhaps the most pernicious accusation against Stalin is that he orchestrated the dreadful famine of the early-1930's in order to squash a Ukrainian nationalist revolt. This despicable slander (which is peddled largely by Ukrainian nationalist and neo-fascist groups) is easily refuted by examining the historical consensus. The following quotes are compiled in an article from the ''Village Voice'', cited below.

Alexander Dallin of Stanford University writes:<blockquote>There is no evidence it was intentionally directed against Ukrainians... that would be totally out of keeping with what we know -- it makes no sense.</blockquote>Moshe Lewin of the University of Pennsylvania stated:<blockquote>This is crap, rubbish... I am an anti-Stalinist, but I don't see how this [genocide] campaign adds to our knowledge. It's adding horrors, adding horrors, until it becomes a pathology.</blockquote>Lynne Viola of the University of Toronto writes:<blockquote>I absolutely reject it... Why in god's name would this paranoid government consciously produce a famine when they were terrified of war [with Germany]?</blockquote>Mark Tauger, Professor of History at West Virginia University (reviewing work by Stephen Wheatcroft and R.W. Davies) has this to say:<blockquote>Popular media and most historians for decades have described the great famine that struck most of the USSR in the early 1930s as “man-made,” very often even a “genocide” that Stalin perpetrated intentionally against Ukrainians and sometimes other national groups to destroy them as nations... This perspective, however, is wrong. The famine that took place was not limited to Ukraine or even to rural areas of the USSR, it was not fundamentally or exclusively man-made, and it was far from the intention of Stalin and others in the Soviet leadership to create such as disaster. A small but growing literature relying on new archival documents and a critical approach to other sources has shown the flaws in the “genocide” or “intentionalist” interpretation of the famine and has developed an alternative interpretation.</blockquote>More recent research has discovered natural causes for the Ukrainian famine. Tauger notes:<blockquote>...the USSR experienced an unusual environmental disaster in 1932: extremely wet and humid weather that gave rise to severe plant disease infestations, especially rust. Ukraine had double or triple the normal rainfall in 1932. Both the weather conditions and the rust spread from Eastern Europe, as plant pathologists at the time documented. Soviet plant pathologists in particular estimated that rust and other fungal diseases reduced the potential harvest in 1932 by almost nine million tons, which is the largest documented harvest loss from any single cause in Soviet history.</blockquote>It should be noted that this does not excuse the Soviet state from any and all responsibility for the suffering that took place; one could accuse the government of insufficiently rapid response, and note that initial reports were often downplayed to avoid rocking the boat. But it is clear that the famine was not deliberate, was not a genocide, and (to quote Tauger) "was not fundamentally or exclusively man-made."

=== Conclusion ===
In short, Stalin was an extraordinarily complex man. His legacy is far too nuanced to be summed-up in catchphrases like "Stalin was worse than Hitler," or "Stalin did nothing wrong." He was a flawed leader, who managed some enormous achievements (rapid industrial and economic growth, improvements to the standard of living, leading the USSR to victory over Nazism), while also making some enormous mistakes (the paranoia of the purges, the errors of the famine, the rolling-back of progressive social policies).

We should not respond to bourgeois propaganda by insisting (as some well-meaning yet mistaken comrades have done) that every single misdeed of Stalin is a lie; rather, we should place them into proper historical context, along with his various achievements. This is the correct way for Marxists to analyze the world: with a firm, well-grounded materialist critique, yielding no ground to hero worship, or to a fictitious "great man" theory of history. Recall what Fidel Castro said on the matter:<blockquote>I believe Stalin made big mistakes but also showed great wisdom. In my opinion, blaming Stalin for everything that occurred in the Soviet Union would be historical simplism, because no man by himself could have created certain conditions. It would be the same as giving Stalin all the credit for what the USSR once was. That is impossible! I believe that the efforts of millions and millions of heroic people contributed to the USSR's development and to its relevant role in the world in favor of hundreds of millions of people. [...] I think there should be an impartial analysis of Stalin. Blaming him for everything that happened would be historical simplism.</blockquote>Stalin was a great proletarian revolutionary, and yet he was also a highly flawed leader. Do not be ashamed of this legacy, comrades; rather, recall that in all things, there is contradiction.

== Consequences of the Collapse of the Soviet Union ==

=== Russia/Russian Soviet Socialist Republic ===

* 30,000 Medium to large scale factories in 1990 (before the collapse). That number is reduced down to 5000.
* GDP of 1996 was 63.1% of the 1991 GDP keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.
* Number of hospitals has halved from 10700 to 5400.
* Similarly, the number of schools has dropped from almost 70,000 to 42,600.
* In just 17 years, from 2000-2017 26700,000,000,000 rubles have been illegally stolen from the people outside of Russia.
* At least Russia is number one at some things like first at the number of Millionaires.
* In terms of billionaires they are in 4th place.
* 22,000,000 Russians are in poverty
* 86% of Russians struggle to buy the most basic things
* 23,000 towns, villages and cities have been abandoned in the last 20 years
* Because of Capitalism and the massive hit we took after the collapse of the USSR including the horrible living conditions and poverty that broke out the Russian population lost 30 Million in terms of demographics(More than in ww2)

=== Kazakhstan/Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic ===

* only from 1981-1986 - 400 enterprises/factories were built, in 1983 we had more than 9 million cattle, 36 million sheep and supplied meat to almost all Soviet Republics.
* engineering and metalworking enterprises/factories fell from 2000 to 100
* machine building in the total industrial production fell from 16% to 3% (mostly oil and gas now)
* light industry - 15% fell to 0.6%, from 1990-2006 (all products are imported)
* refined 18 million tons of oil, this number fell to 13.7 million tons (+ imported from Russia)
* meat exports 184.5 thousand tons fell to 0.3 thousand tons(we import meat now)
* compound feed production 4 million tons fell to 400 thousand tons
* 2006 → 2009, 540 rural settlements liquidated/abandoned
* education expenditure 8% fell to 3% = shortage of qualified personnel + it's not always free.
* Free medical care will soon be abolished too
* GDP of 1996 was only 69.3% of the 1991 Soviet GDP, keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.

=== Ukraine/Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ===
Ukraine seemed like it would become the next European power. It had 3 military districts left over from the USSR with the best weaponry in the world including 700,000 troops as well as a nuclear arsenal of 3000 that made it the 3rd strongest country in the whole world after the US and Russia. By the time of the war in the Donbass the number of military personnel dropped down to 168,000 while selling huge quantities of Soviet weaponry.

* Scientists within the country reduced from 313 079(1990) down to 94,274 in (2017).
* Doctors within the country reduced from 227 thousand (1991) down to 187 thousand in (2016).
* nursing staff halved since the collapse of the USSR
* Electricity generation, billion kWh per year fell from 238 (1980) down to 167 (2000)
* Stone mining(Coal thousand tons per year) 197 100 (1980) down to 81 100 (2000)
* Steel production (thousand tons per year) around 48 000 (1980) down to 31 767 (2000)
* Production of tractors (thousand pieces) around 130, 000 (1980) down to 4000 (2000)
* Production of mineral fertilizers (thousand tons per year) around 4 850 (1991) down to 1 554 (2000)
* Grain Harvest (million tons per year) dropped from 51 (1990) down to 25,7 (2000)
* Around 250 planes a year were being built, that number dropped to 1-2 a year after Capitalism.
* The Ukranian GDP of 1996 was only 47.2% of the 1991 Ukranian SSR GDP, keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.

=== The destruction of democracy ===

* The 1991 referendum of keeping the USSR in one way or the other gained a 78% positive vote. However, this was thrown out of the window and the USSR was torn apart nonetheless.
* In 1993 when the Parliament ie (Supreme Soveit) tried to remove Yeltsin, he ordered tanks to drive into Moscow and shoot the Parliament building. Crowds of Soviet Citizens tried to stop the attack, but were unsuccessful. Over 100 of comrades died that day. <nowiki>https://images.app.goo.gl/eqRAJBrvyDRBRFUR9</nowiki> <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjBmtkW3Tl8&t=423s</nowiki> (live footage from the day). This allowed Yeltsin to change the constitution and increase his own power while selling Russia off to Western capital.

=== Consequences for the Soviet people ===
According to the UN Human Development Index—which measures levels of life expectancy. Commenting on the situation in the former Soviet Union after capitalist restoration, Fabre stated, “We have catastrophic falls in several countries, which often are republics of the former Soviet Union, where poverty is actually increasing. In fact poverty has tripled in the whole region”.

To sum it up for the Soviet people - “98 Russian billionaires hold more wealth than Russians combined savings” or 200 Russian oligarchs have 485 billion USD most of which come from post Soviet factories that used to be owned by the workers but were sold off at extremely low prices.

=== Effects on the rest of the world ===

* The USSR had connections with China, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Eastern Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Birma, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar. As the USSR was collapsing/collapsed Socialism and Socialist organisations in all of these countries would fall apart too leaving them at the grasp of the capitalists.
* Cuba had huge economic problems as it was dependant on the USSR.
* DPRK had a huge famine in the 90’s due to the collapse of the USSR.
* Many Socialist nations around the world reverted back to the first stage of Socialism.

=== Civil wars within the USSR ===
Many love to claim that the USSR’s collapse was bloodless. This is a list of all the civil wars between Soviet countries and peoples:

* Tajikistan Civil War - 50,000 dead
* 2010 South Kyrgyzstan ethnic riots - 2000 dead
* Tajikistan Insurgency - 200 dead
* East Prigorodny Conflict - 550 dead
* First Chechen War - around 60,000 dead
* War of Dagestan - 300 dead
* Second Chechen War - around 80,000 dead
* War in Ingushetia - 900 dead
* insurgency in the North Caucasus - 4200 dead
* Nagorno-Karabakh War - 33,000 dead
* 1991–1992 South Ossetian War - 1000 dead
* Georgian Civil War - 20,000 deaths
* Russo-Georgian War - 500 dead
* Transnistria War - 1500 dead
* Euromaidan - 200 dead
* Russo-Ukrainian War - 15,000 dead

Overall - roughly 270,000 Soviet citizens have died from direct causes of the war.

== External links ==
* [[wikipedia:American_Expeditionary_Force,_Siberia|American Expeditionary Force, Siberia]] - Wikipedia
* [[wikipedia:Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)|Eastern Front (World War II)]] - Wikipedia
* [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.507.8966&rep=rep1&type=pdf A Reassessment of the Soviet Industrial Revolution by Robert C. Allen]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25149595?seq=1 Reviewed Work: Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution, Reviewed by Simon Clarke]
* [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-95874-8_22 Declining Life Expectancy in a Highly Developed Nation: Paradox or Statistical Artifact? by Professor Reiner Dinkel]
* [http://jpsa-web.org/eibun_zassi/data/pdf/JPSA_Kawamoto_final_July_9_2014.pdf Rethinking Soviet Democracy by Kazuko Kawamoto]
* [https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page]
* [http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/GTY-Penal_System.pdf Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence by J. Arch Getty, Gabor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bw0h Yale University: Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia by Robert W. Thurston]
* [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163498 History News Network: Historian James Harris says Russian Archives show we've misunderstood Stalin]

Russian revolution of 1917

2021-01-28T00:49:10Z

TeeOS:

The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the '''Great October Socialist Revolution''', the '''Bolshevik Revolution''', or simply the '''Russian Revolution''') was a socialist [[revolution]] which took place in the [[Russian Empire]] in 1917, following the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and the establishment of the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. Brought on by the popular support for the [[Bolsheviks]] led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the failure of the Provisional Government to exit [[World War I]], the situation of [[Dual Power|dual power]] between the government and the worker-led [[Soviet (governmental body)|Soviets]] led to the overthrow of the state and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) in the same year. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

Russian revolution of 1917

2021-01-27T23:25:52Z

TeeOS:

The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the '''Great October Socialist Revolution''', the '''Bolshevik Revolution''', or simply the '''Russian Revolution''') was a socialist [[revolution]] which took place in the [[Russian Empire]] in 1917, following the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and the establishment of the [[Russian Provisional Government]]. Brought on by the popular support for the [[Bolsheviks]] led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the failure of the Provisional Government to exit [[World War I]], the situation of [[dual power]] between the government and the worker-led [[Soviet (body)|Soviets]] led to the overthrow of the state and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) in the same year. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

Russian revolution of 1917

2021-01-27T23:16:14Z

TeeOS:

The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, or simply the Russian Revolution) was a socialist [[revolution]] which took place in the [[Russian Empire]] in 1917, following the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and the establishment of the [[Russian Provisional Goverment]]. Brought on by the popular support for the [[Bolsheviks]] led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the failure of the Provisional Government to exit [[World War I]], the situation of [[dual power]] between the government and the worker-led [[Soviet (body)|Soviets]] led to the overthrow of the state and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) in the same year. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

Russian revolution of 1917

2021-01-27T23:15:51Z

TeeOS:

The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, or simply the Russian Revolution) was a socialist [[revolution]] which took place in the Russian Empire in 1917, following the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] and the establishment of the [[Russian Provisional Goverment]]. Brought on by the popular support for the [[Bolsheviks]] led by [[Vladimir Lenin]] and the failure of the Provisional Government to exit [[World War I]], the situation of [[dual power]] between the government and the worker-led [[Soviet (body)|Soviets]] led to the overthrow of the state and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR) in the same year. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)

2021-01-27T22:49:36Z

TeeOS: Added the flag, edited the wording of the first sentence.

[[File:The Flag of the USSR.png|thumb|The state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.]]
The '''Soviet Union,''' officially known as the '''Union of Soviet Socialist Republics''' ('''USSR''') (''Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР)''), was a [[Marxism-Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] federal state that existed in Eurasia from1922 to 1991.

The USSR was born as a union of four Soviet socialist republics, formed after the [[October Revolution of 1917]], and grew to 15 by 1956.

Over and above the errors that led to [[Overthrow of the Soviet Union|its disappearance]], this country played an essential role in the defeat of [[fascism]] and in the advance of humanity towards new forms of social organization that were more cooperative and in solidarity.

The Soviet Union developed under conditions of extreme pressure, [[wikipedia:American_Expeditionary_Force,_Siberia|facing invasion from capitalist powers]], [[wikipedia:Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)|the Nazi invasion]], and espionage from the West. Given the difficulties that it faced, it is remarkable the USSR managed to provide a positive political role for the working people, especially in a time when workers in the capitalist world were still struggling for basic union rights.

During its socialist period, the Soviet Union made some of the most impressive achievements in modern history. The socialist system transformed a nation of illiterate and half-starved peasants into a superpower, with one of the fastest growing economies on Earth, one of the world's best-educated and healthiest populations, and some of the most impressive industrial and technological achievements to date. It provided a model for the oppressed people's of the world to follow, as was shown in China, Cuba, Vietnam, and many other nations.

The USSR was a legitimate workers' state, in which the proletariat held power in the workplace, and had significant influence on national policy decisions. Contrast this with the utter lack of popular influence in bourgeois states, and this is even easier to appreciate.

== Achievements of Socialism in the Soviet Union ==

=== Revolution, War Communism and the NEP ===
When the 1917 revolution took place, Russia was a backwards, semi-capitalist feudal society. The manor system had only recently been abolished, and replaced by the most brutal and primitive form of capitalism. The nation was dreadfully under-developed, with no sign of improving in the future. Not only that, but what little growth did occur led to massive inequalities. [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.507.8966&rep=rep1&type=pdf According to Professor Robert Allen] (formerly of Oxford University, now at NYU):<blockquote>Not only were the bases of Imperial advance narrow, but the process of growth gave rise to such inequitable changes in income distribution that revolution was hardly a surprise. Real wages for urban workers were static in the late Imperial period despite a significant increase in output per worker... The revolution was also a peasant revolt, and the interests of the peasants were different... As in the cities, there was no gain in real wages.</blockquote>Simon Clarke, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25149595?seq=1 supports these claims]:<blockquote>Agriculture had reached North American levels of productivity by 1913 and wheat prices collapsed after 1914. The expansion of the railroads had run its course and there was no prospect of protected light industry becoming internationally competitive. The appropriate comparators for the prospects for Russian capitalism in the twentieth century are not Japan but Argentina or even India. Moreover, Russian capitalist development had brought little if any benefit to the urban and rural working class, intensifying the class conflicts that erupted in Revolution.</blockquote>With the 1917 revolution (and after the bloody civil war, with its policy of war communism), the Soviet economy began to grow rapidly. The New Economic Policy (which nationalized large-scale industry and redistributed land, while allowing for the private sale of agricultural surplus) succeeded in transforming Russia from a semi-capitalist society into a developing state capitalist society, laying the groundwork for socialism. Professor Clarke states:<blockquote>Following War Communism, the New Economic Policy (NEP) sought to develop the Russian economy within a quasi-capitalist framework.</blockquote>However, economic circumstances came to require the transition to a planned socialist economy:<blockquote>However, the institutional and structural barriers to Russian economic development were now compounded by the unfavorable circumstances of the world economy, so that there was no prospect of export-led development, while low domestic incomes provided only a limited market for domestic industry. Without a state coordinated investment program, the Soviet economy would be caught in the low-income trap typical of the underdeveloped world.</blockquote>Thus, the material conditions of the time made the transition to a socialist economy a necessity.

=== Economic Development and Living Standards ===
In 1928 (after Stalin came to power as head of the Communist Party), Soviet Russia instituted a fully planned economy, and the first Five Year Plan was enacted. This resulted in rapid economic growth. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>Soviet GDP increased rapidly with the start of the first Five Year Plan in 1928... The expansion of heavy industry and the use of output targets and soft-budgets to direct firms were appropriate to the conditions of the 1930's, they were adopted quickly, and they led to rapid growth of investment and consumption.</blockquote>Bourgeois economists often alleged that this rapid growth came at the cost of per-capita consumption and living standards. However, more recent research has shown this to be false. Allen states:<blockquote>There has been no debate that ‘collective consumption’ (principally education and health services) rose sharply, but the standard view was that private consumption declined. Recent research, however, calls that conclusion into question... While investment certainly increased rapidly, ''recent research shows that the standard of living also increased briskly.''</blockquote>Calorie consumption rose rapidly during this period:<blockquote>Calories are the most basic dimension of the standard of living, and their consumption was higher in the late 1930's than in the 1920's... In 1895-1910, calorie availability was only 2100 per day, which is very low by modern standards. By the late 1920's, calorie availability advanced to 2500... By the late 1930's, the recovery of agriculture increased calorie availability to 2900 per day, a significant increase over the late 1920's. The food situation during the Second World War was severe, but by 1970 calorie consumption rose to 3400, which was on a par with western Europe.</blockquote>Overall, the development of the Soviet economy during the socialist period was extremely impressive. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>The Soviet economy performed well... Planning led to high rates of capital accumulation, rapid GDP growth, and rising per capita consumption even in the 1930's.</blockquote>The USSR's growth during the socialist period exceeded that of the capitalist nations:<blockquote>The USSR led the non-OECD countries and, indeed, achieved a growth rate in this period that exceeded the OECD catch-up regression as well as the OECD average.</blockquote>This success is also attributed specifically to the revolution and the socialist system. As Allen states:<blockquote>This success would not have occurred without the 1917 revolution or the planned development of state owned industry.</blockquote>The benefits of the socialist system are obvious upon closer study. As Simon Clarke puts it:<blockquote>...a capitalist economy would not have created the industrial jobs required to employ the surplus labour, since capitalists would only employ labour so long as the marginal product of labour exceeded the wage. State-sponsored industrialization faced no such constraints, since enterprises were encouraged to expand employment in line with the demands of the plan.</blockquote>Economic growth was also aided by the liberation of women, and the resulting control over the birth rate, as well as women's participation in the workforce. Allen states:<blockquote>The rapid growth in per capita income was contingent not just on the rapid expansion of GDP but also on the slow growth of the population. This was primarily due to a rapid fertility transition rather than a rise in mortality from collectivization, political repression, or the Second World War. Falling birth rates were primarily due to the education and employment of women outside the home. These policies, in turn, were the results of enlightenment ideology in its communist variant.</blockquote>Reviews of Allen's work have backed up his statements. According to Simon Clarke:<blockquote>Allen shows that the Stalinist strategy worked, in strictly economic terms, until around 1970... Allen’s book convincingly establishes the superiority of a planned over a capitalist economy in conditions of labour surplus (which is the condition of most of the world most of the time).</blockquote>Other studies have backed-up the findings that the USSR's living standards rose rapidly. [https://web.williams.edu/Economics/brainerd/papers/ussr_july08.pdf According to economist Elizabeth Brainerd] (formerly of Williams College, now at Brandeis University):<blockquote>Remarkably large and rapid improvements in child height, adult stature and infant mortality were recorded from approximately 1945 to 1970... Both Western and Soviet estimates of GNP growth in the Soviet Union indicate that GNP per capita grew in every decade in the postwar era, at times far surpassing the growth rates of the developed western economies... The conventional measures of GNP growth and household consumption indicate a long, uninterrupted upward climb in the Soviet standard of living from 1928 to 1985; even Western estimates of these measures support this view, albeit at a slower rate of growth than the Soviet measures.</blockquote>Unfortunately, after the introduction of market reforms and other revisionist policies, living standards began to deteriorate (although some measures continued to increase, albeit more slowly). Brainerd states:<blockquote>Three different measures of population health show a consistent and large improvement between approximately 1945 and 1969: child height, adult height and infant mortality all improved significantly during this period. These three biological measures of the standard of living also corroborate the evidence of some deterioration in living conditions beginning around 1970, when infant and adult mortality were rising and child and adult height stopped increasing and in some regions began to decline.</blockquote>Economic growth also began to slow around this time. According to Robert Allen:<blockquote>After the Second World War, the Soviet economy resumed rapid growth. By 1970, the growth rate was sagging, and per capita output was static by 1985.</blockquote>The Cold War was another factor which contributed to slowing growth rates:<blockquote>The Cold War was an additional factor that lowered Soviet growth after 1968. The creation of high tech weaponry required a disproportionate allocation of R & D personnel and resources to the military. Innovation in civilian machinery and products declined accordingly. Half of the decreased in the growth rate of per capita GDP was due to the decline in productivity growth, and that decrease provides an upper bound to the impact of the arms race with the United States.</blockquote>In short, the USSR achieved massively positive economic results until the 1970's, when revisionist policies and the Cold War began to cause a stagnation. Now, let us move on from economic development, and talk about the health standards of the Soviet population.

=== Healthcare Conditions ===
Health conditions in Czarist Russia had been deplorable; it was among the unhealthiest nations in Europe (arguably in the entire world). [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-95874-8_22 According to Professor Reiner Dinkel (University of Munich):]<blockquote>Without doubt the Soviet Union was one of the most underdeveloped European countries at the time of the October Revolution. In terms of life-expectancy it lagged behind the other industrialized countries of Europe by a gap of about 15 years.</blockquote>However, after the socialist revolution, healthcare conditions began to increase rapidly. By the end of the socialist period, healthcare standards (measured by life expectancy and mortality rates) were superior to those of Western Europe and the USA. Professor Dinkel states:<blockquote>One of the most striking advances of socialism has been and was generally seen to be the improvement in public health provision for the population as a whole. In accordance with this assumption mortality-rates in the Soviet Union declined rapidly in the first two decades after World War II. In 1965 life-expectancy for men and women in all parts of the Soviet Union, which still included vast underdeveloped regions with unfavorable living conditions, were as high or even higher than in the United States. Such a development fits perfectly into the picture of emerging industrial development and generally improving conditions of living.</blockquote>Even reactionary intellectuals were forced to acknowledge these achievements; according to Nicholas Ebserstadt (a conservative think-tank adviser), healthcare standards in the Soviet Union during the socialist period surpassed those of the USA and Western Europe:<blockquote>Over much of this century the nation in the vanguard of the revolution in health was the Soviet Union. In 1897 Imperial Russia offered its people a life expectancy of perhaps thirty years. In European Russia, from what we can make out, infant mortality (that is, death in the first year) claimed about one child in four, and in Russia’s Asian hinterlands the toll was probably closer to one in three. Yet by the late 1950's the average Soviet citizen could expect to live 68.7 years: longer than his American counterpart, who had begun the century with a seventeen-year lead. By 1960 the Soviet infant mortality rate, higher than any in Europe as late as the Twenties, was lower than that of Italy, Austria, or East Germany, and seemed sure to undercut such nations as Belgium and West Germany any year.</blockquote>He even notes that these achievements made socialism seem nearly unbeatable:<blockquote>In the face of these and other equally impressive material accomplishments, Soviet claims about the superiority of their “socialist” system, its relevance to the poor countries, and the inevitability of its triumph over the capitalist order were not easily refuted.</blockquote>While health conditions did start to decline after the introduction of revisionist policies in the mid-60's (this will be discussed in more detail in part three), the healthcare achievements of the socialist system remain unimpeachable.

=== Educational Conditions ===
In the Soviet Union in 1919 at the eighth congress of the Communist Party the fundamentals for socialist education were being laid down.

- All schools of general education were made public; private schools were outlawed

- Education was to become free of charge

- Common education for both sexes were to be implemented

- The church were to be separated from education and the state; religious ceremonies and

education in religious dogmas were outlawed

- Physical punishment was to be outlawed

- All nationalities were given the right to be educated in their own mother tongue (The Soviet

Union housed many peoples, cultures and languages that before were only educated in

Russian.)

- Admission requirements were changed so working people could also study

An enormous battle was fought against illiteracy, which led to all citizens of the Soviet Union being able to read and write in 1959. Education was free and accessible, where the interests of the working and poor peasant population counted the most. There was a demand for adult education where adults could keep on working next to studying. Because of this higher education, institutions were founded where people could study in the evening and where attending was less important.

Students were granted study allowances and housing if they had to move from another town/village. People that worked besides studying were given an adjusted work schedule with less working hours and more free time for studying.

In 1975, 856 higher education institutions existed, which consisted of 65 universities that educated 4,9 million students.

At higher education institutions sport clubs, theatre groups, music bands etc. were founded. The Soviet students were actively involved with international youth and student movements.

In 1913, the Russian Empire housed 11.600 scientists; in 1975, this number was multiplied by a hundred. This year, 1⁄4 of all humankind’s scientists were from the Soviet Union.

All students, regardless of their study, were educated in philosophy, political economy, history. Study programs were made with the goal of a broad, general, scientific education in addition to deeper knowledge of the concrete study that was chosen.

One of the characteristics of Soviet education was the combination of education and productive labour.

Besides lectures and tutorials/seminars, practical experience at the workplace was embedded in the curriculum. The first two years of education were concentrated on general education with lectures, tutorials and papers. The final years would focus on the specialization of the student. From the third year on a big part, 30-40% was devoted to practical experience. These were internships at labs, hospitals, factories, scientific institutions and government institutions, depending on the study.

During the whole internship, there was educational coaching; theoretical questions were being discussed based on the practical labour of the student.

In the last year, there would be an internship that was compatible with the specific work field of the student. The internship would last to a year, depending on the specialization. In the whole period, the internees would receive the wage that normal workers would get in the same position.

In the making of study schedules free time of the students were taking into account so there would be enough time next to studying for other activities.

Studying was completely free of charge. The Soviet student did not have to pay anything for lectures, practicums, books or other materials they needed.

The vast majority (more than 80%) of students received a study allowance that would allow cover their needs so they would not burden their families. The allowance was 25% higher for students with high grades and 15% higher for students that were sent by companies and state farms. Not only didn’t the Soviet student have to pay to study, he or she was paid to study. All higher education institutions had their own student housing. The ones that studied outside of the town or village where their family’s lives were housed in these student houses. The price they paid for these houses was 7% of the allowance they received. In the Soviet Union it was forbidden that renting a house cost more than 10% of someone’s income. Even though the amount of students would rise, they would always be housed because of the social and economic planning.

Students receive discounts at restaurants or other food related places.

During their whole study, students were granted free health and dental care.

Students had free access to gyms, sports fields etc., and to cultural activities where they would receive the necessary good like musical instruments.

For example: Energy Technology Institute in Moscow that was more or less as big as a small town. In 1959, the institute housed 16 accommodations for 6.000 people, shops, dining areas, swimming pools, gyms, sport fields, a centre for preventive health care, a polyclinic and a healthcare centre with 250 beds.

Every university had leisure parks where students could take holidays. In the seventies, every student in the Soviet Union had the right to 12 days of vacation in such a leisure place, including food, for which they paid only 7 rubble.

There were special measures for young families: they would receive a higher allowance and mothers could study a year longer than normal students could. Free nurseries were available for children of students and for higher education institution workers.

Students did not have to have a job to pay for their studies. Everything they needed was provided by the state. However, thousands of workers and others could or wanted to study. Because of this, measures were taken to educate through evening studying or studying by distance. Their work hours were cut, without receiving less salary. The first years they would get a month of extra free time, and in the last years, they would receive an additional 10 days (40 in total). Depending on the expertise, they would be given free time for practical classes and exams. For writing their thesis, working people would receive four months of free time. During all this free time, they would get a salary. In the last 10 months of their thesis, they would get one day off per week, which would be paid half of the normal wage.

Graduates did not have to look for work after studying. Every education institution consisted of a special committee that was made up of representatives from the ministry that were responsible for the work field in which the institution would educate in. The committee also existed out of representatives of the institution itself and representatives of students. The ministries would collect information about the demand of workers in various companies. This information would be given to the education institutions. Most of the time there were more free job positions than the amount of graduates. The committee I mentioned earlier would examine the free job positions. They would check the specific needs of the position but also the interests and qualities of a student. Worth mentioning is that no student would be assigned to a job without his permission. Most of the time it was possible to choose from different positions that were available after information was shared about the work itself, the salary etc. Six months before graduating, students would know in which positions they would get a job, and were given the opportunity to prepare for the responsibilities that came with this position.

The graduated student had to work at least three years at the position he was assigned to after graduating. This was an obligation towards the state that provided free education.

== Workers' Control and Democracy in the Soviet Union ==
One of the most common allegations leveled against the USSR (and socialist states in general) by left-anticommunists is that it was not "real socialism," because the workers did not have direct control over production. This claim may be found in the writings of Noam Chomsky, Murray Bookchin, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and numerous other anti-Soviet leftists. It is claimed that the indisputable gains made by the working class in socialist states ([https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/B2TP-3R5M-Q7UP-DUA2 such as vast improvements to their health and welfare]) are irrelevant, because these revolutions were "bureaucratic," and therefore, illegitimate.

The goal of this post is to demonstrate that, in point of fact, the Soviet working class ''did'' have a degree of workers' control, which successfully gave Soviet workers far more rights and influence than their capitalist counterparts.

=== Workers' Control in the Soviet Workplace ===
When discussing this topic, it is helpful to start at the level of the individual workplace. [https://www.docdroid.net/t9gG4jQ/thurston-robert-reassessing-the-history-of-soviet-workers-opportunities-to-criticize-and-participate-in-decision-making-pdf Professor Robert Thurston (Miami University at Ohio)] states that "at the lower levels of society, in day-to-day affairs and the implementation of policy, [the Soviet system] was participatory." He notes that workers were frequently encouraged to take part in decision making:<blockquote>The regime regularly urged its people to criticize local conditions and their leaders, at least below a certain exalted level. For example, in March 1937 Stalin emphasized the importance of the party's 'ties to the masses'. To maintain them, it was necessary 'to listen carefully to the voice of the masses, to the voice of rank and file members of the party, to the voice of so-called "little people," to the voice of ordinary folk.'</blockquote>These were not empty words or cheap propaganda; while there were limits to criticism, Professor Thurston notes that "such bounds allowed a great deal that was deeply significant to workers, including some aspects of production norms, pay rates and classifications, safety on the job, housing, and treatment by managers." The workers had a voice in various official bodies, and they generally had their demands met:<blockquote>The Commissariat of Justice also heard and responded to workers' appeals. In August 1935 the Saratov city prosecutor reported that of 118 cases regarding pay recently handled by his office, 90, or 73.6 percent, had been resolved in favor of workers.</blockquote>Workers also took part in direct oversight of managers:<blockquote>Workers participated by the hundreds of thousands in special inspectorates, commissions, and brigades which checked the work of managers and institutions. These agencies sometimes wielded significant power.</blockquote>The rights of Soviet workers were often noted in later accounts of the socialist era:<blockquote>One emigre recalled that his stepmother, a factory worker, 'often scolded the boss,' and also complained about living conditions, but was never arrested. John Scott, an American employed for years in the late 1930's as a welder in Magnitogorsk, attended a meeting at a Moscow factory in 1940 where workers were able to 'criticize the plant director, make suggestions as to how to increase production, increase quality, and lower costs.'</blockquote>These facts are all the more impressive when we recall the dismal state of workers' rights in the capitalist nations at this time:<blockquote>This occurred at a time when American workers in particular were struggling for basic union recognition, which even when won did not provide much formal influence at the work place.</blockquote>Thurston makes the following observation:<blockquote>Far from basing its rule on the negative means of coercion, the Soviet regime in the late 1930's fostered a limited but positive political role for the populace... Earlier concepts of the Soviet state require rethinking: the workers who ousted managers, achieved the imprisonment of their targets, and won reinstatement at factories did so through organizations which constituted part of the state apparatus and wielded state powers.</blockquote>He also notes that "no sharp division between state and society existed," though different levels of the state wielded different powers.

In short, while the Soviet Union did have authoritarian elements (as was inevitable given the conditions; the USSR had been ravaged by civil war, and invaded by multiple capitalist nations), there was also a strong element of workers' control, giving the USSR a legitimate claim to being a workers' state.

=== Political Participation of the Workers ===
Working people did not only have the right to take part in decision-making at the workplace; they also had a voice in national policy decisions. [http://jpsa-web.org/eibun_zassi/data/pdf/JPSA_Kawamoto_final_July_9_2014.pdf Professor Kazuko Kawamoto (Hitotsubashi University)] states that the USSR had "a more democratic face than what is usually imagined, especially among Western people." As they put it:<blockquote>The Soviet regime was democratic in its own sense of the word... participation through sending letters and attending discussions gave self-government a certain reality and helped to legitimize the Soviet regime. Therefore, listening to the people was an important obligation for the authorities... the government encouraged people to send letters to the authorities and actively used the all-people’s discussions.</blockquote>These all-people's discussions existed from the early days of the Soviet Union, and they had great significance (contrary to the assumptions of Western scholars):<blockquote>Although the first all-people’s discussion was conducted with the approval of the 1936 Stalin constitution on the grounds that the former ruling classes no longer existed, publication and public discussion of bills had been common before the constitution in the name of participation of the masses. Western scholars usually took this as an attempt to put a face of legitimacy on the process, understanding the discussions to be a mere formality. However, that is not the case with the Principles argued here. The discussions were neither a disguise nor a mere formality.</blockquote>Legislators took direct part in these meetings, altering proposed bills in accordance with popular opinion. Professor Kawamoto states that " it is worth pointing out that members of the subcommittee actively participated in the discussion, rewriting the draft at the same time."

It is also noted that Soviet citizens "believed that they were entitled to demand policy changes, and the draft writers, including specialists, officials, and deputies, felt obliged to respond to those demands." The process of gathering public opinion was intensive enough that it often slowed down the process of legislation:<blockquote>Regarding the process of creating the Principles, direct participation worked largely as expected in the ideology of Soviet democracy, although it took many years.</blockquote>As Professor Kawamoto says, "the reason why it took so long was deeply rooted in the ideas of Soviet democracy." Contrast this with bourgeois democracy, [https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf where legislators typically disregard the opinion of the masses.] This may speed up the legislative process, but it results in extremely high levels of popular discontent.

In addition to the aforementioned means of popular participation, Soviet officials also traveled throughout the nation to gather information on popular opinion. Using the development of Soviet family law as an example, Professor Kawamoto states:<blockquote>The draft makers were not only passive recipients of letters but also traveled throughout the Soviet Union to listen to the people. When the work in the Commissions of Legislative Proposals was reaching its end, members of the subcommittee and officials working for them visited several union republics from April to June 1962 to research the practice of family law and collect opinions on important standards in the draft of the Principles... After these research trips, the commission finished the draft and presented it to the Central Committee of the Party in July.</blockquote>While Soviet democracy was not without its flaws (as mentioned, the process was often rather slow, and there were limits to the extent of criticism), it would be highly inaccurate to describe the USSR as a "totalitarian" society, with no democratic structures; on the contrary, the USSR did practice its own form of democracy, and it did so rather effectively.

== The Question of Stalin ==
Joseph Stalin was the principal architect of the socialist period in the USSR. As a result, he has been the victim of perhaps the most extensive smear campaign in modern history. Claims that he killed tens of millions of people, jailed victims without cause, and deliberately starved Ukrainian peasants are only some of the propaganda charges leveled against him. As such, it is the duty of any informed socialist to combat this propaganda.

Firstly, we must remember the extensive achievements discussed above, which vastly improved life for hundreds of millions of people. These achievements were the result of the socialist system, built primarily under Joseph Stalin. This section will deal with Stalin's successes and failures, correct various misconceptions and falsehoods surrounding him, and place the man in his proper historical context.

It should also be said, this discussion will not gloss over and/or ignore Stalin's various flaws and misdoings; "Stalin did nothing wrong" is a good meme, but it's a bad analysis.

=== The Soviet Economy Under Stalin ===
It is commonly alleged that Stalin presided over a period of economic failure in the USSR, due to his insistence upon industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. However, more recent research has painted a far more positive picture.

According to Professor Robert Allen:<blockquote>The Soviet economy performed well... Planning led to high rates of capital accumulation, rapid GDP growth, and rising per capita consumption even in the 1930's. [...] The expansion of heavy industry and the use of output targets and soft-budgets to direct firms were appropriate to the conditions of the 1930's, they were adopted quickly, and they led to rapid growth of investment and consumption.</blockquote>Professor Elizabeth Brainerd refers to Soviet growth rates as "impressive," noting that they "promoted the rapid industrialization of the USSR, particularly in the decades from the 1930's to the 1960's." She also states:<blockquote>Both Western and Soviet estimates of GNP growth in the Soviet Union indicate that GNP per capita grew in every decade in the postwar era, at times far surpassing the growth rates of the developed western economies.</blockquote>Even still, it is often claimed that this growth did not improve the standard of living for the Soviet people. However, more recent research has also shown this to be false.

According to Professor Allen:<blockquote>While investment certainly increased rapidly, recent research shows that the standard of living also increased briskly. [...] Calories are the most basic dimension of the standard of living, and their consumption was higher in the late 1930's than in the 1920's. [...] There has been no debate that ‘collective consumption’ (principally education and health services) rose sharply, but the standard view was that private consumption declined. Recent research, however, calls that conclusion into question... Consumption per head rose about one quarter between 1928 and the late 1930's.</blockquote>According to Professor Brainerd:<blockquote>The conventional measures of GNP growth and household consumption indicate a long, uninterrupted upward climb in the Soviet standard of living from 1928 to 1985; even Western estimates of these measures support this view, albeit at a slower rate of growth than the Soviet measures.</blockquote>While the economy is not the main purpose of this discussion, it should be acknowledged that under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union experienced rapid economic growth, and a significant increase in the population's standard of living.

=== The Great Purge ===
The purges of the late-1930's are a definite black mark on the legacy of Soviet socialism; this much cannot be denied. That being said, they have been the subject of decades-worth of unjustified and intolerable distortions and exaggerations by bourgeois academics, necessitating a thorough reply.

Firstly, let us establish the facts of how many people actually died in the purges. While Westerners are often treated to numbers ranging from 20 to 50 million, the true figures (while bad enough in their own right) are nowhere near that high. [http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/GTY-Penal_System.pdf According to Professor J. Arch Getty:]<blockquote>From 1921 to Stalin's death, in 1953, around 800,000 people were sentenced to death and shot, 85 percent of them in the years of the Great Terror of 1937-1938. From 1934 to Stalin's death, more than a million perished in the gulag camps.</blockquote>To these figures must be added an important qualification: contrary to popular opinion, the vast majority of gulag inmates were not innocent political prisoners. Professor Getty notes that those convicted of "counterrevolutionary crimes" made up between 12 and 33 percent (depending on the year) of the gulag population, with the rest having been convicted of ordinary crimes. He also rejects the common claim that non-Russian nationalities were disproportionately targeted. To quote from his article in the ''American Historical Review:''<blockquote>The long-awaited archival evidence on repression in the period of the Great Purges shows that the levels of arrests, political prisoners, executions, and general camp populations tend to confirm the orders of magnitude indicated by those labeled as "revisionists" and mocked by those proposing high estimates... inferences that the terror fell particularly hard on non-Russian nationalities are not borne out by the camp population data from the 1930's. The frequent assertion that most of the camp prisoners were 'political' also seems not to be true.</blockquote>In addition, the gulags were not death camps like those of the Nazis; they were prisons, albeit harsh ones. Even noted anti-communist scholars (such as those who worked on the infamous ''Black Book of Communism'') have admitted this. To quote again from Professor Getty:<blockquote>Stalin's camps were different from Hitler's. Tens of thousands of prisoners were released every year upon completion of their sentences. We now know that before World War II more inmates escaped annually from the Soviet camps than died there. [...] Werth, a well-regarded French specialist on the Soviet Union whose sections in the ''Black Book'' on the Soviet Communists are sober and damning, told ''Le Monde,'' "Death camps did not exist in the Soviet Union."</blockquote>It must also be noted that, contrary to the popular conception of Stalin's USSR as a place of "total terror" (to quote Hannah Arendt), the majority of the population did not feel threatened by the purges. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bw0h Referring to the time of the Great Purge, Professor Robert Thurston notes] that "my evidence suggests that widespread fear did not exist in the case at hand." He also notes that the Great Purge was an exceptional occurrence, which cannot be used to characterize the Stalinist-era as a whole:<blockquote>I will not simply imply but will state outright that the ''Ezhovshchina'' [Great Purge] was an aberration. Torture was uncommon until August 1937, when it became the norm; it ended abruptly with Beria's rise to head of the NKVD in late 1938. Mass arrests followed the same pattern... A campaign for more regular, fair, and systemic judicial procedures that began in 1933-1934 was interrupted and overwhelmed by the Terror in 1937. It resumed in the spring of 1938, more strongly and effectively than before. Thus more than one trend was broken by the ''Ezhovshchina'', only to reappear after it.</blockquote>He also points out that some arrests which took place during the Great Purge were based on previously-ignored (yet arguably still legitimate) crimes against the Soviet state, such as fighting with the reactionary forces during the Civil War:<blockquote>People were suddenly arrested in 1937 for things that had happened many years earlier but had been ignored since, for example, serving in a White army.</blockquote>The question arises: why arrest former White Army soldiers, among others? The answer lies in the general fear of counterrevolution which pervaded the party at this time. [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163498 According to Professor James Harris:]<blockquote>By the mid-1930's, the rise of the Nazis in Germany and the militarists in Japan, both stridently anti-communist, posed a very real threat to the USSR. War was then on the horizon, and Stalin felt he had no choice but to take preemptive action against what he saw as a potential fifth column – a group that would undermine the larger collective.</blockquote>Remember that since the moment of its founding (still a recent event, at this time), the Soviet Union had been invaded by multiple capitalist powers (including the United States) in the early-1920's, and had also been subject to espionage and internal sabotage. Combined with the looming threat of war with an increasingly powerful Nazi Germany, it is hardly surprising that these factors came together to form an atmosphere of paranoia, which lent itself to the sort of violent excess seen during the Purge. This coincides with Professor Thurston's interpretation of the events, from his book ''Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia:''<blockquote>...between 1934 and 1936 police and court practice relaxed significantly. Then a series of events, together with the tense international situation and memories of real enemy activity during the savage Russian Civil War, combined to push leaders and people into a hysterical hunt for perceived 'wreckers.' After late 1938, however, the police and courts became dramatically milder.</blockquote>This general atmosphere of fear (not of the purges, but of external and internal enemies) is most likely why the majority of the Soviet people seemed to support the government's actions during the Purge period. According to Professor Thurston:<blockquote>The various reactions to arrest cataloged above suggest that general fear did not exist in the USSR at any time in the late 1930's... People who remained at liberty often felt that some event in the backgrounds of the detained individuals justified their arrests. The sense that anyone could be next, the underpinning of theoretical systems of terror, rarely appears.</blockquote>Overall, perhaps the most succinct summary of this issue is the one provided in Professor Thurston's book, in which he states:<blockquote>There was never a long period of Stalinism without a serious foreign threat, major internal dislocation, or both, which makes identifying its true nature impossible.</blockquote>As Marxists, we should be well aware that material conditions shape ideological and political structures. The savagery of the Russian Civil War, the multiple invasions from capitalist powers, and the increasing threat of a war against fascism make the paranoid atmosphere of the late-1930's understandable, if not condonable; yet even while we discuss the genuine causes of the Purge, and reject the hysterical anti-communist mud-throwing of the Cold Warriors, we must still acknowledge the black mark that the Purge leaves on Stalin's legacy.

=== The Ukrainian Famine ("Holodomor") ===
Perhaps the most pernicious accusation against Stalin is that he orchestrated the dreadful famine of the early-1930's in order to squash a Ukrainian nationalist revolt. This despicable slander (which is peddled largely by Ukrainian nationalist and neo-fascist groups) is easily refuted by examining the historical consensus. The following quotes are compiled in an article from the ''Village Voice'', cited below.

Alexander Dallin of Stanford University writes:<blockquote>There is no evidence it was intentionally directed against Ukrainians... that would be totally out of keeping with what we know -- it makes no sense.</blockquote>Moshe Lewin of the University of Pennsylvania stated:<blockquote>This is crap, rubbish... I am an anti-Stalinist, but I don't see how this [genocide] campaign adds to our knowledge. It's adding horrors, adding horrors, until it becomes a pathology.</blockquote>Lynne Viola of the University of Toronto writes:<blockquote>I absolutely reject it... Why in god's name would this paranoid government consciously produce a famine when they were terrified of war [with Germany]?</blockquote>Mark Tauger, Professor of History at West Virginia University (reviewing work by Stephen Wheatcroft and R.W. Davies) has this to say:<blockquote>Popular media and most historians for decades have described the great famine that struck most of the USSR in the early 1930s as “man-made,” very often even a “genocide” that Stalin perpetrated intentionally against Ukrainians and sometimes other national groups to destroy them as nations... This perspective, however, is wrong. The famine that took place was not limited to Ukraine or even to rural areas of the USSR, it was not fundamentally or exclusively man-made, and it was far from the intention of Stalin and others in the Soviet leadership to create such as disaster. A small but growing literature relying on new archival documents and a critical approach to other sources has shown the flaws in the “genocide” or “intentionalist” interpretation of the famine and has developed an alternative interpretation.</blockquote>More recent research has discovered natural causes for the Ukrainian famine. Tauger notes:<blockquote>...the USSR experienced an unusual environmental disaster in 1932: extremely wet and humid weather that gave rise to severe plant disease infestations, especially rust. Ukraine had double or triple the normal rainfall in 1932. Both the weather conditions and the rust spread from Eastern Europe, as plant pathologists at the time documented. Soviet plant pathologists in particular estimated that rust and other fungal diseases reduced the potential harvest in 1932 by almost nine million tons, which is the largest documented harvest loss from any single cause in Soviet history.</blockquote>It should be noted that this does not excuse the Soviet state from any and all responsibility for the suffering that took place; one could accuse the government of insufficiently rapid response, and note that initial reports were often downplayed to avoid rocking the boat. But it is clear that the famine was not deliberate, was not a genocide, and (to quote Tauger) "was not fundamentally or exclusively man-made."

=== Conclusion ===
In short, Stalin was an extraordinarily complex man. His legacy is far too nuanced to be summed-up in catchphrases like "Stalin was worse than Hitler," or "Stalin did nothing wrong." He was a flawed leader, who managed some enormous achievements (rapid industrial and economic growth, improvements to the standard of living, leading the USSR to victory over Nazism), while also making some enormous mistakes (the paranoia of the purges, the errors of the famine, the rolling-back of progressive social policies).

We should not respond to bourgeois propaganda by insisting (as some well-meaning yet mistaken comrades have done) that every single misdeed of Stalin is a lie; rather, we should place them into proper historical context, along with his various achievements. This is the correct way for Marxists to analyze the world: with a firm, well-grounded materialist critique, yielding no ground to hero worship, or to a fictitious "great man" theory of history. Recall what Fidel Castro said on the matter:<blockquote>I believe Stalin made big mistakes but also showed great wisdom. In my opinion, blaming Stalin for everything that occurred in the Soviet Union would be historical simplism, because no man by himself could have created certain conditions. It would be the same as giving Stalin all the credit for what the USSR once was. That is impossible! I believe that the efforts of millions and millions of heroic people contributed to the USSR's development and to its relevant role in the world in favor of hundreds of millions of people. [...] I think there should be an impartial analysis of Stalin. Blaming him for everything that happened would be historical simplism.</blockquote>Stalin was a great proletarian revolutionary, and yet he was also a highly flawed leader. Do not be ashamed of this legacy, comrades; rather, recall that in all things, there is contradiction.

== Consequences of the Collapse of the Soviet Union ==

=== Russia/Russian Soviet Socialist Republic ===

* 30,000 Medium to large scale factories in 1990 (before the collapse). That number is reduced down to 5000.
* GDP of 1996 was 63.1% of the 1991 GDP keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.
* Number of hospitals has halved from 10700 to 5400.
* Similarly, the number of schools has dropped from almost 70,000 to 42,600.
* In just 17 years, from 2000-2017 26700,000,000,000 rubles have been illegally stolen from the people outside of Russia.
* At least Russia is number one at some things like first at the number of Millionaires.
* In terms of billionaires they are in 4th place.
* 22,000,000 Russians are in poverty
* 86% of Russians struggle to buy the most basic things
* 23,000 towns, villages and cities have been abandoned in the last 20 years
* Because of Capitalism and the massive hit we took after the collapse of the USSR including the horrible living conditions and poverty that broke out the Russian population lost 30 Million in terms of demographics(More than in ww2)

=== Kazakhstan/Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic ===

* only from 1981-1986 - 400 enterprises/factories were built, in 1983 we had more than 9 million cattle, 36 million sheep and supplied meat to almost all Soviet Republics.
* engineering and metalworking enterprises/factories fell from 2000 to 100
* machine building in the total industrial production fell from 16% to 3% (mostly oil and gas now)
* light industry - 15% fell to 0.6%, from 1990-2006 (all products are imported)
* refined 18 million tons of oil, this number fell to 13.7 million tons (+ imported from Russia)
* meat exports 184.5 thousand tons fell to 0.3 thousand tons(we import meat now)
* compound feed production 4 million tons fell to 400 thousand tons
* 2006 → 2009, 540 rural settlements liquidated/abandoned
* education expenditure 8% fell to 3% = shortage of qualified personnel + it's not always free.
* Free medical care will soon be abolished too
* GDP of 1996 was only 69.3% of the 1991 Soviet GDP, keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.

=== Ukraine/Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ===
Ukraine seemed like it would become the next European power. It had 3 military districts left over from the USSR with the best weaponry in the world including 700,000 troops as well as a nuclear arsenal of 3000 that made it the 3rd strongest country in the whole world after the US and Russia. By the time of the war in the Donbass the number of military personnel dropped down to 168,000 while selling huge quantities of Soviet weaponry.

* Scientists within the country reduced from 313 079(1990) down to 94,274 in (2017).
* Doctors within the country reduced from 227 thousand (1991) down to 187 thousand in (2016).
* nursing staff halved since the collapse of the USSR
* Electricity generation, billion kWh per year fell from 238 (1980) down to 167 (2000)
* Stone mining(Coal thousand tons per year) 197 100 (1980) down to 81 100 (2000)
* Steel production (thousand tons per year) around 48 000 (1980) down to 31 767 (2000)
* Production of tractors (thousand pieces) around 130, 000 (1980) down to 4000 (2000)
* Production of mineral fertilizers (thousand tons per year) around 4 850 (1991) down to 1 554 (2000)
* Grain Harvest (million tons per year) dropped from 51 (1990) down to 25,7 (2000)
* Around 250 planes a year were being built, that number dropped to 1-2 a year after Capitalism.
* The Ukranian GDP of 1996 was only 47.2% of the 1991 Ukranian SSR GDP, keep in mind that the economy of the USSR in 1991 was worse off than before the Perestroika period, thus the GDP of 1996 would be even smaller compared to the pre-collapse era GDP of the USSR.

=== The destruction of democracy ===

* The 1991 referendum of keeping the USSR in one way or the other gained a 78% positive vote. However, this was thrown out of the window and the USSR was torn apart nonetheless.
* In 1993 when the Parliament ie (Supreme Soveit) tried to remove Yeltsin, he ordered tanks to drive into Moscow and shoot the Parliament building. Crowds of Soviet Citizens tried to stop the attack, but were unsuccessful. Over 100 of comrades died that day. <nowiki>https://images.app.goo.gl/eqRAJBrvyDRBRFUR9</nowiki> <nowiki>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjBmtkW3Tl8&t=423s</nowiki> (live footage from the day). This allowed Yeltsin to change the constitution and increase his own power while selling Russia off to Western capital.

=== Consequences for the Soviet people ===
According to the UN Human Development Index—which measures levels of life expectancy. Commenting on the situation in the former Soviet Union after capitalist restoration, Fabre stated, “We have catastrophic falls in several countries, which often are republics of the former Soviet Union, where poverty is actually increasing. In fact poverty has tripled in the whole region”.

To sum it up for the Soviet people - “98 Russian billionaires hold more wealth than Russians combined savings” or 200 Russian oligarchs have 485 billion USD most of which come from post Soviet factories that used to be owned by the workers but were sold off at extremely low prices.

=== Effects on the rest of the world ===

* The USSR had connections with China, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Eastern Germany, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Birma, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar. As the USSR was collapsing/collapsed Socialism and Socialist organisations in all of these countries would fall apart too leaving them at the grasp of the capitalists.
* Cuba had huge economic problems as it was dependant on the USSR.
* DPRK had a huge famine in the 90’s due to the collapse of the USSR.
* Many Socialist nations around the world reverted back to the first stage of Socialism.

=== Civil wars within the USSR ===
Many love to claim that the USSR’s collapse was bloodless. This is a list of all the civil wars between Soviet countries and peoples:

* Tajikistan Civil War - 50,000 dead
* 2010 South Kyrgyzstan ethnic riots - 2000 dead
* Tajikistan Insurgency - 200 dead
* East Prigorodny Conflict - 550 dead
* First Chechen War - around 60,000 dead
* War of Dagestan - 300 dead
* Second Chechen War - around 80,000 dead
* War in Ingushetia - 900 dead
* insurgency in the North Caucasus - 4200 dead
* Nagorno-Karabakh War - 33,000 dead
* 1991–1992 South Ossetian War - 1000 dead
* Georgian Civil War - 20,000 deaths
* Russo-Georgian War - 500 dead
* Transnistria War - 1500 dead
* Euromaidan - 200 dead
* Russo-Ukrainian War - 15,000 dead

Overall - roughly 270,000 Soviet citizens have died from direct causes of the war.

== External links ==
* [[wikipedia:American_Expeditionary_Force,_Siberia|American Expeditionary Force, Siberia]] - Wikipedia
* [[wikipedia:Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)|Eastern Front (World War II)]] - Wikipedia
* [https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.507.8966&rep=rep1&type=pdf A Reassessment of the Soviet Industrial Revolution by Robert C. Allen]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25149595?seq=1 Reviewed Work: Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution, Reviewed by Simon Clarke]
* [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-95874-8_22 Declining Life Expectancy in a Highly Developed Nation: Paradox or Statistical Artifact? by Professor Reiner Dinkel]
* [http://jpsa-web.org/eibun_zassi/data/pdf/JPSA_Kawamoto_final_July_9_2014.pdf Rethinking Soviet Democracy by Kazuko Kawamoto]
* [https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page]
* [http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/GTY-Penal_System.pdf Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence by J. Arch Getty, Gabor T. Rittersporn, and Viktor N. Zemskov]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt32bw0h Yale University: Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia by Robert W. Thurston]
* [https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163498 History News Network: Historian James Harris says Russian Archives show we've misunderstood Stalin]

File:The Flag of the USSR.png

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The flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from its creation in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. The red color is representative of the 'red flag' as a revolutionary symbol of the international socialist movement. The symbol of the hammer and sickle represents the proletarian and peasant classes respectively, with a red star above representing the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Communist party

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{{Communist parties}}

A '''communist party''' is a revolutionary left-wing [[political party]] that seeks to realize the social and economic goals of [[communism]]. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''[[The Manifesto of the Communist Party]]'' (1848) by [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]]. As a [[vanguard party]], the communist party guides the political education and development of the [[Proletariat|working class (proletariat)]]. As the ruling party, the communist party exercises power through the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. [[Vladimir Lenin]] developed the idea of the communist party as the revolutionary vanguard, when [[social democracy]] in Imperial Russia was divided into ideologically opposed factions, the [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] faction ("of the majority") and the Menshevik faction ("of the minority"). To be politically effective, Lenin proposed a small vanguard party managed with [[democratic centralism]] which allowed centralized command of a disciplined cadre of professional revolutionaries. Once the policy was agreed upon, realizing political goals required every Bolshevik's total commitment to the agreed-upon policy.

There are a number of communist parties active in various countries across the world and a number that used to be active. They differ not only in method, but also in strict ideology and interpretation, although they are generally within the [[Marxist]] [[communism]] tradition.

== Officially ruling in communist states ==
In the following countries, several communist parties either lead the ruling coalition or hold monopoly on state power as defined by their respective country's constitutions.

* [[China]] – [[Chinese Communist Party|Communist Party of China]] leads the [[United Front (People's Republic of China)|United Front]]
* [[Cuba]] – [[Communist Party of Cuba]]
* [[Lao People's Democratic Republic|Laos]] – [[Lao People's Revolutionary Party]] leads the [[Lao Front for National Construction]]
* [[Democratic People's Republic of Korea|DPRK]] – [[Workers' Party of Korea]] leads the [[Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland]]
* [[Vietnam]] – [[Communist Party of Vietnam]] leads the [[Vietnamese Fatherland Front]]

Republic of Belarus

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'''Belarus''', officially the '''Republic of Belarus''', is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.

In the aftermath of the [[October Revolution|Russian Revolution in 1917]], different states arose competing for legitimacy, ultimately ending in the rise of the Byelorussian SSR, which became a founding constituent republic of the [[Soviet Union]] in 1922.

After the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], Belarus declared independence and sought to maintain its socialist system under president [[Alexander Lukashenko]].

== 2020 Election & Colour Revolution Attempt ==
[[File:International Reactions to 2020 Belarus Election.svg|alt=Imperialist Western countries criticized the election, while the socialist and anti-imperialist world congratulated the elected president |thumb|217x217px|Green: Congratulatory remarks to Lukashenko

Red: Expressions of concern

Blue: Belarus ]]
Following the 2020 presidential election where president Lukashenko was re-elected, Western Imperialist observers and their lapdogs criticized the results of the election, while promoting the anti-Lukashenko protestors in what appeared to be a US NGO-supported colour revolution.<ref>https://dissidentvoice.org/2020/08/belarus-a-color-revolution-of-a-different-shade/</ref><ref>https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/08/06/a-color-revolution-in-belarus-not-yet-a71065</ref><ref>https://www.greanvillepost.com/2020/08/15/¶-belarus-this-color-revolution-is-already-dead-the-union-state-has-killed-it/</ref>

== References ==

Hammer and sickle

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The hammer and sickle (Unicode: "☭") is a symbol meant to represent [[Proletariat|proletarian]] [[solidarity]] – a union between the [[peasantry]] and [[Proletariat|working-class]]. It was first adopted during the [[October Revolution|Russian Revolution]], the hammer representing the workers and the sickle representing the peasants.[https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Union-of-Soviet-Socialist-Republics [1<nowiki>]</nowiki>]

== Variations ==
Different parties and countries have adapted the hammer and sickle to their conditions, including:

===== Hammer, sickle, gear =====
* [[Communist Party USA]]

===== Hammer, sickle, brush =====
* [[Workers' Party of Korea]]

===== Hammer, gear =====
* [[Communist Party of Turkey]]

===== Gear, machete =====
* [[Angola]]

Ideology of the Communist Party of China

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TeeOS: connected the 'russian revolution' link to the october revolution page

The '''ideology of the Communist Party of China''' has undergone dramatic changes throughout the years, especially during [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s leadership and now [[Xi Jinping]]'s leadership. While some commentators have stated that the [[Communist Party of China]] (CPC) lacks a coherent ideology, the CPC still identifies as a [[Communism|communist]] party.

== Ideology ==

== Role of Ideology ==

=== Ideals and Convictions ===
In the article "Revolutionary Ideals are Higher than Heaven-Studying" (published in 2013), a person writing under the pen name "Autumn Stone", supports CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping's policy of strengthening the ideological conviction of party cadres, since (as the Leninist mantra goes) ideological unity leads to party unity.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref> Xi Jinping believes that wavering conviction in the party's ideals leads to increased corruption and unwanted behaviour.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref>

In 2006, at the 16th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, the CPC leadership under General Secretary Hu Jintao expressed the need to create a new value system, referred to as the [[Core Socialist Values|socialist core value system]]. In his speech, entitled "Resolution on Major Issues Concerning the Building of a Socialist Harmonious Society", to the 16th Plenary Session Hu Jintao stated;

== Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought ==
[[Marxism-leninism|Marxism–Leninism]] was the first official ideology of the Communist Party of China, and is a combination of [[Marxism|classical Marxism]] (the works of [[Marx|Karl Marx]] and [[Engels|Friedrich Engels]]) and [[Leninism]] (the thoughts of [[Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]]). According to the CPC, "Marxism–Leninism reveals the [[Historical materialism|universal laws governing the development of history of human society]]." To the CPC, Marxism–Leninism provides a vision of the contradictions in capitalist society and of the inevitability of a future socialist and communist societies. Marx and Engels first created the theory behind Marxist party building; Lenin developed it in practice before, during and after the [[October Revolution|Russian Revolution of 1917]]. Lenin's biggest achievement came in party-building, through concepts such as the [[vanguard party]] of the working class and [[democratic centralism]]. According to the ''[[People's Daily]]'', [[Maoism|Mao Zedong Thought]] "is Marxism–Leninism applied and developed in China".

Mao Zedong Thought was conceived not only by [[Chairman of the Communist Party of China|CPC Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]], but by leading party officials. According to [[Xinhua]], Mao Zedong Thought is "an integration of the universal truth of Marxism–Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution." Currently, the CPC interprets the essence of Mao Zedong Thought as "[[Seeking truth from facts]]": "we must proceed from reality and put theory into practice in everything. In other words, we must integrate the universal theory of Marxism–Leninism with China's specific conditions."

While western observers tend to agree that the CPC has rejected orthodox Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CPC itself disagrees. Some Western commentators also talk about a "crisis of ideology" within the party; they believe that the CPC has rejected communism. Wang Xuedong, the Director of the Institute of World Socialism, said in response, "We know there are those abroad who think we have a 'crisis of ideology,' but we do not agree." According to former CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin, the CPC "must never discard Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought." He said that "if we did, we would lose our foundation." He further noted that Marxism in general "like any science, needs to change as time and circumstances advance." Certain groups argue that Jiang Zemin ended the CPC's formal commitment to Marxism with the introduction of the ideological theory, the Three Represents. However, party theorist Leng Rong disagrees, claiming that "President Jiang rid the Party of the ideological obstacles to different kinds of ownership [...] He did not give up Marxism or socialism. He strengthened the Party by providing a modern understanding of Marxism and socialism—which is why we talk about a 'socialist market economy' with Chinese characteristics." Marxism in its core is, according to Jiang Zemin, methodology and the [[Pure communism|goal of a future, classless society]], not analyses of class and of the contradictions between different classes.

Karl Marx argued that society went through different stages of development, and believed that the capitalist mode of production was the third stage. The stages were: ancient, based mostly on [[slavery]]; [[Feudalism|feudal]]; capitalist; [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialist]]; and the communist mode of production. The attainment of true "communism" is described as the CPC's and China's "ultimate goal". While the CPC claims that China is in the [[primary stage of socialism]], party theorists argue that the current development stage "looks a lot like capitalism". Alternately, certain party theorists argue that "capitalism is the early or first stage of communism." In official pronouncements, the primary stage of socialism is predicted to last about 100 years, after which China will reach another developmental stage. Some have dismissed the concept of a primary stage of socialism as intellectual cynicism. According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a China analyst, "When I first heard this rationale, I thought it more comic than clever—a wry caricature of hack propagandists leaked by intellectual cynics. But the 100-year horizon comes from serious political theorists".

== Rationale for the reforms and Deng Xiaoping Theory ==
While it has been argued by Westerners that the reforms introduced by the CPC under Deng were a rejection of the party's Marxist heritage and ideology, the CPC does not view it as such. The rationale behind the reforms was that the [[productive forces]] of China lagged behind the advanced culture and ideology developed by the party-state. In 1986, to end this deficiency, the party came to the conclusion that the main contradiction in Chinese society was that between the backward productive forces and the advanced culture and ideology of China.

=== The creation of a "Socialist market economy" ===
The term "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was added to the General Program of the party's constitution at the 12th National Congress, without a definition of the term. At the 13th National Congress, held in 1987, Zhao Ziyang, the CPC General Secretary, claimed that socialism with Chinese characteristics was the "integration of the fundamental tenets of Marxism with the modernization drive in China" and was "[[scientific socialism]] rooted in the realities of present-day China".By this time the CPC believed that China was in the [[primary stage of socialism]], and therefore needed market relations to develop into a socialist society. Two years earlier, Su had tried to internationalize the term "primary stage of socialism" by claiming that socialism contained three different production phases. China was currently in the first phase, while the Soviet Union and the remaining [[Eastern Bloc]] countries were in the second phase. Because China was in the primary stage of socialism, Zhao argued that in "[China] for a long time to come, we shall develop various sectors of the economy, always ensuring the dominant position of the public sector". Further, some individuals should be allowed to become rich "before the objective of common prosperity [pure communism] is achieved". Lastly, during the primary stage of socialism, planning would no longer be the primary means of organization of the economy. Upon hearing this remark, [[Chen Yun]], a cautious reformer and the second-most powerful politician in China, walked out of the meeting.

== Three Represents ==
The term ″Three Represents″ was first used in 2000 by Jiang Zemin in a trip to [[Guangdong|Guangdong province]]. From then until its inclusion in the party's constitution at the [[16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China|16th National Congress]], the Three Represents became a constant theme for Jiang Zemin.

The three constituent parts mentioned in the quote above are as follows:

# "advanced productive forces", referring to economic production;
# "progressive course of China's advanced culture", referring to cultural development;
# and "the fundamental interests of the majority", referring to political consensus.

== Scientific Outlook on Development ==
The 3rd plenum of the [[16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China|16th Central Committee]] conceived and formulated the ideology of Scientific Outlook on Development.

== Xi Jinping Thought ==

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era consists of a 14-point basic policy, as follows:

# Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
# The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
# The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
# Adopting new development ideas based on science and for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
# Following "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with "people as the masters of the country".
# Governing China with the rule of law.
# "Practise socialist core values", including [[Marxism-Leninism]], [[Communism]] and "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
# "Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development".
# Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".
# Strengthen national security.
# The Communist Party of China should have "absolute leadership over" China's People's Liberation Army.
# Promoting the one country, two systems system for Hong Kong and Macau with a future of "complete national reunification"; and to follow the One-China policy and 1992 Consensus for Taiwan.
# Establish a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a "peaceful international environment".
# Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.

== Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China ==
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, in which he made clear the continued importance that the CPC places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.

== Views on capitalism ==
The CPC does not believe that it has abandoned Marxism. The party views the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist. They insist that socialism, on the basis of [[historical materialism]], will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist globalization occurring, the party has returned to the writings of [[Marx|Karl Marx]].

== Concepts ==

=== People's Democratic Dictatorship ===
In 2007, Hu Jintao noted in a speech that "people's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism ... without democracy there can be no socialism, and there can be no socialist modernization." To be clear, democracy, in the CPC's understanding of the word, does not mean democracy as practiced in liberal democracies. Instead it means the creation of a more balanced, equal society, "with socialism bringing about social justice.

==== People's democracy versus parliamentary democracy ====
Yang states that people's democracy, unlike parliamentary democracy, realises the principle of "popular sovereignty". The basis for the argument is that in a parliamentary democracy, a system in which ordinary people can vote for different parties, the parties available are in the pockets of the bourgeoisie.

Russian revolution of 1917

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The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, or simply the Russian Revolution) was a revolution in the Russian Empire which took place after the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] earlier that year during the [[February Revolution]]. Led by the [[Bolshevik Party]] under the leadership of [[Vladimir Lenin]], it was the first declared socialist revolution of the 20th century, with the participation of workers, peasants and soldiers through legislative and executive bodies known as [[Soviets]]. Brought on by the failure of the [[Russian Provisional Government]] to exit [[World War I]], and facilitated by the Bolshevik's calls among the people for peace, land, and bread, a situation of [[dual power]] was created which led to the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR). Several benefits to the people ushered in by the revolution included a newfound equality of treatment between men and women, and an improved system of education and culture in the native languages for the different nations comprising Russia. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

Russian revolution of 1917

2021-01-27T15:00:04Z

TeeOS: improved on the wording, added some links to other pages, and will try to edit more later today

The '''October Revolution''' (also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, or simply the Russian Revolution) was a revolution in the Russian Empire which took place after the abdication of [[Tsar Nicholas II]] earlier that year during the [[February Revolution]]. Led by the [[Bolshevik Party]] under the leadership of [[Vladimir Lenin]], it was the first declared socialist revolution of the 20th century, with the participation of workers, peasants and soldiers through legislative and executive bodies known as [[Soviets]]. Brought on by the failure of the [[Russian Provisional Government]] to exit [[World War I]], and facilitated by the Bolshevik's calls among the people for peace, land, and bread, a situation of dual power was created which led to the overthrow of the Provisional Government and the creation of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR). Several benefits to the people ushered in by the revolution included a newfound equality of treatment between men and women, and an improved system of education and culture in the native languages for the different nations comprising Russia. It proved for the first time in history that a government entirely run by peasants, workers and soldiers was possible.

ProleWiki:Principles/Signed

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