Same. I know that trends are on our side, but it’s so tragic that the USSR isn’t still here. I do have hope of it returning, though, the KPRF has 63000 new members over the last few years and socialism is increasingly popular in Russia.
It’ll never be the same, but that makes me feel hopeful, funnily enough. I know that restoring the USSR isn’t a magic bullet that’ll bring back the entire 1916-23 revolutionary wave and make it actually work how Lenin predicted this time around, and I’m not even old enough to be the type of washed up old Cold War era Comintern type who thinks of the USSR as a necessary and key guiding star of global socialism that makes our movements all stronger through its own existence, and yet, I still think that reconstructing it will somehow help the Western left. Or at least make having Opinions on the Cold War a little fun and a little scary again.
I think a lot of what Western leftists miss the USSR over… is not anything that will automatically return if Russia becomes a socialist state again. And yet, I still want the USSR back anyway.
Russia going socialist again would certainly strengthen the anti-imperialist movement dramatically, and would give quite a lot of momentum on the western left. The fall of the USSR dramatically raised global disparity, as socialism wasn’t seen as a major threat:
Yep, that’s a very good point. The USSR was a boogeyman for Western governments that created the rise of modern social democracy. Which does reduce material harm… but I’d prefer for us to do a fucking revolution already and have real socialism instead.
I’m just not entirely convinced that Russia alone would have the resources and impact that the old USSR had before Gorbachev wrecked everything. The October Revolution was a very unique and complicated set of material conditions, and the Great Patriotic War was an important factor for all parties involved. There was a lot to the Cold War that relied on the Warsaw Pact as a geopolitical reality, that a socialist modern Russia simply wouldn’t have to the same power levels.
All that said, it is truly none of our business, and it is great that they even still have a communist party at all, and that that party is even a shadow of what the CPSU was.
All good points, but my point is also that the presense of the USSR bolstered socialist revolution globally as well. We can do it, with or without a socialist Russia, but bringing back socialism will dramatically improve our chances.
That it most certainly did! Large, powerful socialist countries, that aren’t particularly isolationist, certainly do that. After all, Western communist parties were a lot less useless when the Comintern was a thing. And while Lenin’s predicted revolutionary wave or domino effect theory may have ended up dead in the water after the October Revolution, it’s probably true that the more places we can make socialism happen in, the easier each further revolution will be to make happen.
Same. I know that trends are on our side, but it’s so tragic that the USSR isn’t still here. I do have hope of it returning, though, the KPRF has 63000 new members over the last few years and socialism is increasingly popular in Russia.
It’ll never be the same, but that makes me feel hopeful, funnily enough. I know that restoring the USSR isn’t a magic bullet that’ll bring back the entire 1916-23 revolutionary wave and make it actually work how Lenin predicted this time around, and I’m not even old enough to be the type of washed up old Cold War era Comintern type who thinks of the USSR as a necessary and key guiding star of global socialism that makes our movements all stronger through its own existence, and yet, I still think that reconstructing it will somehow help the Western left. Or at least make having Opinions on the Cold War a little fun and a little scary again.
I think a lot of what Western leftists miss the USSR over… is not anything that will automatically return if Russia becomes a socialist state again. And yet, I still want the USSR back anyway.
Russia going socialist again would certainly strengthen the anti-imperialist movement dramatically, and would give quite a lot of momentum on the western left. The fall of the USSR dramatically raised global disparity, as socialism wasn’t seen as a major threat:
Yep, that’s a very good point. The USSR was a boogeyman for Western governments that created the rise of modern social democracy. Which does reduce material harm… but I’d prefer for us to do a fucking revolution already and have real socialism instead.
I’m just not entirely convinced that Russia alone would have the resources and impact that the old USSR had before Gorbachev wrecked everything. The October Revolution was a very unique and complicated set of material conditions, and the Great Patriotic War was an important factor for all parties involved. There was a lot to the Cold War that relied on the Warsaw Pact as a geopolitical reality, that a socialist modern Russia simply wouldn’t have to the same power levels.
All that said, it is truly none of our business, and it is great that they even still have a communist party at all, and that that party is even a shadow of what the CPSU was.
All good points, but my point is also that the presense of the USSR bolstered socialist revolution globally as well. We can do it, with or without a socialist Russia, but bringing back socialism will dramatically improve our chances.
That it most certainly did! Large, powerful socialist countries, that aren’t particularly isolationist, certainly do that. After all, Western communist parties were a lot less useless when the Comintern was a thing. And while Lenin’s predicted revolutionary wave or domino effect theory may have ended up dead in the water after the October Revolution, it’s probably true that the more places we can make socialism happen in, the easier each further revolution will be to make happen.