Today, 33 years ago, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. For its many critiques, its existence gave hope for many people around the world that an alternative way of life is possible. Its existence forced the ruling class to concede things to the working class, nowadays those gains are disappearing.

[u/Tiny-Wheel5561]

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[u/SCLST_F_Hell]

The lesson USSR taught us is “never trust entirely on your military, even if they are playing alongside your plans at the moment. Keep eyes on them 24/7, and keep eyes on who keep eyes on them, also, 24/7”.

[u/CulturalMarxist123 → u/SCLST_F_Hell]

"Why must we stand firm on the party's leadership over the military? Because that's the lesson from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, where the military was depoliticized, separated from the party and nationalized, the party was disarmed. When the country came to crisis point, a big party was gone just like that. Proportionally, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had more members than we (Chinese Communist Party) do, but nobody was man enough to stand up and resist."

-Xi Jinping

[u/AutoModerator → u/CulturalMarxist123]

As a friendly reminder, China's ruling party is called Communist Party of China (CPC), not Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as western press and academia often frames it as.

Far from being a simple confusion, China's Communist Party takes its name out of the internationalist approach sought by the Comintern back in the day. From Terms of Admission into Communist International, as adopted by the First Congress of the Communist International:

18 - In view of the foregoing, parties wishing to join the Communist International must change their name. Any party seeking affiliation must call itself the Communist Party of the country in question (Section of the Third, Communist International). The question of a party’s name is not merely a formality, but a matter of major political importance. The Communist International has declared a resolute war on the bourgeois world and all yellow Social-Democratic parties. The difference between the Communist parties and the old and official “Social-Democratic”, or “socialist”, parties, which have betrayed the banner of the working class, must be made absolutely clear to every rank-and-file worker.

Similarly, the adoption of a wrong name to refer to the CPC consists of a double edged sword: on the one hand, it seeks to reduce the ideological basis behind the party's name to a more ethno-centric view of said organization and, on the other hand, it seeks to assert authority over it by attempting to externally draw the conditions and parameters on which it provides the CPC recognition.

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[u/fantasydemon101 → u/SCLST_F_Hell]

Huh? Did the military betray the soviet people?

[u/Cognos1203 → u/fantasydemon101]

Dont know what exactly oc was referring to, but there are times where high brass often sided against the people, such as most of them supporting Khrushchev and supporting yeltsin during the august and black october crises.

[u/fantasydemon101 → u/Cognos1203]

Even so, that’s the lesson he learned from the USSR? That’s it?

[u/OLEDfromhell → u/SCLST_F_Hell]

The problem was that control of the military was removed from Party control long before the USSR's demise, which is astonishing. So when push came to shove, the Party was unable to defend itself, as control had been transferred to state organs (not party organs).

[u/CulturalMarxist123]

"Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fall from power? An important reason was that the struggle in the field of ideology was extremely intense, completely negating the history of the Soviet Union, negating the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, negating Lenin, negating Stalin, creating historical nihilism and confused thinking. Party organs at all levels had lost their functions, the military was no longer under Party leadership. In the end, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a great party, was scattered, the Soviet Union, a great socialist country, disintegrated. This is a cautionary tale!"

-Xi Jinping

[u/carrotwax → u/CulturalMarxist123]

There's a reason why the West celebrates the repudiation of Stalin and makes him out to be a demon.

I've been listening to the Marx Engels institute lately and it's been refreshing hearing more about Stalin. I like many didn't question all that I was fed about him in my formative education, now I see how much of that was pure propaganda, ignoring Russian history. No one is perfect, but so much of the deaths attributed to him would never attributed to a Western leader if they used the same actions.

[u/denizgezmis968 → u/CulturalMarxist123]

it disintegrated because the bourgeoisie took the power after Stalin. It has nothing to do with "historical nihilism".

[u/blodo_]

The greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, that put a hundred million people into poverty, and (as predicted) directly led to a rollback of democracy and social protections across the entire world.

What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.

What will happen if the sympathy and support that the Republic of Soviets enjoys among the proletarians of all countries grows and intensifies? It will radically facilitate the building of socialism in the U.S.S.R.

What will happen if the achievements of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. continue to grow? It will radically improve the revolutionary position of the proletarians of all countries in their struggle against capital, will undermine the position of international capital in its struggle against the proletariat, and will greatly heighten the chances of the world proletariat.

But it follows from this that the interests and tasks of the proletariat of the U.S.S.R. are interwoven and inseparably connected with the interests and tasks of the revolutionary movement in all countries, and, conversely, that the tasks of the revolutionary proletarians of all countries are inseparably connected with the tasks and achievements of the proletarians of the U.S.S.R. in the field of socialist construction.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1926/11/22.htm

[u/Chaos_0205]

If it not because of the USSR, my country would either be a colony of French or a puppet of USA

Communist and solialism is a god send compare to being work to death in the field under French owner, being send to fight in WW1, starved to death under Japanese owner, or getting raped and kill by random US marine

[u/ChomskyHonk]

"For its many flaws, its existence...." The word "critiques" should be "flaws". I believe that is what you actually mean. Otherwise you'd be referencing the Soviet unions critique of presumably capitalism.

[u/Peespleaplease]

You were flawed from the start, but your collapse didn't help anyone.

[u/InevitableRespect584]

"As modern revisionism is being fostered and spread by the modern revisionist clique with its headquarters in the Soviet Union, all proletarian revolutionaries are impelled to express themselves and act in accordance with Mao Zedong Thought which is the acme of Marxism-Leninism in this world era... Currents of opportunism, with the local petty bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie as their fountainhead, serve as the basis for the superimposition of modern revisionism from its world center in Moscow."

— José María Sison

Excerpt from Rectify Errors, Rebuild the Party! (1968)

[u/Hour-Locksmith-1371]

USSR was very flawed IMO from 1921-1956, but after that I’d take it over the USA any day as a force for good in the world and an inspiration to oppressed people’s everywhere

[u/Electrical-Strike132]

I miss the USSR being a thing. It's demise cleared the way for capital to go on a rampage. The USA and Canada and many others are not the same societies they were 33 years ago. Oligarchy has triumphed.

If only, if only the USSR had worked out well.

Maybe Trotsky would have turned it into a free and democratic socialist society, but it was Stalin who ended up giving it it's form. There's no doubt he was the wrong guy. Geez. He was a cruel, paranoid, psychopath that also created a grotesque caricature of socialism in the USSR.

The capitalists used the USSR's horrors to turn people right off of socialism. Now that we need it more than ever, few can even contemplate it.

[u/Ripening_88s → u/Electrical-Strike132]

Capitalist realism explains this great

[u/AutoModerator → u/Electrical-Strike132]

[Socialist Society] as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges.

Karl Marx. Critique of the Gotha Programme, Section I. 1875.

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[u/Jazzlike-Play-1095]

i hate you, but i would be devastated if this happened in my lifetime