Tell this to the people from the former USSR/Eastern Block. I’m not saying communism can’t work in any way, but I am saying that, at least historically, it has not worked.
The vast majority of Eastern Europeans wished the USSR never dissolved. Furthermore, the vast majority of people voted to retain the USSR, then it was dissolved anyways.
Why do you say “historically it has not worked,” then vaguely gesture towards people who believe it very much did work better than their current Capitalism?
You mean the vote that was boycotted by 6 of the 15 soviet occupied countries due to how it was phrased among other things? There was no independence option in the referendum, just how should the USSR be preserved.
Also most of the Easter European countries voted to declare independence shortly after.
I was around 20 at the time and in one of the boycotting countries. We later had a vote for independence, I think the support was around 80% or 90%.
You mean the vote that was boycotted by 6 of the 15 soviet occupied countries due to how it was phrased among other things? There was no independence option in the referendum, just how should the USSR be preserved.
The graphic shows that. It’s true that at the time, the vast majority of people voted to retain it, and the vast majority of people wish it never dissolved, which is why I included both metrics.
Also most of the Easter European countries voted to declare independence shortly after.
Crucially, Gorbachev and Yeltsin had been liberalizing and destroying the USSR from within, like the creation of a secondary Presidential position that stood against the centralized system and overly beauracratized it. The coup of 1991 further lost people’s faith in the government and they seceded, but they did not get to vote on being Socialist or not in the aftermath.
Then came Shock Therapy and roughly 7 million deaths due to the adoption of Capitalism against the will of the people.
I was around 20 at the time and in one of the boycotting countries. We later had a vote for independence, I think the support was around 80% or 90%.
Based on what you’ve told me about yourself, you may want to look at the figure again, but I won’t dox you.
Furthermore, the vast majority of people voted to retain the USSR
Wow, you’re telling me the people who were brainwashed into believing their country is the best (not saying it doesn’t happen nowadays (cough cough USA), voted to retain it?
In my country (Romania) the only point I hear people praising the communist regime about is infrastructure. Why? Because, as it turns out, it’s much easier to build infrastructure when you have slaves prisoners which you don’t have to pay. Of course, the corruption in our post-communist government doesn’t help either.
I agree, capitalism is VERY far from ideal, but, please, stop glazing the USSR regime just because it was “communist”.
Wow, you’re telling me the people who were brainwashed into believing their country is the best (not saying it doesn’t happen nowadays (cough cough USA), voted to retain it?
“Brainwashing” narratives are false, thought-terminating cliches. The people supported the economic system that had free healthcare and education, doubled life expectancies, dramatic improvements in science, made it to space, rapidly industrialized, and dramatically reduced inequality. The idea that they were simply “brainwashed” is an idealist, anti-materialist analysis.
In my country (Romania) the only point I hear people praising the communist regime about is infrastructure. Why? Because, as it turns out, it’s much easier to build infrastructure when you have
slavesprisoners which you don’t have to pay. Of course, the corruption in our post-communist government doesn’t help either.
Even prisoners were paid in the USSR for forced labor, this is ahistorical.
I agree, capitalism is VERY far from ideal, but, please, stop glazing the USSR regime just because it was “communist”.
I don’t glaze the USSR, I dispel lies and myths about it in defense of Actually Existing Socialism.
