At 21:19 15/06/2007 +0100, ray thomas wrote:
> > the complete failure of Communism.
>
>Not quite. The communists industrialised Russia in a shorter period than
>had been achieved by any other country. They defeated the most powerful
>army that the world had ever known in winning the war against Germany - and
>so saved Britain against the Nazis (Ask any serious historian if you doubt
>this). They produced the best educated generation of women, and perhaps
>men as well, that the world had ever known.
Most of the points you raise have nothing to do with Communism, per
se. The point is that Communist states--relative to non-Communist
states--have failed throughout the world. It is true that Communist
Russia increased literacy significantly, but don't forget that
students were indoctrinated with Communist propaganda: the sole
purpose of the Soviet educational system was to increase socially
useful labour rather than the pursuit of knowledge for its own
sake. Communism failed with human services such as health and child
welfare, agriculture, the economy, socialism and even communism!
>All these points are quantifiable so can be considered relevant to the list.
>It is necessary to correct some distortions of reality because they would
>otherwise blind us to understanding current problems. Britain is, for
>example, currently suffering from the activities of the FSB and other
>Russian 'security' forces, eg Litvinenko murder.. These security services
>used to be controlled by the Communist Party. Nowadays they are almost
>autonomous. Putin might be telling the truth in denying involvement.
Quantify this: 100 million violent deaths under the hammer and
sickle--the largest ideology-driven genocide in history. By 1920
Lenin had killed more people than 90 years of czarism combined, and
Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler. The distortion
of reality that needs correcting is the common perception that
Fascism was worse than Marxism. It was not. You could well be right
about the FSB.
Have a good weekend!
Martin
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