Russia: Nostalgia For USSR Increases

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ^ | December 23, 2006 | By Victor Yasmann

[DeaconBenjamin2]

So, is it fair to view this as the official US government position?

[King Moonracer]

Holy Polonium Batman! Did the USSR actually go away?

[SolidWood]

It shrinked a bit and changed it's name and flag. Few things have changed.

[DeaconBenjamin2]

I don't know anyone who would argue that nothing has changed since 1991. However, there are extensive arguments whether the raison d'etre of Putin's presidency is the re-establishment of the Soviet Union.

[RightWhale]

What's next? Nostalgia for the Black Plague?

[John Will]

Putin is seeming more like a Czar than president

[Gondring]

I sure hope not!

[DeaconBenjamin2]

Do you think this is the US government's position?

[fat city]

I believe that at the end of Putin's presidency, he will work to reestablish the KGB- in function, if not in name.

BTW, there's even a warm, fuzzy feeling for the Stalin years in Russia- a nation with a severe global sociopathy.

[A. Pole]

Putin is seeming more like a Czar than president

You need to compare him with Yeltsin who sent tanks against Russian legislature to advance free market policies (in 1993).

If USA Congress were massacred in the name of free market and free trade and it was followed by impoverishment of majority and death of millions of people (the life span in Russia fell by several years to the same effect) what would be the reaction?

[A. Pole]

BTW, there's even a warm, fuzzy feeling for the Stalin years in Russia- a nation with a severe global sociopathy.

If USA Congress were massacred in the name of free market and free trade and it was followed by impoverishment of majority and death of millions of people (the life span in Russia fell by several years to the same effect) what would be the reaction?

[GSlob]

"I don't know anyone who would argue that nothing has changed since 1991. "
In 17th century there were "kaftans", in 18th - "kamzols", in 19th- "syurtuks" and in 20th - jackets. What one needs to seek the changes in is NOT the clothing fashions, or the name under which the not-so-secret police operates - from Ivan the Terrible's "Oprichnina" to the most current "FSB" - but the underlying sociology, like the role the coercive state organizations play in the state and society. Thus one could argue that nothing sociologically essential has changed, and even if it did change, the change was merely cosmetic.

[353FMG]

Communism, from the time Lenin came to power, has always been more totalitarian in Russia than under the czar.

[GSlob]

Since the commies and kegebuns are not humans but beasts in human shape, the legislature packed with them did not deserve any better.

[fat city]

Oh, I don't know- let's ask the Ukrainians.

[alloysteel]

The years during which the Russian Federation was the USSR, following the history of the Czarist regimes which preceded it, all have a common thread - the nativist Russian xenophobia and suspicion, bordering on paranoia, that has always been part of the Russian psyche. No matter WHAT government may have been in charge in Russia during the 20th Century, or the 19th Century, or the 21st Century, they always saw themselves as the competitors of the US, and deadly enemies of Germany.

The US may at times have had temporary alliances with Russians, but that is the controlling trait - temporary.

[Western Phil]

" Instead, it depicts the downfall as a chance combination of adverse historical circumstances and the "failed policy" of Gorbachev.'

The Soviet Union disappeared because Gorbachev was not Stalin. Gorbachev did not have the "heart" to use the brutal techniques necessary to maintain the existence of the unworkable concept of Marxism. We should be eternally grateful that its disappearance was not accompanied with external violence.

[A. Pole]

Since the commies and kegebuns are not humans but beasts in human shape, the legislature packed with them did not deserve any better

This was the same Duma that helped Yeltsin to fight Communist coup a couple years earlier. Shock "therapy" was not popular and caused immense damage. Do you support massacring MPs (of whom majority was not Communist).

[DeaconBenjamin2]

I was looking at the geopolitical picture, not the state of society within Russia. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (as well as many of the Warsaw Pact/Soviet satellites) are in NATO and the EU. The Central Asian 'Stans have US bases (at least for now), and pipelines are being built so their natural gas and crude oil can bypass Russia. I'm not aware of any Russian military bases outside pre-91 Soviet borders. And Russia has its hands full retaining Siberia.

[A. Pole]

No matter WHAT government may have been in charge in Russia during the 20th Century, or the 19th Century, or the 21st Century, they always saw themselves as the competitors of the US, and deadly enemies of Germany.

It was post WWII Soviet Union that was a competitor of USA. Before Bolshevik takeover the USA/Russia relationships were good. The only exception when both nations were on the opposing sides was during Napoleonic wars when British were allied with Russians and America was fighting British.

The only time when Russia and Germany were enemies was WWI and WWII. USA was on the same side as Russia. Have you forgotten?