Fallacies about Gorbachev and 'Perestroika'

The Perestroika Deception | March 1989 | Anatoliy Golitsyn, Edited by Christopher Story

[TheMilkMan]

Fallacies about Gorbachev and 'Perestroika'

Confusion and euphoria about changes in the Soviet Union have given birth to many misconceptions and fallacies about Gorbachev and 'perestroika'. Even if bankrupt Western methods of analysis cannot be held responsible for all these fallacies, they still fail to provide serious correctives to them.

THE FIRST FALLACY: The origin of 'perestroika'
This is the belief that 'perestroika' was a consequence of President Regan's military pressure on the USSR and the potency of the American capitalist example. Believers in this fallacy, who insist that the West 'won the Cold War', do not suspect that 'perestroika' and its timing are the product of long-range strategy, planning and long-term preparation. [In Sun Tzu's terms, they have become arrogant].

THE SECOND FALLACY: The domestic character of perestroika
This is the belief that 'perestroika' is a purely domestic attempt to correct repressive practices, to revitalize the flagging Soviet economy and to adapt the Soviet Union to the necessities and norms of the modern world. Believer do not suspect the Soviet intent to expand 'perestroika' beyond the borders of the Communist world and to achieve the world victory of Communism through 'restructuring'.

THE THIRD FALLACY: Western-style democracy in the Soviet Union
Believers think that Gorbachev is trying to introduce Western-style democracy. They do not realize that he is extending 'Communist democracy' - that is to say, a new more mature phase of socialism in which only the appearance of Western-style democracy is created and maintained.

THE FOURTH FALLACY: The decline of ideology
Believers think ideology is dying or already dead and that Gorbachev has abandoned the class struggle and taken the 'capitalist road'. They do not realize that perestroika is an expression of ideological strategy and a practical means of reviving ideology. It is not the abandonment of class struggle but a finesse to secure the defeat of capitalist democracies by the use of capitalist weapons.

The class struggle will yet have its bloody feasts.

The Western elite believe they are helping the cause of democracy. In fact they are financing their own demise and digging their own graves. The tragedy is that they will probably not see it until it is too late.

THE FIFTH FALLACY: The ideological victory of capitalism
Believers think that the West has won the war of ideologies. The irony is that, through 'perestroika', the Soviets have captured the strategic and political initiative on the global stage and have begun to carry out their long-nurtured designs against the West which threaten its survival.

THE SIXTH FALLACY: That the Cold War is over
Believes think that the Soviet Union is no longer dangerous and that the Cold War is over (21). They take the deadly flirtation for the romantic marriage. The West perceives the Cold War to be over, and Communism to be dead; but from the Soviet side the Cold War will accelerate and become more deadly, especially for the political right which is being targeted as never before with the intention that it should suffer total obliteration.

THE SEVENTH FALLACY: 'Perestroika' is a blessing for the West
Believers think that perestroika serves Western interests and that Gorbachev should be helped. In the United States, even a learned man like Jeremy J. Stone, President of the Federation of American Scientists, has fallen for this fallacy. In a recent article in The New York Times entitled 'Let's Do All We Can for Gorbachev', he called on Americans to help the Soviets because 'Mr Gorbachev is, from our viewpoint, the best General Secretary we could dream of seeing'.

Believers in Western Europe go even further, advocating a new Marshall Plan to restore the economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It was one thing to restore war-ravaged economies of Western Europe, West Germany and Japan, to shield them from Stalin's armies and to nurture their democratic systems. It is quite another to provide massive economic aid to the ideological enemies and gravediggers of Western democracies at the very time when they are launching and consolidating their strategic, political offensive against the West.

THE EIGHT FALLACY: Fear of 'perestroika's' failure and the fall of Gorbachev
Those who lionize Gorbachev express exaggerated concern for his survival and the success of 'perestroika', which they see as the best hope for the West. They fear that Gorbachev's departure would lead to a crackdown on 'reformers', rebellion and possible anarchy in the Soviet Union. They would do better to focus on solving their own problems and preserving their societies from Gorbachev's 'restructuring'.

THE NINTH FALLACY: A declining need for American military-political alliances
Believers think that the Soviet Union is becoming more peaceful, the Gorbachev can be trusted and the America's political and military alliances are superfluous. They need to be awakened to the dangers of the Soviet strategy of 'perestroika' which demand as never before the maintenance and strengthening of these alliances.

[spetznaz]

Last i heard Buran had been converted into some theme restaurant. For some strange reason i so wish i could go see it ....it is possibly my only chance of dining inside anything that has kissed outer-earth atmosphere! (Also i have this strange desire to see Russia).

[struwwelpeter]

Three years ago I noticed Buran at the "Park of Culture". I didn't know it was there and was completely amazed to see it. At the time they had a space-theme restaurant serving astronaut food. I hope that it has been sold to an aerospace museum or something - even for a Reaganite like myself this is way too capitalistic ;-)

Where will Russia be in 20 years? How did that song go? "In the year 2525, if man is still alive..." I am pessimistic about mankind in general, and the coming tribulations vis-a-vis the religion of peace.

Russia has undergone an amazing transformation. As a snot-nosed punk I worked a little while at the old US embassy during the Brezhnev days, then visited for a month in '93. Russia had nose-dived then, and seemed to be beyond hope. Then when I lived there off and on '98 - '01 I was amazed at at how fast it was modernizing and improving (except for a little setback in August of '98). They went from matchs that would not light and cardboard that fell apart in your hands to a cheap version of Germany. You have not lived until you have almost blown yourself up lighting a Soviet hot-water heater ;-)

But, the old Khrushchev crackerbox apartments are making way to "luksus" and "evrostandart", medieval meat markets (when you could find them) transformed into Aldis. Restaurants serve salt in shakers, cops do not pull you over as much for driving an expensive car, billboards exort you to chew Orbit without sugar. Even the beer is better.

The big question now is China. In order to survive in the short-term, Russia has been equipping and educating her natural enemy. Russia's population dropped severely, a lot of military-age kids were not born or immigrated away, and the remaining 150 million is disproportionally aged. There are now ten Chinese for every Russian, and Russia's resource-rich far east is a tempting target.

If Russia can hold on to her eastern riches, she may even eclipse the US. Her downfall might be China, or her restless growing Moslem population, or even her criminal under and overclass.

It all depends on this coming generation. This makes me guardedly optimistic.

[PsyOp]

Hi back at you Spetznaz.

I'm fine. I decided to catch up on my reading over the holidays. Kind of hard to read and post at the same time. Plus work has been crazy, and finding down time to plug into FR, even at break time has been tough.

But I have been lurking and reading your posts, even if I haven't commented much. The last week or two I've been embroiled in a battle of wits with some of the mad-hatters at LP. There are some folks over there that have the market on tin-foil securely cornered. But I figured it was a good place to brush up on my rhetorical skills. What do you say to a guy who doesn't believe the moon landing was real?

I think Struwwel's posts are pretty much on spot as were yours. I don't think that there is much chance that Russia will revert to communism. The Russians have had enough of that nonsense I think. They'll probably have the same attitude ex-smokers have about cigs. But they will probably always have a healthy socialist contingent led by ex- true believers like Gorby.

Guys like Putin, former KGB, are least likely to go back, because they're the ones who know just how bad it really was. They also know that Russia's future lies in following a path like ours. We will however need to keep one eye on them at all times. They can be counted on to do what they feel is in their best interests. And the further along their economic recovery progresses, the less they will need our help, and the less leverage we will have to make them see things our way. Right now, their interests and our mostly coincide. We need to make all the hay out of that we can while we can.

As for Golytsin, his heart is in the right place, but he still sees state-security bogymen under the bed. he serves as a good reminder not to trust ex-communists further that you can toss them. Or as Reagan said, "Trust, but verify."

As for my papers, they are moldering away in storage. I keep meaning to go dig them up and put them in the computer, but I have not gotten to around to it. Most of those were written in my senior year of college while working with the 14th PsyOp in Mountain View, Ca.

Take Care,
Psy.

[Orion78]

Here are some additional links on Golitsyn.

Russian and Chinese leaders face 3 centers of nuclear military power with which they have to deal.
Geopolitical Strategies of Russia, The 'Commonwealth of Independent States' and China
The Commies are coming, the Commies are coming...
The Specifics of Perestroika in China

See my homepage for more.

[GOP_1900AD]

How quickly you dismiss this with no substantial debate. Does this topic make you uncomfortable? If so, then you ought to reexamine your Rightist pedigree and your true world view. A true Rightist ought to be intrigued by this. "The Right is a fiction, everyone is on the Left." J. R. Nyquist, 1998.

[GOP_1900AD]

Interesting how those so called "gangsters" seem to behave in manner similar to the KGB and Lenin's original late 1910s thugocracy. They do all they can to undermine the West. And is it not a bit strange that a man who bore witness to and participated in the true crimes of the Stasi is now in command of Russia / USSR2?

[GOP_1900AD]

Actually, Golitsyn continued to write both formal and informal publications since then. Over 90% of his predictions regarding the events that would factor into the duping of the West have in fact come to pass. Most recently, in terms of major events, was the ratification by the Duma of the Sino - Russian Axis Treaty of July 16, 2001. The actual final ratification occured well after 9/11, during a time of much pro-Western rhetoric out of the Kremlin while the PRC continued her icy silence. Which alludes to just how effective the mechanics of the fake Sino - Soviet split have been.

[GOP_1900AD]

Nazi propaganda? So does that mean that you buy into the whole Soviet mentality that said that opposing the West was "opposing Fascism?" You must not realize how closely your post resembles good old KGB propaganda. Or do you?

[GOP_1900AD]

Actually, a vaccum in the current bloc of Eastern oriented and untrustworthy power in the Northern half of Eurasia is exactly what I want to see. That way, the West can conquer it once and for all.

[GOP_1900AD]

The most remarkable thing is how well someone back in 1989 was able to understand certain underpinnings that now create a geopolitical disaster for the West. Back then, who would have thought that the following things would be occurring in 2003 AD?:

1. The US having been attacked within the past 2 years by "terrorists" aided by one or more anti-Western nations of the Trans-Asian Axis, resulting in the complete destruction of the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings.

2. A military and economic Axis between Russia and the PRC.

3. An ever expanding band of nations, overtly supported by the PRC and Russia (aka USSR2) all of who are either harboring anti-Western terrorists, or, are arming heavily, in some cases with WMD, in preparation for war against the West.

4. A slow consumption of Latin American nation states by Castro style communism. Once consumed, they overtly partner with either the PRC, Russia, Cuba, rogue nations, or all of the forgoing.

5. As the US slowly mobilizes to oppose the coming resurgence of anti-Western conquest, an "anti-war" movement, funded by international Communism, is creating an increasing political problem for Western leadership.

6. As the US continues to disarm, based on pie-crust treaties and geopolitical blindness brought on by the Perestroika Deception, the sum total of nations in the Trans-Asian Axis (e.g. Russia, DPRK, PRC, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Ukraine, Belarus, others...), when considered collectively, are engaged in an arms race including both nuclear and other weapons systems, which the US has yet to start running in.

7. Beyond the obvious hot spots such as the Near East, SW Asia and Korea, a number of strange undertakings are to be noted in other regions. For example, in ASEAN, Myanmar lengthens runways, builds her air force and cooperates overtly with the PLAN and Pakistani Navy to prepare for.... what? Meanwhile, the PRC builds superhighways and railroads leading to the frontiers with Laos and Myanmar, and, helps those nations to build additional connecting roads toward the south. To the East, the PRC island hops, illegally taking over one after another small island and islet in a slow burn march toward that critical choke point, the Strait of Malacca. Russia sells MiG-29s to Myanmar and sends nuclear technologists, who are joined by two escaping US scrutiny in Pakistan, for unknown programs.

8. More and more, the geopolitical behavior and treaty cheating of the "former Soviet bloc" comes to resemble that undertaken by the Bruning administration during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Meanwhile, that of the PRC simply comes to resemble that of the Third Reich.

To the tin pan critics hammering TheMilkMan's post - Is all of this not painfully obvious?

[fourdeuce82d]

BM, I think there's a much more serious issue facing us, one that bodes well to destroy our American culture, and return this land to barbarism and savagery.

I'm talking about the the maskirova operation that has been in operation over one hundred years...the sham "defeat" of the Native American tribes. They are lulling us into a false sense of security- when the time is right, when their agents in the schools and in govermnet have made us ashamed of their so-called "conquest", they will rise up, and push us into the sea.

I agree that the so-called collapse of the Soviet Union is a charade. Nuclear submarines rotting pierside are obviously fakes, and so forth. But surely someone of your sagaicty will admit the much more pressing danger, the more insidious threat posed by the "quiescent" native american tribes.

BM, if you'll agree with me they pose a threat, I will let you in on an even bigger secret- the threat posed by the ancient Egyptians...Everybody only thinks those mummies are dead.

[GOP_1900AD]

No offense, but are you even aware of geopolitics? At all?

[GOP_1900AD]

Interesting Golitsyn debate thread. Must admit to holding back a bit, resisting full Bismarckian attack dog mode, but only just!... ;)

[Paul Ross]

While I note you have not explain the huge resurgence of Latin American communism (maybe it is all just pure coincidence), the admitted 'former' Communist moles who somehow serendipitously took over France and Germany, the Sino-Soviet treaty, or the strange links between the Islamo-Nazis and the Russian/Chinese 'allies' not just for weapons...but ideologically. Some of Bin Laden's stuff reads like vintage Pravda.

So, before you casually dismiss the possibility that Golitsyn was, and is, being proved right.... we need to see how the continued modernization of the Russian nuclear military can be explained...in spite of a supposedly crushing economic collapse. The Russian navy was indeed allowed to lapse into rust...but that would be just the kind of gesture Golitsyn suggested would put us off our guard. They always were a land power. Having a huge navy was extremely threatening. But meanwhile the strategic rocket corps was modernized and made SDI-proof. Specifically, they have refined and continue to improve their national anti-missile defenses, the SAM-300/400s...and associated radar systems such as Krasnyorsk. And deploy the Topol-M, a missile that apparently eclipses our own vaunted MX, with equal accuracy, and the capability of just as many warheads, and superior mobility. It is essentially an off-road-mobile. Our MX never got out of the equivalent of vulnerable Minuteman silos. The Topol-M also featured three key capacities that permit them to boast of defeating SDI:

(1) MARV or MAneuverable Re-entry Vehicles. This would allow for them to essentially frustrate any hit-to-kill technology now in the offing. In plain language, they can dodge and duck the defense.
(2) FOBS or Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. The range of this missile is so great that it can literally hurl its payload around the world the long way around, and come at a target such as the U.S. by coming around from the other side, i.e., a South Polar vector. Assuming our space-based assets had already been targetted by either ASATS or EMP weapons (say from a proxy-state such as North Korea) we could easily be vulnerable to this kind of attack...even assuming we went back to a launch-on-warning posture. This is because a FOBS attack evades our northerly-oriented BMEWS or (formerly DEWS) radar picket detections of their launches, and catches us unawares. The Topol-M features guidance CEP in the same ballpark as our own MX, and hence could conceivably succeed in a first strike against our hardened land-based assets. And of course, in port submarines and bombers, caught off-guard are just toast.
(3) Stealth. They apparently have developed a plasma 'sheath' which their Topol-M's RVs can deploy to render them radar invisible. This would accentuate the difficulty at either detecting the attack in time, or doing any tracking for any hypothetical SDI intercept capability.

The question then occurs, with their continued (and rather blatant, in-your-face, post Moscow 'disarmament treaty') retention of their massive SS-18 force, and their dogged persistence in developing and deployment...currently... this first-strike weapons system....why? If they are our buddies, or just economic rivals, why this collossal investment in a 'destabilizing' system? This persistence continues in the face of (a) our interim failures to deploy any robust NMD or SDI, and (b) our extreme-trust shift away from launch-on-warning and survivable C4I with Operation Looking Glass, almost a complete stand-down, witho a no-launch-on-warning (take the hit) retaliatory policy, (c) our imnmediate retirement plans for the whole of the MX force (d) the degraded performence demonstrated by the Clinton-Upgraded Minuteman-IIIs. The list goes on.

Now PsyOp could well be right, and a dissimulation campaign 'got away' from the Kremlin. This hypothesis would allow him to admit that the phony 'putsch' against Gorbachev and the fleeing of the alleged perpetrators to Spain was in fact intended to implement part of such a deception campaign. But, the strategic rocket corps is still in the hands of the communist hard-liners. Just when does that part of their scheme (actual control of the main weapons, as their doctrine called the land-based mega missiles) get out of their (presumably FSB/KGB-directed) control? And just when do the Communists get out of the Duma? And just what precisely would prevent reactionaries who were in on the scheme before from re-taking the reigns of power and implementing the designs if it looked like we did in fact disarm enough to make it work????

And btw, on a touching side note, despite the allusions to the Buran 'restaurant'...Putin did plan on resurrecting Buran...

[JCG]

How quickly you dismiss this with no substantial debate. Does this topic make you uncomfortable? If so, then you ought to reexamine your Rightist pedigree and your true world view.

Sorry, old news. Gotta move on. Dunno if you heard, but 3,000 Americans were murdered in NYC on September 11, 2001.

There are other ways to display my "Rightist pedigree."

America's Fifth Column ... watch Steve Emerson/PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

Who is Steve Emerson?

[GOP_1900AD]

"Gotta move on..." an interesting phrase. That's what the Left leaning 3rd way faction of GOPlite devotees in the WH keep saying about, oh, say, our investigations of Clinton taking money from the ChiCOMs, ignoring the overt pre-9/11 indicators, and, in many ways, aiding and abetting the Axis of Evil / aka the Trans-Asian Axis. You've heard of that haven't you? Indeed, keeping in mind the 9/11 attacks on our nation, I must direct you and others to examine the line of reasoning that even establishment figures such as Wolfowitz and Woolsey have shared, that, namely, OBL and the 9/11 attackers have undoubtedly been in receipt of support from one or more nation states. Bodansky also mentioned this in his best selling book.
(p)Clearly, not only is Iraq suspect in this regard, but one must not forget about others such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, the PRC and DPRK as potential direct helpers. And one cannot rule out GRU resources being used either. GRU notwithstanding, another key thing all of these nations have in common is either Axes with, or some degree of help by the Kremlin. Some might challenge this assertion vis a vis the Saudis. However, and naturally, nearly ignored by the Western geopolitically moronic media, both the PRC and Pakistan, known proxies of, respectively, Russia and the PRC, have been noted to be assisting the Saudis militarily. Naturally, the Saudis, sensing the increasing anger (and justifiable anger at that!) by the US, are covering their bases with other sources of support. Above and beyond that, a double game by them is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Now, I shall leave you all with this food for thought!

So, unless you believe that Yossef Bodansky, Kagan and Kagan, and even advisors to Bush, are wild eyed, anachronistic paranoids, pale from life in their bunkers, then you might want to reevaluate your geopolitical assumptions!

[JCG]

So, unless you believe that Yossef Bodansky, Kagan and Kagan, and even advisors to Bush, are wild eyed, anachronistic paranoids, pale from life in their bunkers, then you might want to reevaluate your geopolitical assumptions!

I'll make a note of that.

America's Fifth Column ... watch Steve Emerson/PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

Who is Steve Emerson?

[Cyber Liberty]

Yes, I see it now. We've fallen for their diabolical plot. Who'd have thought that total governmental collapse was really just a clever ruse. I always thought it was just really bad toilet paper that made us different.

To think all those years in grammar school I was, in reality, putting the king-sized smack-down on those schoolyard bullies. I can't tell you how many knuckle's I've broken with my teeth, and how many knees I've dislocated with my groin.

As they say, we play checkers and the Soviets play chess. I guess we're screwed.

[GOP_1900AD]

Some more unique links.

[GOP_1900AD]

Best regards and thanks for the debate.