Come! Let’s finish This Soviet World.

Also, we are at the last chapter of the book. I will be posting a thread to figure out participants for Soviet Democracy later in the week. And starting with the book on Monday. Same for Cowbee’s list.

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Highlights

Then I saw him evade a kiss from “Little Slant-Eyes,” a Tartar girl with whom for two days he had been joking.

• “This Volcel World” but also eww that nickname.

Our older men are marked by too many years of combat. Our younger men can hardly appreciate the grimness of what they have never known. But I spent my childhood in oppression and my youth fighting for freedom; I am old enough to know the conquered past, yet young enough for a whole new life.”

As mentioned in “Youth set Free,” this rings so bittersweet in the backdrop of the Great Patriotic War.

Pravda elaborated this theme into an editorial on the Soviet ideal of character, declaring it to be the exact opposite of that “unquestioning obedience” which Hitler had previously demanded in an impassioned speech to fascist youth.

“Strong and original individuality,” was claimed by Pravda as the basic quality of a Soviet citizen. Not the “rugged individualism” which capitalism in its early stages glorifies for its upper classes, and which sinks into gangsterism in the fascist decline.

Many anticommunist pieces rely on the theme of “unquestioning obedience" to depict the Soviet world as cold and uncaring. Not surprisingly this is another projection of the mechanisms of fascism onto socialism in the double genocide canon. Throughout this book we have seen that Soviet democracy had not suppressed individual expression but had finally given it the roots to grow. Over and over we are given description of former serfs who became highly educated scientists and engineers, roles most associated with individual accomplishment. Fascism seeks power from inscribing a truth to the world while communism analyzes power from the truths already present. The working class dictatorship does not exist in a vacuum while the capitalist dictatorship attempts to portray society as already completed.

I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the True Crime genre has always been popular in the US. The romantic literary canon of western outlaws to Tommy gun wielding mafiosos appeals to the sense of “rugged individualism.” These anti-heroes of American corporate folklore are able to defend the capitalist system because they are so thoroughly stripped of their class character. I’ve written before about one of the most popular American TV series Breaking Bad (2008) and how it’s success hinges upon the “complex analysis of a burdened soul” (XIII The Democratization of Art).

Earlier in the chapter:

He was constantly puzzled by the tactics of American capitalists, considered from the standpoint of their own survival.”

The American capitalists will make the noose to tie themselves and to tie the rest of the country with them. It’s hard to even conceptualize just how long lasting the capitalist system while simultaneously being the shortest (climate change will wipe out the system along with humanity).

They [capitalist persons] have been so accustomed to considering that their own life is “free” and Soviet life “regimented” that they cannot at once grasp a viewpoint which holds the exact opposite.

This reminds me of Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of “Brainwashing” (2022) by Roderic Day of Redsails fame. There’s really no way to change someones mind on a dime about socialism without them being radicalized enough to do away with their current worldview. It is really tiring to have to defend oneself against the lies launched against socialism. I really appreciate how This Soviet World is written in the perspective of an American and it’s such a unique journalistic work because of that.

The Stakhanovites section was also cool to read. It answers the “how are people motivated to produce more and more if there is no profit?” question that plagues conversations with skeptics. I’ll have later thoughts about the work as a whole later.

Very interesting chapter historically, still very sad as always, you can see the build up of the Great Patriotic war in the distance, the massive improvements made during this time all but guaranteed that capital would need to strike sooner rather than later, the longer they left the Soviets alone, the more impossible their already impossible task of destroying them militarily would become. I’ve never really understood the material reasons for the war as well as I do now, the capitalists were on borrowed time.

It also parallels modern US ambition against China, China is already at the point where the US cannot win a conventional war with them, but much like the Nazis, their desperation might drive them to try anyway, and it would be truly horrific to see a similar fate for China as we saw for the USSR, victorious, but devastated, never able to recover to those same heights.

Not related to the book, but I’ve been reading a little on the effects of Khrushchev’s secret speech on global socialist movements, and the more I learn, the more I feel it was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the Soviets had shown they were everything wonderful this book has shown them to be, compassionate, hardworking, dedicated, gentle, but far from powerless and weak, they were a shining example of socialism for the rest of humanity to follow, but it seems that after Stalin’s death, their national spirit was broken, political nihilism had set in, they stagnated and slowly faded into capitalist restoration.

I would love for a recommendation for further reading on how the USSR went from their peak, arguably the peak of all humanity, to their decline and eventual destruction, my understanding is quite basic at the moment, and it feels like a solid next step in further understanding the USSR.

Ultimately I don’t like to think about “what if” too much, but this book has really made it just so hard not too, such optimism for the future, how little the capitalist world has changed in almost a century, how the same myths that were being spread then are not buried and forgotten, or laughed at and mocked for their unrealistic and untrue nonsense, but are pillars of western society. Ask anyone who can barely read or write thanks to their capitalist education, they may barely be able to read a fast food menu, knowing nothing of science or innovation or anything really, but ask them about why the Soviet Union and Stalin were horrible and bad, and they’ll have a dozen examples ready to go off the top of their head. Victims of this system that bear the same “empty peasant gaze” as mentioned in a previous chapter will often be capitalism’s loudest and most aggressive defenders.

This book shows how rapidly material conditions can change a person, this was written a generation out from the Tsars, the “New Soviet Man” was so much more alive than those under feudalism, and developing so rapidly that even those living under capital were struggling to relate to them. So bright and optimistic for the future.

“Ten years hence,” said a Stakhanovite to me, “farming and industry may cease to be our main occupations. But there are other occupations when once we produce all the goods we need. Human development, exploration, science—to these there are no limits!”

This future they imagined didn’t come to pass, but this book really has inspired me, more so than any other work of theory, to really push for that future in whatever way I can. Thank you Edie for starting this group. And thank you all for tolerating my comments on it, which tended to be very long winded and talking mostly about myself rather than deep analysis, I hope people still enjoyed reading my thoughts though, I certainly enjoyed reading the discussions on each chapter, even went back to read the discussions on the chapters I fell behind on, regretting that pretty heavily while doing so, I would’ve loved to participate!

Looking forward to the next reading group, Soviet democracy is something I’ve had a lot of success “selling” to people in my life, people are very eager for a Soviet system, as long as you don’t use the scary “S” word to describe it, and just describe it as a system, but I’m hoping that learning more thoroughly about it will give me the confidence I need to really openly push for understanding of it in others. Also looking forward to just learning more about in general. To continue my personal ramblings, I rarely look forward to much of anything, life for me is mostly just existing, trying to gather up a tiny big of motivation to do my obligations, being enthusiastic about my work would increase my output tenfold, which is probably why this book has spoken to me so much, but I’ve been actively looking forward to each chapter and the discussions of it every week, it’s kept me going through some unpleasant times, even if I did bow out at the worst of those, it’s helped me keep things together and has always worked as motivation for me to not just give up entirely, so thank you again Edie for organising this group.

I return, just in time for the ending! Although I have been keeping up with the chapters, I’ve been remiss in writing any comments, so I’ll try to remember them and give some brief thoughts here.

(Edit: After having hit submit by accident before, I have now actually written something!)

I went a bit longer than expected, so I’ll have to continue in another part…

Really nice chapter tying everything together. Overall, the rather dated language referring to ethnic minorities is a problem, but the actual facts on hand are endlessly useful to cite for people. I think this book is best for people that are already pro-soviet. It isn’t going to change most people’s minds, because the Soviet Union has been ran through the mud for most people. It’s like a Blackshirts and Reds for communists, which I think is super useful for giving comrades an idea of what we are fighting for.

Also want to give thanks to comrade Edie for its work on Comrade’s Library, making this book accessible to all who want it for free, and doing the work of making the epub and running this reading circle! I cannot wait to continue next week with everyone on the theory groups and Soviet Democracy, which should provide a more intimate look at how the Soviet Union’s democrstic institutions functioned!

“Strong and original individuality,” was claimed by Pravda as the basic quality of a Soviet citizen. Not the “rugged individualism” which capitalism in its early stages glorifies for its upper classes, and which sinks into gangsterism in the fascist decline.

You could make this into a snappy 30s Soviet Meme, but also its good to see an explanation of individuality compare to individualism.

Freedom is never absolute; it is concrete and specific.

I don’t think that ‘freedom’ even has a ‘Western’ definition despite how often it uses that word. Its thrown around in the same vicinity as unemployment, homelessness, wars, worsening conditions of the planet and people. Strong’s explanation of the definition of freedom work really well. To be free you must be an individual; not an individual who is leashed to a society and wanting to break free rather an individual who lives and breathes their society without the concept of fear.

The final segment of the Stakhanovites movement ending this chapter and book brings a final wave of optimism that I wish in hindsight that none of the event of the late 30s and the Great Patriotic War ever happened. In another timeline we saw peace and a socialist earth all working together yet today what we have is Capitalism decaying further and further while propping itself up on the agony of billions.

To learn is to break things, mess up but pick yourself up, brush yourself off and analyse what went wrong. To see this at the scale of tens of millions doing this simultaneously is awe-inspiring.

If the solar system runs down, shall we not find ways ·to give heat to our sun?

20 years later the USSR pioneered the space exploration sending the first satellite, first man and woman into space. Maybe someday some new cosmonauts will do this.

Reading through this book has been the first time in a long while (from my perspective) of fully studying a book. This book was really insightful into how the early USSR was like, its struggles and triumphs but importantly how it humanises the country and the socialist system. It is worth reading for everyone.

I’m proud I have managed to read or listen the chapter every week and write my opinions in comments even if it ended up on the last day of the week. I have found that most people are reading and commenting early in the week which has felt a bit awkward when I end up commenting later in the week.

I feel like my comments have been okay(?), I’m not well reading up compared to everyone else so I do want to work through the reading list. I haven’t at all engaged in discussion but have been reading other people’s comments at least.

I look forward to the next book and working through the Reading List with everyone!

Lots of stuff I didn’t remember in the book. I haven’t been great at making comments myself, but I have loved reading all of your comments.

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Proposal: in the reading group post body, reference the next week’s reading as the “pre-discussion reading.” The most active discussion is on the first day, so announcing explicitly the next week’s sections and referring to them as the pre-discussion reading makes it clearer what to read to be ready to discuss each Monday.