In Soviet Russia progress makes you
Moderator: Moderators
In Soviet Russia progress makes you
So I'm writing a paper on the development of the Soviet Union leading up to World War II under Lenin and Stalin, and the eventual stagnation of the Soviet system under Brezhnev. Now I live in America where the general populace believes that communists are agents of Satan, that are secretly plotting to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids. Where would be the best place to go to get some candid information about the USSR (not propaganda).
-
Username17
- Serious Badass
- Posts: 29894
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Yeah, academia is your best bet. It is damn hard to get information about the Soviet period that isn't full of propaganda. During the Soviet period, the Soviets themselves were pretty harsh censors, and the materials coming out from outside the Iron Curtain were frankly even more laughable.
Today, the "criticize socialism" campaigns in former Soviet states and satellites are so ubiquitous that talking to people who grew up in the Soviet era is like being in a Monty Python Sketch. I mean, I've literally been told that the Soviets never did anything for the Czech people while riding in the subway (which the Soviets, of course, built).
-Username17
Today, the "criticize socialism" campaigns in former Soviet states and satellites are so ubiquitous that talking to people who grew up in the Soviet era is like being in a Monty Python Sketch. I mean, I've literally been told that the Soviets never did anything for the Czech people while riding in the subway (which the Soviets, of course, built).
-Username17
-
Shrapnel
- Prince
- Posts: 3146
- Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 4:14 pm
- Location: Burgess Shale, 500 MYA
- Contact:
DarthRabbitt is a die hard Communist, and he knows a shitload about this shit. It may be worthwhile to ask him, if you want a somewhat biased view.
Lord knows he needs someone else to talk to about it. Whenever he starts bringing it up with me, my mind clicks off.
Lord knows he needs someone else to talk to about it. Whenever he starts bringing it up with me, my mind clicks off.
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
-
Darth Rabbitt
- Overlord
- Posts: 8871
- Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:31 pm
- Location: In "In The Trenches," mostly.
- Contact:
Seriously, Shrapnel introduces me that way to everyone he can.
Honestly, I wouldn't be able to give anything better than scholarly journals, and since I'm biased it's probably worse.
Hell, Frank probably knows more than I do anyways.
Honestly, I wouldn't be able to give anything better than scholarly journals, and since I'm biased it's probably worse.
Hell, Frank probably knows more than I do anyways.
Pseudo Stupidity wrote:This Applebees fucking sucks, much like all Applebees. I wanted to go to Femboy Hooters (communism).
-
OgreBattle
- King
- Posts: 6820
- Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:33 am
Re: In Soviet Russia progress makes you
www.quora.comLord Mistborn wrote:So I'm writing a paper on the development of the Soviet Union leading up to World War II under Lenin and Stalin, and the eventual stagnation of the Soviet system under Brezhnev. Now I live in America where the general populace believes that communists are agents of Satan, that are secretly plotting to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids. Where would be the best place to go to get some candid information about the USSR (not propaganda).
http://www.quora.com/What-was-it-like-t ... -collapsed
Check it out. Ask a question there yourself and you'll get answers from people who were there, or books cited.
-
Username17
- Serious Badass
- Posts: 29894
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
That discussion is about the end of the Soviet period - 1990-1992 when at he behest of sagely (but very wrong) economists the Soviet Union attempted to rapidly privatize everything and let the magic of the market sort everything out. This had the entirely predictable result of unemploying half the country, creating massive shortages of goods and services in every sector, reducing the life expectancy of the populace, and delivering control over the means of production to criminal gangs. It was na unmitigated disaster, and a mistake so massive that you can't even disentangle how much of that collapse was an inevitable result of the fact that the economy was deranged by mismanagement in the decades prior and how much was the absolutely catastrophic looting that was going on.
But if you want to talk about Soviet development and achievement, you want to talk about Lenin through Krushchev. Stalin is... extremely problematic as he achieved great things and also murdered unbelievable amounts of people. Lenin and Krushchev are considerably less problematic as they both presided over considerable improvements in the lives of people in the Soviet Union.
-Username17
But if you want to talk about Soviet development and achievement, you want to talk about Lenin through Krushchev. Stalin is... extremely problematic as he achieved great things and also murdered unbelievable amounts of people. Lenin and Krushchev are considerably less problematic as they both presided over considerable improvements in the lives of people in the Soviet Union.
-Username17
Honestly, a surprisingly large proportion of the papers I've written in the past three years have been on the agricultural development of the very early Soviet Union, and that's all I really know about. If you plan on spending any signficant time on collectivization, I'd be more than happy to look up said papers and send you the citations.
