Heartfeld writes:
"This workers’ state... , reducing its working class to penury..."
My response: Whoo-hoo! (Gales of laughter, tears fall from eyes.) "Reduced"? What the hell kind of living standards do you think workers enjoyed under the tsars? You think Kazakhstan, which now has a Cosmodrom, was an eden of prosperity? The Brezhnev era was the GOLDEN AGE in terms of material prosperity in Russia. Most of the population would love to be back into their supposed "penury," back in those awful bad old days when there were not thousands of homeless childern living in the Moscow metro and pensioners did not have to collect bottles to get enough money to eat. 80% of the Dagestani population (including some of those deported Cherkess, Ingush, and Chechens) describes the ideal form of society for Dagestan as "Brezhnev-type socialism," as opposed to 5% -- Islamic state and 15% -- liberal democracy. Let me repeat that figure -- 80%. And daycare center it was -- economic security was TOTAL. There was no fear for the future at all. As parents tell me time and time and time again, they wish they still lived then so that it would be safe for their children to play on the street. Yes, the Soviet Union, which for most people in the Caucauses and Central Asia meant electricity and a living wage, was BAD BAD BAD. In fact, the Soviet Union was so hellish that a full 70% of the population voted to retain it. Apparently the view that it was wicked and evil was more supported by the CPSU, only 15% of which voted to retain the Union.
As a matter of fact, security was so great that it created a culture of dependency. Russia is full of homeless people and alcoholics who were unable to make the transition and fell though the cracks.
The last time I was in the States, I caught an old episode of the Honeymooners on TV and was startled by the shock of recognition: That is a Soviet apartment, and those are Soviet living standards. You could rename the couple Ivan and Natasha and you could be looking at Soviet life in the 1970s-80s. Poor, yes. "Penury"? Ho, ho. Chortle, chortle.
_________________________________________________________________ There are now three new levels of MSN Hotmail Extra Storage! Learn more. http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=hotmail/es2&ST=1