--- Marvin Gandall <marvgandall at rogers.com> wrote: So I think this is a huge human tragedy, for which the building of the Moscow subway hardly compensates, and it should be acknowledged as such - without tears or sentimentality or a felt need to gild the lily.
---
When all is said and done, what was the outcome of the Soviet years?
1. Backward semi-feudal country industrialized. 2. Universal literacy brought to a largely illiterate population. 3. Great accomplishments in engineering and science (Russia celebrated the anniversary of Gagarin's flight a week or so ago). 4. Beating the greatest war machine in history.
They didn't usher in utopia, but not bad, really. Even given what's happened since it doesn't look too shabby. If the Russian Empire had collapsed in 1917 instead of 1991, you would probably have had the same scale of ethnic warfare and economic degradation, but without the intervening progress.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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