[lbo-talk] Stephen Cohen interview on The Soviet Union, the U.S. and Russia

Chris Doss lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 29 10:33:56 PST 2007


I don't think the US-USSR comparison holds up except superficially. The Collapse of the USSR for Dummies history is that the liberalization of society under Gorbachev allowed a freedom of movement of the elite, some of which dismantled the USSR in order to get rid of Gorbachev by getting rid of his country so they could seize power and impose their own agendas. The US has nothing corresponding the either Union Republics (fault lines along which the country could be broken apart) or a General Secretary with a "for as long as I live" tenure in office to get rid of.

--- Wojtek Sokolowski <swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
>
> [WS:] So basically he argues that the elite's
> looting
> of the country's wealth prompted it to embrace
> divisive power politics that led to the collapse of
> the Soviet institutions. In other words, it was the
> modern equivalent of the old notorious Russian
> institution of boyarschina (the rule of the gentry)
>
> that did the x-USSR in.
>
> Interesting argument, indeed, and pretty much in
> line
> with my own views of the subject. What is
> especially
> ironic about it is that a very similar thing is
> going
> on right now in the US. It remains to be seen if
> this
> will eventually do the US in as it did Russia, or
> the
> US will survive this elite looting of its wealth. I
> think it is much more to be looted here, so it may
> take considerable longer to find out.
>
> I think what can make a diffrence is what Trotsky
> and
> Gramsci called "civil society." Trotsky did not use
> the word, but used the same concept in his _Results
> and Prospects_ denoting a network of social
> instituitions in additon to those of the state (see
> also Durkheim on that). The argument is that "civil
> society" can function relatively independent of the
> state - so capturing the state (as in a revolution)
> doe not necessarily transalte into revolutionary
> changes. Gramsci argues that absence (Russia) or
> presence (Western Europe) explain the diffrence
> between the successful Bolshevik revolution and
> unsuccessful revolutionary attempts in Western
> Europe
> (cf. germany or Italy).
>
> Arguing along the same lines, weak civil society in
> x-USSR may explain why the war among and pilferage
> by
> the elites did the country in, as ther was little to
> sustain it. Arguably, the US has stronger civil
> society (or so they say) so it may survive pilferage
> by the elites.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>
>
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