c b wrote:
> I want to add that hindsight analysis...
Dear @cb: If it is not done in hindsight, what does one analyse? (<= 140).
--ravi
^^^^^ CB: With respect to this thread, 1941 we view in hindsight. We know exactly when imperialism invaded the SU. So, we might say, "oh, Trotsky was right; the pace of industrialization could have been slower.". In 1930, the Soviet leadership did not have the advantage of this hindsight. They would have had to have been very prescient ( not use hindsight) to know for certain, as we do in hindsight, that the Nazi invasion wouldn't come until 1941.
We are doing it in hindsight. The Soviet leaders had to have foresight, "another" analysis one does. In analyzing and judging the Soviet leaders' decisions, there is a tendency not to take account of the fact that we know more than they did because we are using hindsight, to criticize them as if they knew what we know in hindsight (smile ==> 2009)