But I don't know that it was a new class. Mostly a disguised old privileged class.
Class prejudice remained throughout the communist era.
Joanna
^^^^^ CB: As often is the case from where I sit, many people considered Stalin as dumbly trying to rationalize his "authoritarian" methods of rule when he said the class struggle sharpened with the advent of socialism in the Soviet Union. Turns out there is some truth in that notion.
^^^^^^^
----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
I do not think he handed over the country to IMF style oligarchs. A lot of literature on E Europe show the rapid growth of technocrats as a new social class (sometimes referred to as "red bourgeoisie.") It was clear that the old central planning structures were an impediment for the growing appetites of that social class - which btw admired Thatcher. So it was not as much as handing it cover to IMF oligarchs, but rather the red bourgeoisie taking the formal possession of what they already controlled as state employees.
wojtek
On Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 1:27 PM, // ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
> On Aug 17, 2011, at 11:13 AM, Michael Pollak wrote:
>> On Wed, 17 Aug 2011, // ravi wrote: