Czechoslovakia was almost much more industrialized than most other east European countries, which made the kinds of economic policies that the Communist regime followed inappropriate for the country since these policies involved much slavish copying of what the Soviets were doing at the time. In fact not long after the CP had taken power in Czechoslovakia there was a major purge of the CP so that people such as veterans of the Spanish Civil War, Jews, and Slovak "bourgeois nationalists",
were arrested and executed following Stalinist-style show trials. As a consequence, Czechoslovakia became one of the most Stalinist countries of eastern Europe and remained so into the 1960s.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
www.foxymath.com
Learn or Review Basic Math
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Soviet empire? Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:37:33 -0400
[WS:] I wrote something about Communism creating the intelligentsia where none existed before but not the rest of the stuff, especially the "client states." It was a mixed bag anyway. Some, like Poland benefited at the end of the day, others like E. Germany paid the price for being a "friend of the USSR." Czechoslovakia probably paid the price too, but then they were most pro-Soviet of the bunch at the beginning.
As to corruption, it was endemic and the Communist regime tried to curb it by the organization of the industry, but they were not very successful. Again, a mixed bag if we look at details.
What I did repeatedly write here and elsewhere is that Eastern Europe is a complex reality that mixes Communist ideology with vestiges of feudalism, peasant collectivism, and elements of modern organization and social democracy. Therefore, we need to analytically separate the effects of each, which is a very difficult intellectual task. Unfortunately, not many are up to this task - most prefer simple demonization or simple glorification instead.
Wojtek
On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 8:34 PM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> If memory serves somebody (Woj? Shane?) wrote in sometime ago to argue against the idea of a Soviet empire, basically saying that the USSR did not rip off its client states, did not exact tribute,...but helped by minimizing corruption, educating its cadre, subsidizing their needs for natural resources, etc.
>
> I've got horrible research skills. I looked for the post in the archive by searching on "Soviet empire" and came up with nothing.
>
> Does anyone remember writing such a thing?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joanna
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
____________________________________________________________ 57-Year-Old Mom Looks 25 Mom Reveals $5 Wrinkle Trick That Has Angered Doctors! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4e9c2c41e8c5db45d16st06vuc