A pensive thought on the fall of the Soviet Union

 —  Nasir Khan, Nov. 26, 2017

My aim to post this article is not to fall in the easy trap of Stalin bashing, all too common and all too pervasive in the factional perspectives and political leanings that emerged with the success of the October Revolution in 1917 under Lenin and his comrades, but soon became a problem after his death in 1924. My aim is rather to ask our left-wing friends and other readers to look critically at the history of the Bolshevik Revolution after the death of Vladimir Lenin and assess dispassionately the course it took due to internal power struggles that played havoc with the international working class movement in many ways and finally led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The whole world witnessed that it was the Soviet Union that played the major part in defeating the Nazi Germany; however, in 1991, it finally fell due to the inherent contradictions and the conservative bureaucratic structure of the system that no longer was able to keep pace with the advances made in the capitalist countries both in technology and management of the demands of industrial production and expansion in the economies.

In a direct way, Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost were his general admissions that the system needed a drastic overhauling, something with which many of us agreed. But he had no means at his disposal or power to effect such transformations without unleashing those very forces which eventually got the upper hand and gave a death blow to the tottering system.

The stultified party structure that controlled the State and the conservative bureaucratic system that prevailed were no longer able to cope with the new situation. Gorbachev and his project fell, and as a result the Soviet Union breathed its last gasp.

Clearly, the dormant anti-Socialist reactionary forces got their chance, and they did what they wanted to do to put an end to the Soviet Union, which, despite its weaknesses was still a major source of inspiration for the revolutionary and anti-capitalist forces globally. The end of the Soviet Union was certainly not the end of history, as in 1992 one jubilant philosopher of American capitalism, Francis Fukuyama, asserted, but it certainly was the end an era.

For the international communist movement, communist parties and radical trade unions, it was a traumatic experience and many became the victims of disappointment and depression. But history did not stop, it never stops. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the powerful rulers of capitalism have been busy cementing their power by more wars and depredations world-wide for maximizing their profits of the industrial-military complex, and subjugating the weaker countries to their diktat.

The story continues. The war dogs are busy, very busy.

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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/22/mura-n22.html