On The Anniversary of The Demise of the Soviet Union-1991
Commentary
This August marks the Anniversary of an aborted coup by a segment of the Soviet bureaucracy that began the unravelling of the Soviet Union. Some anniversaries the international working class commemorates with a certain resignation that the event signals better times to come, like the Paris Commune. Some we commemorate with a burning desire for revenge, like the case of Sacco and Vanzetti. Some we gladly honor as a signpost for the future, like the Russian Revolution of 1917. This one, however, no militant leftist should think of with anything but chagrin.
If it was not apparent at the time of the coup, in the welter of ‘death of communism’ rhetoric since then, 17 years is enough to teach any honest militant that the demise of the Soviet Union has entered the books as a world historic defeat for the working class. If nothing else we have learned a very hard lesson about the value of even a degenerated workers state as a factor on our side in world politics. While no one wants to go back to the old Stalinist days, in Russia or anywhere else, damn we of the revolutionary left are in a tough spot today just at a time when we could use some help against international imperialism from even such a 'blunted' instrument. In any case, even if today I am forced to say this somewhat wistfully- Forward to new Octobers. We are, after all, even those who kick and scream about it all children of the Russian Revolution.
Commentary
This August marks the Anniversary of an aborted coup by a segment of the Soviet bureaucracy that began the unravelling of the Soviet Union. Some anniversaries the international working class commemorates with a certain resignation that the event signals better times to come, like the Paris Commune. Some we commemorate with a burning desire for revenge, like the case of Sacco and Vanzetti. Some we gladly honor as a signpost for the future, like the Russian Revolution of 1917. This one, however, no militant leftist should think of with anything but chagrin.
If it was not apparent at the time of the coup, in the welter of ‘death of communism’ rhetoric since then, 17 years is enough to teach any honest militant that the demise of the Soviet Union has entered the books as a world historic defeat for the working class. If nothing else we have learned a very hard lesson about the value of even a degenerated workers state as a factor on our side in world politics. While no one wants to go back to the old Stalinist days, in Russia or anywhere else, damn we of the revolutionary left are in a tough spot today just at a time when we could use some help against international imperialism from even such a 'blunted' instrument. In any case, even if today I am forced to say this somewhat wistfully- Forward to new Octobers. We are, after all, even those who kick and scream about it all children of the Russian Revolution.
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