From "Krasnaya Molodyosh" (Red Youth)
No. 8, 1997.
The regime and its ideologists tirelessly want to convince the people that all the misfortunes and hardships that they have to endure are temporary. They claim that all this is due to some "transitional period" that will come to an end soon, and then the economy will start flourishing and life will be better. Until recently they avoided the question and only now they admit: we are undergoing a transition from socialism to capitalism. But even here the ideologists of the regime are lying since this transition took place 40 years ago.
Many talk about socialism, very often without having a clue of what socialism means. Often people say: we lived under socialism but it was no good. Here they mean the two-three decades that preceded Yeltsin, the so-called the "epoch of stagnation."
As a matter of fact the Khrushchev-Brezhnev period in the USSR had nothing to do with socialism. The construction of socialism in the Soviet Union was dismantled right after the death of J.V. Stalin. And this was not just accidental nor the result of an involuntary mistake. The counter-revolutionary coup that was held in March 1953 was the result of the tireless struggle of imperialism against the country of the new, progressive formation, socialism.
In his speech, on November 25, 1936, on the draft of the Constitution of the USSR, comrade Stalin said: "Our Soviet society has already, in the main, succeeded in achieving socialism; it has created a socialist system, i.e., it has brought about what Marxists in other words call the first, or lower, phase of communism. Hence, in the main, we have already achieved the first phase of communism, socialism." This implied that under the dictatorship of the proletariat capitalist exploitation was liquidated in the country. In the USSR there were no more capitalists, social property in the means of production dominated, new, formerly unknown relations of productions were consolidated: socialist relations of production. This gave a tremendous push to the development of all sides of life of the Soviet peoples: the economy, culture, science, education...
However, the period of socialism existed in the USSR for only 17 years. [Here the author means the period between the proclamation of Socialism in the USSR in 1936 until the death of Stalin. Translator's note.] One should subtract the years of war and reconstruction: only 10 years of peaceful development of socialism are left.
With the death of J.V. Stalin in March 1953 the Krushchevites started a line completely opposed to the Stalin's socialist line. The proletarian party was turned into a "party of the whole people," i.e. into a bourgeois party. In order to accomplish this the system of Stalinist party cadre was liquidated and in their place arose bourgeois cadre: Trotskyites, Bukharinites and similar enemies of the Soviet people. Those who were repressed and sent to jail in Stalin's times for economic and political crimes, were now proclaimed "innocent victims," released from jail and places in leading posts. These were capitalists. They started all over again to exploit the people, they restored capitalist exploitation in the country. But as a disguise they did not liquidate the CPSU and they kept the communist symbols. The descendants of these "victims" held key posts in many of the regions of the USSR ever since. Therefore, in March, 1953, a counter-revolutionary coup took place in the Soviet Union that led to the liquidation of socialism and the restoration of capitalism.
The replacement of Khrushchev by Brezhnev in 1964 did not bring a change in the general line. The bourgeois regime just decided to "replace the mask," since Khrushchev was already dripping with the blood of the rebellion of workers of Novocherkaz that was brutally smashed and he had gained the reputation of a political clown. In the 18 years of Brezhnevite economic rule, the economy of the USSR stopped growing and began to disintegrate, alcoholism and narcotics began to flourish in the country, and the standard of living of the people began to fall. However during this time the country still preserved a certain economic independence that was made possible due to its isolation from the outside world.
Gorbachev's "perestroika" put an end to all this. The regime no longer needed a communist disguise and it banned the CPSU. In order to better plunder the Soviet peoples, they dismembered the USSR. Former "secret" capitalists raised their heads high and openly plundered the people. All this yielded catastrophic results for the economy. The vast majority of the people have been plunged into misery. The bourgeois regime cannot transform itself into anything else. The transition from socialism back to capitalism was a transition from a progressive system to a reactionary one.
What is the way out? The way out is through struggle. The oppressed people should rise to the struggle for the restoration of socialism. And this can be achieved only by means of the revolutionary seizure of power by the working class. This struggle will be take place together with the struggle for the independence of the country. The ruling regime is serving the interests of imperialism. By kicking out this collaborationist clique the people will manage to restore socialism, the Soviet Union and make a decent life for the working people possible.
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