I’m aware of the intense nostalgia faced by the post-soviet peoples. I myself would probably fall into despair seeing such a system ripped from under my feet. I know many in Russia travel to the DPRK as it more closely resembles the Soviet era, despite being its own unique form of juche socialism. However, as I stand outside of the post-soviet sphere, in a country founded on genocide and settler-colonialism that continued to prey upon the world, I also believe I can have a view of Chinese, Korean, and former Soviet socialism that recognizes them all as legitimate emancipatory efforts.
“I’m aware of the intense nostalgia faced by the post-soviet peoples. I myself would probably fall into despair seeing such a system ripped from under my feet.”
Comrade—as I understand it—you possess a soul; otherwise, you are being disingenuous.
Assuming you are not being disingenuous, do you not find that you acquired this soul through the ideals of socialism—however materialistic those ideals may have been?
You may be quite surprised to learn that my parents actually supported Perestroika—and even the collapse of the USSR. From the early 1980s onward, they tuned in to Radio Liberty. They put their faith in Seva Novgorodtsev and Alexander Solzhenitsyn; his books were even read aloud, live on air. This propaganda campaign was specifically engineered to target the “thinking” intelligentsia. In doing so, they effectively poisoned the intelligentsia. As for the common people, they were poisoned with Western culture—a toxic brew of sex, violence, and drugs. I remember how alluring that “forbidden fruit” seemed to me back then. At the time, I didn’t understand any of it; but now, looking back, I see it all with crystal clarity. I can trace, step by step, the CIA’s covert operation to dismantle the Soviet Union.
I will go even further: to this day, there remain a great many people in Russia who still haven’t grasped what truly happened. These are the individuals who quickly adapted to the new reality and set about making money. These are the very people who, during the Soviet era, were nothing more than petty traders and profiteers—individuals whose activities were, by the standards of that time, considered criminal. It was precisely these people who rose to the top with astonishing speed. And now, you would be hard-pressed to convince them that life was actually better under the Soviet system. These individuals—who have amassed fortunes and now occupy the highest rungs of Russia’s social hierarchy—are the ones shaping public opinion. Nowadays, the Russian people are being hoodwinked with notions of “God and Tsar”—specifically, the idea of a Tsar as God’s anointed sovereign. And this utter nonsense is currently being hammered into the heads of ordinary Russians with dead earnestness. Their nostalgia is not for the USSR, but rather for Tsarist Russia… These profiteers are never satisfied; they crave more—specifically, they crave even greater power over the people. Only now, they are no longer noble aristocrats—but noble profiteers and thieves.
And when all of this unfolds against the backdrop of red flags at a parade in Moscow—with the Mausoleum, for some reason, hidden away from everyone—it looks like a farce!
“despite being its own unique form of juche socialism.”
I didn’t know that word. What I gathered from the videos I watched—made by Russian bloggers traveling to Korea specifically to experience a return to the USSR—was this: on the positive side, I really admired the way the youth are raised. It is exactly like it was in the Soviet Union—it actually brought a tear to my eye… :)
As for the downsides: the Party there constitutes a separate, privileged class. Isn’t that precisely what that term signifies—the one I can’t quite pronounce… Juche?
I can certainly empathize. I have emotions, I’m a human being that feels anger and frustration, and can have that cloud my judgment. In that way, I have a “soul,” though to be clear I do not believe in literal souls. However, I do not believe that emotional evaluations supercede rational ones, which is why I can say I would probably feel that way despite understanding it to be incorrect.
As for juche, it’s a Korean word. It largely means subjecthood, and can best be described as socialism with Korean characteristics. The party is not a privledged class in the DPRK, it’s similar to how it was with the CPSU. Instead, the significance of juche comes from the understanding of man as a social being. It accepts Marxism-Leninism as fundamentally true, but that the soviet method could not be dogmatically copied by the DPRK and thus the conditions in Korea meant it had to adapt.
The party is not a privledged class in the DPRK, it’s similar to how it was with the CPSU.
If I recall correctly, only Party members are allowed to own cars there. Thank God the Chinese have helped out a bit with this lately… though, so far, it’s only been a very small amount.
The same goes for free apartments in upscale neighborhoods. It seems to me that the Party there enjoys far more privileges than the Party did in the USSR.
Do you see what I’m getting at? People don’t strive to achieve success in life; instead, they dream of getting into the Party.
My parents were not Party members. That’s because, in the USSR, the Party was more about unnecessary hassles and responsibilities than it was about privileges—unless, of course, you wanted to climb the Party ladder rapidly. But my parents had no need for that; they were perfectly content with things just as they were.
As far as I know, car ownership isn’t limited to party members, and all apartments are free in the DPRK. Those deemed critical enough can get better lodgings, but this is not exclusive to party members.
There are very few cars there—I’m not sure what to compare it to; even in the USSR in the 1960s, there were more. Almost all of the vehicles are state-owned. Check YouTube—you’ll see for yourself just how many cars are on the streets.
As for the free apartments, I was referring to the upscale residential complexes in major cities and the like. I saw a video about them online. Incidentally, you don’t actually need to know Korean to communicate there, as almost everyone can get by in Russian. One young woman, in fact—speaking in Russian—specifically mentioned that those are “Party buildings.” They are the most beautiful and modern structures in the city.
As for China, here is a look at a Chinese village—and not even one of the worst ones:
Regarding car ownership, it’s rising dramatically even in the last year. At one point it was far more limited, but the DPRK’s economy is booming and trade with China is rising.
As for apartments, I don’t doubt that better apartments are made available to more critical workers and party members, this is similar to the USSR. The DPRK is constantly building new apartments, and as this happens the range with which people can get apartments widens.
As for China’s rural conditions, I’m well aware of the urban/rural gap, and this is thankfully something the CPC is focusing on improving.
Regarding car ownership, it’s rising dramatically even in the last year. At one point it was far more limited, but the DPRK’s economy is booming and trade with China is rising.
It’s about time…
As for China’s rural conditions, I’m well aware of the urban/rural gap
As we recently discovered, this is a side effect of the NEP. It has spawned a class of wealthy individuals who will be incredibly difficult to combat later on. They will not simply yield to “soft power.” They must be “dekulakized.” How this is to be carried out in practice, I do not understand.
I’m aware that the urban/rural gap is a part of China’s socialist market economy. China has responded to it with the poverty eradication program, supporting cooperatives at the rural level, and gradually focuses on industrializing the impoverished communities.
I’m aware of the intense nostalgia faced by the post-soviet peoples. I myself would probably fall into despair seeing such a system ripped from under my feet. I know many in Russia travel to the DPRK as it more closely resembles the Soviet era, despite being its own unique form of juche socialism. However, as I stand outside of the post-soviet sphere, in a country founded on genocide and settler-colonialism that continued to prey upon the world, I also believe I can have a view of Chinese, Korean, and former Soviet socialism that recognizes them all as legitimate emancipatory efforts.
“I’m aware of the intense nostalgia faced by the post-soviet peoples. I myself would probably fall into despair seeing such a system ripped from under my feet.”
Comrade—as I understand it—you possess a soul; otherwise, you are being disingenuous.
Assuming you are not being disingenuous, do you not find that you acquired this soul through the ideals of socialism—however materialistic those ideals may have been?
You may be quite surprised to learn that my parents actually supported Perestroika—and even the collapse of the USSR. From the early 1980s onward, they tuned in to Radio Liberty. They put their faith in Seva Novgorodtsev and Alexander Solzhenitsyn; his books were even read aloud, live on air. This propaganda campaign was specifically engineered to target the “thinking” intelligentsia. In doing so, they effectively poisoned the intelligentsia. As for the common people, they were poisoned with Western culture—a toxic brew of sex, violence, and drugs. I remember how alluring that “forbidden fruit” seemed to me back then. At the time, I didn’t understand any of it; but now, looking back, I see it all with crystal clarity. I can trace, step by step, the CIA’s covert operation to dismantle the Soviet Union.
I will go even further: to this day, there remain a great many people in Russia who still haven’t grasped what truly happened. These are the individuals who quickly adapted to the new reality and set about making money. These are the very people who, during the Soviet era, were nothing more than petty traders and profiteers—individuals whose activities were, by the standards of that time, considered criminal. It was precisely these people who rose to the top with astonishing speed. And now, you would be hard-pressed to convince them that life was actually better under the Soviet system. These individuals—who have amassed fortunes and now occupy the highest rungs of Russia’s social hierarchy—are the ones shaping public opinion. Nowadays, the Russian people are being hoodwinked with notions of “God and Tsar”—specifically, the idea of a Tsar as God’s anointed sovereign. And this utter nonsense is currently being hammered into the heads of ordinary Russians with dead earnestness. Their nostalgia is not for the USSR, but rather for Tsarist Russia… These profiteers are never satisfied; they crave more—specifically, they crave even greater power over the people. Only now, they are no longer noble aristocrats—but noble profiteers and thieves.
And when all of this unfolds against the backdrop of red flags at a parade in Moscow—with the Mausoleum, for some reason, hidden away from everyone—it looks like a farce!
“despite being its own unique form of juche socialism.”
I didn’t know that word. What I gathered from the videos I watched—made by Russian bloggers traveling to Korea specifically to experience a return to the USSR—was this: on the positive side, I really admired the way the youth are raised. It is exactly like it was in the Soviet Union—it actually brought a tear to my eye… :)
As for the downsides: the Party there constitutes a separate, privileged class. Isn’t that precisely what that term signifies—the one I can’t quite pronounce… Juche?
I can certainly empathize. I have emotions, I’m a human being that feels anger and frustration, and can have that cloud my judgment. In that way, I have a “soul,” though to be clear I do not believe in literal souls. However, I do not believe that emotional evaluations supercede rational ones, which is why I can say I would probably feel that way despite understanding it to be incorrect.
As for juche, it’s a Korean word. It largely means subjecthood, and can best be described as socialism with Korean characteristics. The party is not a privledged class in the DPRK, it’s similar to how it was with the CPSU. Instead, the significance of juche comes from the understanding of man as a social being. It accepts Marxism-Leninism as fundamentally true, but that the soviet method could not be dogmatically copied by the DPRK and thus the conditions in Korea meant it had to adapt.
If I recall correctly, only Party members are allowed to own cars there. Thank God the Chinese have helped out a bit with this lately… though, so far, it’s only been a very small amount.
The same goes for free apartments in upscale neighborhoods. It seems to me that the Party there enjoys far more privileges than the Party did in the USSR.
Do you see what I’m getting at? People don’t strive to achieve success in life; instead, they dream of getting into the Party.
My parents were not Party members. That’s because, in the USSR, the Party was more about unnecessary hassles and responsibilities than it was about privileges—unless, of course, you wanted to climb the Party ladder rapidly. But my parents had no need for that; they were perfectly content with things just as they were.
As far as I know, car ownership isn’t limited to party members, and all apartments are free in the DPRK. Those deemed critical enough can get better lodgings, but this is not exclusive to party members.
There are very few cars there—I’m not sure what to compare it to; even in the USSR in the 1960s, there were more. Almost all of the vehicles are state-owned. Check YouTube—you’ll see for yourself just how many cars are on the streets.
https://youtu.be/NUXAPSra3Ts
As for the free apartments, I was referring to the upscale residential complexes in major cities and the like. I saw a video about them online. Incidentally, you don’t actually need to know Korean to communicate there, as almost everyone can get by in Russian. One young woman, in fact—speaking in Russian—specifically mentioned that those are “Party buildings.” They are the most beautiful and modern structures in the city.
As for China, here is a look at a Chinese village—and not even one of the worst ones:
(I have nothing against it; I’m just showing.)
https://youtu.be/sT8ubmgeS6c
Regarding car ownership, it’s rising dramatically even in the last year. At one point it was far more limited, but the DPRK’s economy is booming and trade with China is rising.
As for apartments, I don’t doubt that better apartments are made available to more critical workers and party members, this is similar to the USSR. The DPRK is constantly building new apartments, and as this happens the range with which people can get apartments widens.
As for China’s rural conditions, I’m well aware of the urban/rural gap, and this is thankfully something the CPC is focusing on improving.
It’s about time…
As we recently discovered, this is a side effect of the NEP. It has spawned a class of wealthy individuals who will be incredibly difficult to combat later on. They will not simply yield to “soft power.” They must be “dekulakized.” How this is to be carried out in practice, I do not understand.
I’m aware that the urban/rural gap is a part of China’s socialist market economy. China has responded to it with the poverty eradication program, supporting cooperatives at the rural level, and gradually focuses on industrializing the impoverished communities.
No one here talks about this.
It is a breadth of emotion, sincerity, a striving toward higher ideals, and the capacity for deep feeling.
Understood, in that case I believe I have a “soul.”