It’s live here: https://www.reddit.com/r/russia/comments/66q52x/hi_rrussia_anatoly_karlin_writer_for_the_unz/
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Most of the people there are basically Russian patriots, though considerably more socially liberal and better acquainted with the West than the Russian average. However, there are plenty of Communists, nationalists, and liberals there as well.
Lenin seized control of the Russian Empire and set Russia’s course for 50 or more years. What did you do yesterday?
Putting Lenin in the garbage disposal is no different from the airheads trying to erase American history by taking Andy Jackson off the $20 dollar bill.
There was no Russian Empire when Lenin and his guys took over.
There’s been a Russian Empire since the 1500’s, the component parts and degree and method of control has varied.
Russian Empire existed from 1721 to 1917.
Anatoly,
You mentioned this over on the Reddit, and I’m curious. Why is it that support for the Communists is so low among young people (and equally importantly why it’s so low in general- 15% or so), even when the Levada polls consistently say that if you ask them an abstract question about “preferred form of government/economy”, around 55-60% of people consistently say “communism”.
I saw another survey somewhere (not by Levada I think) that indicated something like 70% of self described communists planned to vote for Putin in the next election.
Why is it that voting behavior and party ID for Russians doesn’t really seem to match up with what they tell the opinion surveys about their preferred model for society in the abstract?
Specifically, “state planning and distribution.”
This isn’t a definitive answer, but personally, I would read too much into it. Again, let’s compare it to results from other countries.
While Russians are more skeptical of free markets than the international average – understandable, given the 1990s – they are hardly an outlier:
As you can see from above, some Europeans like the French and Spaniards are actually less keen on free markets than Russians. But they’re not voting Communists into power. Melenchon, a much more charismatic person than Zyuganov, currently polls about 20% in France.
Other polls have shown that Ukrainians miss the USSR more than Russians. That didn’t stop the Maidanists from banning the Ukrainian Communist Party – and without provoking anything in the way of protest.
I know quite a few people like that.
Even amongst Communists, Gennady Zyuganov is not very popular. As Nigel Farage said of Rompuy, he has the charisma of a damp rag, and a lot of KPRF voters still haven’t forgiven him for not challenging the results of the 1996 election.
Incidentally, I would say that the fact that the Communists still haven’t changed their leader despite all this just further demonstrates that they are fossils.
One often hears in central Ukraine (very rarely in the West) that the collapse of the Soviet Union was done poorly or was a mistake, but that trying to recreate it would be a bigger mistake and the way forward is through the West. “Missing” the USSR and being opposed to the Communists are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Plus, Ukraine’s Communists were more obvious tools of the Eastern oligarchic clans than are Russia’s Communists.
The parts of Ukraine where the Communists were most popular are no longer in Ukraine.
Zyuganov enjoys a cordial relationship with whoever is in charge. One of his close relatives told me that he was given the courtesy of having been told the election result in advance.
Even setting aside the fact that Lenin was bad for Russia, he personally never wished for his dead body to be put on display for almost a century after his death. That is just bizarre and is in contravention of basic human decency.
I just read that Russia is sending troops to Syria. Unless the war is won quickly, it seems like a bad idea.
True or not, who knows? But the rebels could well be close to collapse, and introducing a substantial Russian force once major combat is over might be valuable insurance against McMaster and Co. getting any foolish ideas.
Sources
Questionable sources
This is usually difficult to tell. Even in regular warfare. The Allied leadership in September 1944 thought that the Germans could hold on no longer than perhaps Christmas, and that with a bit of luck they could finish the war even earlier than that. Then in late March 1945 they were surprised how suddenly the Germans really collapsed and started surrendering en masse. It’s also a question of American (etc.) weapons and money supply, which will depend on US (etc.) political decisions and could change suddenly.
True.