u/snapp3r - originally from r/GenZhou
According to Lenin, the five basic features are:

  1. The concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life
  2. the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this “finance capital”, of a financial oligarchy;
  3. the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;
  4. the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and
  5. the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed.

Does Russia fulfill this criteria?

  • archive_botOPB
    0·
    3 years ago

    u/poteland - originally from r/GenZhou

    I don’t believe that Russia thinks about anything other than their own power bloc, tbh. Their actions aren’t 4D chess of subversion, so much as, “What can we get away with?”

    I wholeheartedly agree! That is mostly what I am arguing (perhaps clumsily), I do not disagree with neither this nor with capitalism’s inevitable eventual march towards imperialism, just pointing out that it’s not an active attempt.

    For example, the Ukrainian invasion has been extremely clumsy on multiple fronts, especially if your goal was to subvert US hegemony and decentralize power from the US on the world stage.

    I’d argue that for now Rusia’s actions have been (geopolitically) a huge win, since it upsets the status quo: NATO has been harassing it for decades now and only now, for the first time, they are on the back foot and having to decide how they react. Sure, the world’s western powers have aligned themselves heavily with NATO which… of course they were going to. It was only a matter of time, if they could afford to they’d do it to China as well. But fundamentally: things are changing, change in the status quo is bad for the hegemonic bloc and good for the rest of us IMO.

    Yes, they want to subvert the US hegemony, and sometimes throw egg on the US’s face, and that makes them an enemy to US-led imperialism. But you shouldn’t have any doubts that Russia is not an ally to those of us that are anti-imperialist, and wouldn’t do the exact same things as the US if given the opportunity.

    This is where I’d (partly) disagree, Rusia has been materially an ally of all the non-aligned nations to some degree. Not because of class character (and here’s where I agree with you, you’re absolutely right). Just as capitalism is a global system so is imperialism, and the decline or defeat of the main imperialist power is good for the world, given the choice I would very much substitute one hegemon for another, weaker one which is easier to bring down.

    In any case, I don’t claim to have the absolute truth of things here and I want to make that clear, it’s just how I evaluate the issue, but I am also aware of how complex it is and how different readings like yours could very well be the “correct” one.