Some machine translated quotes from the article:
The film “Red Project”, released by the channel “Russia” for the centenary of the USSR, broke television ratings not just because it was perfectly made. It restored historical justice. For the first time in many years, the truth was clearly said: the USSR — is the greatest experiment of our people, the glorious pages of our history, our grand contribution to the development of mankind.
Since the late 1980s, this idea has been consistently wiped, muffled, and taken away from the info-pol. All Soviet was accepted to be ashamed.
[…]
What was it for? To take away the most precious legacy from us: our great achievements of the 20th century. Plants went bankrupt, resources — were stolen, and at the same time the worst robbery was carried out, to which the defeated countries were subjected. The history of the people was stolen so that the people lost their will to accomplish.
Inside the country, this propaganda has jammed one simple truth, which, no matter how you hide it, was obvious to everyone: in the Soviet Union, people lived much better than in the “holy 90s”. And outside — was preparing the world community for future anti-Russian disinformation campaigns. Today’s Russophobia — is an ugly child of anti-Soviet propaganda.
[…]
The paradox is that the more Stalin was scolded in the infopol, the higher his rating among the people grew. The more fiercely they scolded the USSR, the better people treated it.
New generations — both in Russia and around the world — are all looking closely at the practices of socialism, studying our unique experience. The classic crisis of capitalism, of course, is growing the request for alternative models of state building.
Today we can admit that anti-Soviet propaganda has failed, despite all the billions pumped there. It was another round of info-war, and we quite successfully survived it.
[…]
Because the USSR — is the source of our strength and inspiration. This is a rich inheritance that we do not have the right to surrender to the enemy. These are the titans on whose shoulders we stand: Gagarin and Kapitsa, Prokofiev and Eisenstein, Lenin and Stalin, Bulgakov and Mayakovsky.
And these are the ideas of socialism, which are still resonating throughout the world. Our Soviet Union was the only country to be able to satisfy the eternal request for social justice. Today, when super-rich people purposefully doom billions of people to poverty, Soviet experience is simply invaluable.
An interesting article for a mainstream (non communist) Russian media publication, maybe a sign of a resurgence of admiration for socialist ideas and the Soviet past beyond simple nostalgia? An indication that Russians are starting to reject the anti-Soviet propaganda that they have been bombarded with since Perestroika?
However the author of the article also takes a conciliatory position on the “reds vs whites” conflict. He makes an attempt to argue that both the Tsarist era and the Soviet should be embraced. From a Marxist point of view this is a kind of idealist historical revisionism, it makes no sense but a lot of Russians seem to favor these types of views.
On your first paragraph… Maybe more and more Russians are realising that Western anti-Soviet propaganda was always also anti-Russian. We’ve all now seen (not for the first time) that the Anglo-European bourgeoisie (and it’s followers) are only ever one step away from thinking of Russians in racist, xenophobic terms.
Seeing this play out on social media (a new phenomenon) following the Ukraine war… it’s bound to make some people think: ‘The Soviet system was just the given reason for hating us at the time, but unless we had been subjected to Western imperialism, we’d still have been attacked, and even if we had been so subjected, we’d have been attacked, as were Polish, Romanian, and Bulgarian immigrants to Europe after 2007. Now, then, it’s time to unhitch ourselves from the West and it’s system, and that means reckoning honestly with our Soviet history.’
On your first paragraph…
Yes, I’m funny.A buttload of Russians always realised that. Just look at the 1991 referendum. Liberal opposition had some popularity, but it was never a force, because what the fuck could they offer that would be a lot different from Putin’s liberalism? The problem was never with the people.“РИА Новости” is a state media and this article might be a sign of something, or it might be a part of usual populism.
I don’t doubt it. I’ve seen a few interviews where ‘ordinary’ Russians – just people wandering the street who talk to journalists – praise Stalin or Lenin. That kind of thing. Would you say this is widespread?
Do you think if there was a ‘fair’ election and one option was a committed communist party (ML) could it win? (When I say ‘fair’ I mean if the voters were given a genuine choice. I’m not suggesting Russian elections are especially unfair or rigged but politicians naturally twist things and media outlets push their favourites, etc, which distorts things somewhat.)
Of course, the people voted against dissolution when they had the chance, but it’s been 40 years. Is it too late? I know ruling classes tend not to give up power easily. But if socialism was on the table would half the population have to fight the other half or would there be mass support?
I think if there was a genuine choice, a majority of Russians would gladly vote for the restoration of a socialist Russia. Over roughly 70 percent of Russians want a return to socialism.
Still that high, then. Interesting.
Its been increasing for like the past decade.
(When I say ‘fair’ I mean if the voters were given a genuine choice. I’m not suggesting Russian elections are especially unfair or rigged but politicians naturally twist things and media outlets push their favourites, etc, which distorts things somewhat.)
We’re not on lemmy, I am aware of shortcomings of bourgeoise elections, comrade=)
As for your main question, yes, there is a sharp demand for economic justice and while on one hand counter-revolutionary propaganda inflicted it’s damage, on the other it is also coming apart at the seams the more people take interest in politics and history, times being what they are, try to understand what the fuck the West wants from us, why the current system isn’t great at dealing with that, realise that most of the great stuff we have is Soviet legacy, that capitalism is what errodes that legacy and what perspectives the country has in the long run under capitalism. There are many socdems amond the Russian left, but I doubt they will support the right over ML’s and their numbers are dwindling the same way the numbers of libs are.
As for the potential civil war, I honestly couldn’t tell. People in hard opposition to socialism are hardly the majority, and monarchists in particular are looked upon as freaks, but I don’t think their numbers are irrelevant by any means. I also don’t think this matters a lot though. The government isn’t anywhere close enough to revolutionary situation kind of unstable and I don’t have any statistics on political views in the police/national guard/army… I’m pretty sure there is no shit like personal oligarch militias armed to the teeth like in post-2014 Ukraine at the very least. Someone might point at Wagner, but they’re on an even tighter leash than Blackwater ever was.
Thanks for replying. Useful to know.
(I was just clarifying that I wasn’t simply repeating the story found in Western media; i.e. that elections outside the West are conducted at gunpoint – as was reported about Donbas, etc.)
realise that most of the great stuff we have is Soviet legacy
It is a shame that more people in the ‘international community’ do not see this, but the benefits of the welfare state have been steadily eroded since the USSR fell 😞 Those benefits are also a Soviet legacy.
Don’t suppose anyone had a link to that film, “Red Project”, with English subs?
You know, I also want English subtitles to it, even if its a rough and decent enough translation.
I came across this series of documentaries on YouTube (in Russian) - not sure if it is the same film mentioned (they are listed under the same name, “Красный проект”), but they are on the topic of the USSR. No formal English subtitles, but YouTube can generate approximate translations (click CC - enable Closed Captions - then Settings > Auto-translate and pick the language).
