SOCIALISM
“Socialism is when the government does stuff. The more socialist it is, the more stuff it does. And if it does a real lot of stuff, it’s communism” - Carl Marks, 1738
If you’re completely lost on what socialism is, take a look at this webpage as a starting point.
Quality of Life
Quality of Life
- University of Oxford | A Reassessment of the Soviet Industrial Revolution
- Professor of Economic History, Robert C. Allen, states that “the Soviet economy performed well,” remarking that it achieved “high rates of capital accumulation, rapid GDP growth, and rising per capita consumption even in the 1930’s,” and that “recent research shows that the standard of living also increased briskly.” Also states that “This success would not have occurred without the 1917 revolution or the planned development of state owned industry.” A longer version of this work was published in book form by the Princeton University Press:
- Williams College | Reassessing the Standard of Living in the Soviet Union: An Analysis Using Archival and Anthropometric Data
- Detailed analysis of living standards in the USSR, which found that the Soviet Union achieved “Remarkably large and rapid improvements in child height, adult stature and infant mortality,” using this data to state that “significant improvements likely occurred in the nutrition, sanitary practices, and public health infrastructure.” Also states that “the physical growth record of the Soviet population compares favorably with that of other European countries at a similar level of development in this period.” She states that “The conventional measures of GNP growth and household consumption indicate a long, uninterrupted upward climb in the Soviet standard of living from 1928 to 1985; even Western estimates of these measures support this view, albeit at a slower rate of growth than the Soviet measures.”In addition, “Both Western and Soviet estimates of GNP growth in the Soviet Union indicate that GNP per capita grew in every decade in the postwar era, at times far surpassing the growth rates of the developed western economies.”
- Slavic Review (Cambridge University Press) | The Great Leap Upwards: Anthropometric Data and Indicators of Crises and Secular Change in Soviet Welfare Levels, 1880-1960
- Study demonstrating the steady increase in quality of life during the Soviet period (including under Stalin). Includes the fact that Soviet life expectancy grew faster than any other nation recorded at the time.
- Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
- In-depth comparison of the world’s two largest countries by population, one of which is socialist, and the other capitalist. Includes a detailed analysis of China under Mao Zedong, concluding that “the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period.” It describes Maoist China’s “remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment,” stating that “casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care.”
- Also includes some important remarks related to starvation in each country, saying “it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former… India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.”
- Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now
- Study which found that Chinese health conditions improved massively as a result of the communist revolution, and began to suffer as a result of the market reforms. As they put it, “China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC. By the mid-1970’s, China was already undergoing the epidemiological transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status… These people-focused approaches broke down with China’s market reforms from 1980.” This has important implications for the debate over economic and medical policy in China.
- Journal of Health Inequalities | Health in the Polish People’s Republic
- Study on healthcare conditions in the PPR, which found that “Before World War II (WWII) Poland was one of the countries with the poorest health in Europe… The health transformation that took place in Poland after WWII proceeded very rapidly. Control of infectious diseases and infant mortality became a state priority in the post-war Polish People’s Republic. The epidemiological transition that in the United Kingdom or Germany took almost a century, in Poland, and many other Central and East European (CEE) countries, occurred in the two decades following WWII. This process led the CEE region to almost closing the health gap dividing it from Western Europe in the 1960’s. Life expectancy in Poland increased to 70 years and infant mortality decreased to 30 deaths per 1000 live births.” However, these positive achievements were later offset by excessive smoking and drinking, as well as other man-made health risks which significantly harmed the health of the Polish people. This provides an important case study for socialists to study..
- Food and Agricultural Organization (United Nations) | Report on Nutrition in Cuba
- According to the FAO, Cuba’s “remarkably low percentages of child malnutrition put Cuba at the forefront of developing countries.”
- World Food Program USA (United Nations) | Cuba Has “Largely Eliminated Hunger and Poverty”
- The USA branch of the World Food Program (the food-assistance branch of the United Nations) claims that Cuba’s “comprehensive social protection programs” have helped to drastically reduce hunger in Cuba. This is especially impressive when Cuba is compared to other developing countries, and considering the decades of economic blockade.
- Europe-Asia Studies | The 1950’s: The Triumph of the Soviet Economy
- Study by G.I. Khanin (an esteemed Russian economist), which found that the Soviet economy outperformed the capitalist nations in numerous ways, and that the revisionist reforms put into place after Stalin’s death played a large role in the system’s slowdown. As he puts it, “Compared with the later period it is justifiable to talk of the indisputable advantages of the command over the market economy in Russian conditions… these advantages are evident even in comparison with the degenerate mid-1980’s version of the command economy, which was very different from the classical model.” He also contradicts the common claim that the Soviet economy under Stalin was inefficient, noting “The USSR economy also exceeded the main capitalist countries in this period in terms of a number of indicators of economic efficiency.”
- European Review of Economic History | The Roots of Economic Failure: What Explains East Germany’s Falling Behind Between 1945 and 1950?
- Study which found that the disparity between East and West Germany was primarily the result of factors which predated the establishment of socialism in the GDR. As they put it, “the “Great Divergence” between East and West in industrial efficiency did not begin in 1948, when the institutional development of the two parts of the country took fundamentally different paths. The main factors contributing to this divergence were already present earlier.” In addition, they argue that “ communism could actually accelerate industrial restructuring… This is reflected in the fact that, as shown in table 6, labor-productivity growth in East German industry accelerated after 1948, at least temporarily.” In other words the gap between East and West Germany formed before socialism took effect, and if anything, socialism helped to narrow the gap.
WIP
Polling in Socialist Countries
Polling in Socialist Countries
Polling consistently find that people in most ex-socialist countries feel that life was better under socialism than it is under capitalism. (Editor’s Note: With the exception of the Russian Levada Poll, all of these were done during the height of the Great Recession. It is possible that they are not measuring desire for the Soviet Union so much as they are dissatisfaction with capitalism)
Socialist Democracy and the extent of its Authoritarianism
Socialist Democracy and the extent of its Authoritarianism
People accuse the USSR and other socialist countries of ruling by fear and not having any democratic rule. This is true to an extent, but not to the extent that reactionary historians claim.
- International Council for Central and East European Studies | Reassessing the History of Soviet Workers: Opportunities to Criticize and Participate in Decision-Making, 1935-1941
- Study by Robert Thurston (Professor of History at Miami University at Ohio), which found that Soviet workers had strong and well-protected rights to criticize officials and participate in decision-making, particularly at the factory level. As he says, “at the lower levels of society, in day-to-day affairs and the implementation of policy, [the Soviet system] was participatory.” While there were limits to criticism, Thurston notes that “such bounds allowed a great deal that was deeply significant to workers, including some aspects of production norms, pay rates and classifications, safety on the job, housing, and treatment by managers. This occurred at a time when American workers in particular were struggling for basic union recognition, which even when won did not provide much formal influence at the workplace.”
- American Historical Review | Victims of the Soviet Penal System in the Pre-War Years: A First Approach on the Basis of Archival Evidence
- Study published in the most prestigious historical journal in America, which found that the total number of gulag prisoners was far lower than previously estimated. Also states that “The frequent assertion that most of the camp prisoners were ‘political’ also seems not to be true.” The study found that between 12% and 33% of camp prisoners were imprisoned for political offenses, with the rest convicted of legitimate crimes. This is corroborated by the following source as well.
- Slavic Review (Cambridge University Press) | Fear and Belief in the USSR’s “Great Terror”: Response to Arrest, 1935-1939
- An article refuting many common misconceptions about the so-called “Great Terror” under Stalin, demonstrating that the number of people arrested was much lower than commonly supposed. Also discusses the general support of the Soviet people for the socialist government, refuting the notion of a “captive population” put forth by many reactionaries.
- Slavic Review (Cambridge University Press) | On Desk-Bound Parochialism, Commonsense Perspectives, and Lousy Evidence: A Response to Robert Conquest on the USSR
- Robert W. Thurston, professor emeritus at Miami University (Ohio), thoroughly debunks the claims of Robert Conquest (and other reactionary historians) on the Stalin-period of the USSR, stating “Stalin, the press, and the Stakhanovite movement all regularly encouraged ordinary people to criticize those in authority.” He points out that many arrests in the 1930’s were actually late punishments for genuine offenses, such as serving in the White Army during the Civil War. Thuston also puts forth the question “If the citizenry was supposed to be terrorized and stop thinking, why encourage criticism and input from below on a large scale?” He also states that “my evidence suggests that widespread fear did not exist in the case at hand [the Soviet “Great Terror” period]”.
- Yale University Press | Life and Terror in Stalin’s Russia, 1934-1941
- Investigates the extent of coercion and force in Stalin’s USSR, concluding that “Stalin did not intend to terrorize the country and did not need to rule by fear. Memoirs and interviews with Soviet people indicate that many more believed in Stalin’s quest to eliminate internal enemies than were frightened by it.” The book also shows that “between 1934 and 1936 police and court practice relaxed significantly. Then a series of events, together with the tense international situation and memories of real enemy activity during the savage Russian Civil War, combined to push leaders and people into a hysterical hunt for perceived ‘wreckers.’ After late 1938, however, the police and courts became dramatically milder.”
- One of the book’s more interesting comments, specifically relating to Stalin: “There was never a long period of Stalinism without a serious foreign threat, major internal dislocation, or both, which makes identifying its true nature impossible.” One of the more interesting statements from a bourgeois historian on Stalin, acknowledging that the repression of the Stalin period, far from being the casual whim of the man himself, emerged as a mass response to genuine threats.