Very interesting chapter historically, still very sad as always, you can see the build up of the Great Patriotic war in the distance, the massive improvements made during this time all but guaranteed that capital would need to strike sooner rather than later, the longer they left the Soviets alone, the more impossible their already impossible task of destroying them militarily would become. I’ve never really understood the material reasons for the war as well as I do now, the capitalists were on borrowed time.

It also parallels modern US ambition against China, China is already at the point where the US cannot win a conventional war with them, but much like the Nazis, their desperation might drive them to try anyway, and it would be truly horrific to see a similar fate for China as we saw for the USSR, victorious, but devastated, never able to recover to those same heights.

Not related to the book, but I’ve been reading a little on the effects of Khrushchev’s secret speech on global socialist movements, and the more I learn, the more I feel it was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the Soviets had shown they were everything wonderful this book has shown them to be, compassionate, hardworking, dedicated, gentle, but far from powerless and weak, they were a shining example of socialism for the rest of humanity to follow, but it seems that after Stalin’s death, their national spirit was broken, political nihilism had set in, they stagnated and slowly faded into capitalist restoration.

I would love for a recommendation for further reading on how the USSR went from their peak, arguably the peak of all humanity, to their decline and eventual destruction, my understanding is quite basic at the moment, and it feels like a solid next step in further understanding the USSR.

Ultimately I don’t like to think about “what if” too much, but this book has really made it just so hard not too, such optimism for the future, how little the capitalist world has changed in almost a century, how the same myths that were being spread then are not buried and forgotten, or laughed at and mocked for their unrealistic and untrue nonsense, but are pillars of western society. Ask anyone who can barely read or write thanks to their capitalist education, they may barely be able to read a fast food menu, knowing nothing of science or innovation or anything really, but ask them about why the Soviet Union and Stalin were horrible and bad, and they’ll have a dozen examples ready to go off the top of their head. Victims of this system that bear the same “empty peasant gaze” as mentioned in a previous chapter will often be capitalism’s loudest and most aggressive defenders.

This book shows how rapidly material conditions can change a person, this was written a generation out from the Tsars, the “New Soviet Man” was so much more alive than those under feudalism, and developing so rapidly that even those living under capital were struggling to relate to them. So bright and optimistic for the future.

“Ten years hence,” said a Stakhanovite to me, “farming and industry may cease to be our main occupations. But there are other occupations when once we produce all the goods we need. Human development, exploration, science—to these there are no limits!”

This future they imagined didn’t come to pass, but this book really has inspired me, more so than any other work of theory, to really push for that future in whatever way I can. Thank you Edie for starting this group. And thank you all for tolerating my comments on it, which tended to be very long winded and talking mostly about myself rather than deep analysis, I hope people still enjoyed reading my thoughts though, I certainly enjoyed reading the discussions on each chapter, even went back to read the discussions on the chapters I fell behind on, regretting that pretty heavily while doing so, I would’ve loved to participate!

Looking forward to the next reading group, Soviet democracy is something I’ve had a lot of success “selling” to people in my life, people are very eager for a Soviet system, as long as you don’t use the scary “S” word to describe it, and just describe it as a system, but I’m hoping that learning more thoroughly about it will give me the confidence I need to really openly push for understanding of it in others. Also looking forward to just learning more about in general. To continue my personal ramblings, I rarely look forward to much of anything, life for me is mostly just existing, trying to gather up a tiny big of motivation to do my obligations, being enthusiastic about my work would increase my output tenfold, which is probably why this book has spoken to me so much, but I’ve been actively looking forward to each chapter and the discussions of it every week, it’s kept me going through some unpleasant times, even if I did bow out at the worst of those, it’s helped me keep things together and has always worked as motivation for me to not just give up entirely, so thank you again Edie for organising this group.