The hellscape of the USSR with its abolition of unemployment through guaranteed jobs
Ah yes, the self reported statistic of elimination of unemployment in the USSR.
Hey, did you know Trump has also eliminated unemployment and ushered in a new golden age for America? The source of this I formation is the exact same as the USSR unemployment stats.
Source: Trust me, bro!
But hey, I am more inclined to believe the USSR eliminated unemployment what with them having the same unemployment policy that the Confederacy had for black Americans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labor_in_the_Soviet_Union?wprov=sfla1
, abolition of homelessness through guaranteed housing, free education to the highest level, universal healthcare, retirement pensions at 60 years of age (55 for women), highest level of unionization in the world at the time, lowest inequality rates, complete alphabetization and the more than doubling of life expectancy. So horrifying.
And in all that time, the USSR never came close to proletariat rule, elimination of the system of capital, nor giving the means of production to the proletariat.
Not to mention the fact most of this bullshit is
- Still self reported by an authoritarian state and thusly unreliable
- Sure as fuck not happening under Stalin who, again, only got into power because the revolution was a failure in achieving communism, or even socialism
You know where else accomplished extreme improvements to the working class has happened without a bullshit Marxist-Leninist revolution? Scandinavian countries. You know, countries that vastly embody the ideals of Marx more than the USSR, China, or any self proclaimed communist country has.
The Bolsheviks correctly predicted an attack by capitalist nations
They didn't "predict" shit. Anyone with a working prefrontal cortex would have foreseen the capitalist class powers of the world would scramble to crush any upset to their order.
HOWEVER, the working people did not see this order upset. They saw it swapped with another order of ruling capitalists, but at the state level.
Did the state give the workers some benefits? Sure. Did it also employ mass slavery, mass murder, falsify its own numbers, and set a solid-hard barrier that outright permanently prevented proletariat rule, the proletariat owning the means of production, and elimination of the system if capital like was the fucking point of communism?
Yes.
and started the fastest industrialization in history up to that point in 1929, growing the Soviet industrial output by 15% yearly up to 1941.
"During Joseph Stalin's crash-industrialisation drive, workers lost their right to participate in the functioning of the enterprise, and their working conditions deteriorated.[9] In 1940, for example, a decree was promulgated and became law stating that a worker could be arrested if he had three accumulated absences, late arrivals or changed jobs without the official authorisation.[9] Shock work, which meant that workers had to work past regular hours, was introduced alongside central planning.[9] During World War II the pressure on workers increased and it was expected of them to take on Herculean efforts in their work.[9] In the post-war years conditions did not improve but in fact worsened in some cases."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_working_class?wprov=sfla1
And let's not forget the wonderful gems of "the state rapidly industrializing" at the expense of the working class in that period of time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1930%E2%80%931933?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labor_in_the_Soviet_Union?wprov=sfla1
And we all know the super necessary policies put forth during this industrialization which I'm sure the proletariat absolutely needed and wasn't at all total absurd fascist bullshit that showed the state didn't give a fuck about anything other than consolidating power during that period
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1930%E2%80%931933?wprov=sfla1
All while, just like other capitalist countries, the ruling class lived in luxary and isolation from the consequences of their failures.
Without this, there is simply no possibility that the Soviets would have defeated Nazism,
And it can be equally argued that without the colossal monopolies of Carnegie and Rockefeller that the US would not have had the industrialization and resources to successfully fight in WWII.
You can make stupid fucking arguments like that all you want. However, it falls flat when you stop to think about it for more than a second and see the glairing problems it has
- There are countless different ways the Soviet Union could have rapidly industrialized without the autocratic, and under Stalin outright fascist, rule against their own people. Just because it did happen under autocracy, doesn't mean autocracy was necessary for it to happen.
- The Soviet Union didn't begin to defeat the Nazis until after millions of excess deaths had occurred. All deaths that could and would have easily been prevented if the USSR had actually prioritized putting the right military leadership in charge of the military rather than purging the military to consolidate power for Stalin and weakening the USSR with a bullshit war on Finland. Not to mention the horrifying effect mass slavery and starvation had on the proletariat before the Nazis attacked so that they were even further weakened when the time
- The USSR also relied heavily on outside aid from the USA and UK due to the lack of resources and military hardware when they needed it the most, and the colossal waste of said resources and hardware with total misdirection of the defense of the country under Stalin.
and every nation between Germany and the Urals would have suffered the same degree of extermination that the Poles did.
- Oh yeah, forgot about that. How did Stalin allying with Hitler and invading Poland help industrialize the country and bring about happiness and good times to the proletariat? How exactly did that help achieve the goals of communism?
- My dude, have you seen the fucking death toll of the USSR?
There is no way around it: through the undeniable defeat of Nazism thanks to planned successful rapid industrialization, the Soviets saved tens of millions of lives.
No. No it didn't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties_of_the_Soviet_Union?wprov=sfla1