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this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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The Deprogram
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"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
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Hahaha! I used to say generic crap like that all the time. It was only after reading Michael Parenti’s Inventing Reality, along with other works, that I took on a more nuanced position.
Sure, I still consider the U.S.S.R. to have been presocialist, but I could say the same for the Paris Commune: it’s a facile and uninteresting conclusion to draw about something so significant. It is far more productive to instead explore the progress that the working masses made in them.
I think people just underestimate the amount of contradictions it takes to run a new society, after a revolution. You will have internal reactionary groups trying to undermine and coup the young government. You have to deal with a really bad economy, with many people starving and production halted in many places. You have to deal with the threat of imperialist countries, as well as trying to make partnerships with them to stablish trade. You have to deal with weak government structures, which are many times susceptible to corruption. You will have to rebuild the army and defense forces and deal with traitorous officials and generals. It's a monumental task, with many ways to fail and a few ways to succeed.
I know the Bolsheviks were ruthless on how they dealt with the crisis shortly after the post revolutionary period. But if you understand the history of which revolutions succeeded and which ones didn't, you'll understand why the Bolsheviks did what they did. And unfortunately, Machiavelli was right.
I'm glad the Bolsheviks were as heavy-handed as they were. It's something they learned as a necessity from the errors of the Paris Commune. Even well into Stalin's leadership period, I think they should've been even more suppressive of counter-revolutionary elements. It reminds me of the meme of a Russian elderly man saying not enough were shot during the Stalin era lol and yeah, seeing that Khrushchëv wormed his way into power and ousting some of the most revolutionary-minded Party members just so that he could carry out and blunder with his social democratic vanity projects.