Jokes from the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact are appearing in my Youtube feed.
A typical one goes like this: The Soviet premier visits a city and sees people standing in line for blocks and blocks for bread. He tells the people in line, "I do not want you to have to stand in line for hours for bread." He shouts a few orders to his people and a short time later, several trucks arrive with bread and no one has to stand in line any more.
The premier sees another line, also several city blocks long, and asks "what is this line for?" He is told it is for meat. He says "I do not want you to have to stand in line for hours for meat." He shouts a few orders to his people, and soon a convoy of trucks arrives carrying chairs and no one has to stand in line any more.
People used to interpret these solely as a knock against the Soviet system but some of those jokes may be interpreted in a different light. Before the Soviet revolution, the average Russian peasant was said by some to be even poorer. Then, they took what they could of the country. Some Russian nobility were probably already primed to flee and had exported as much of their wealth as they could, so Lenin decided to demonize, then rob the wealthier peasants. Then the communists made all the scientists and professionals who hadn't escaped work for the good of the people. They had shoes, tractors to till the fields, Kukuruzniks to dust the crops, medical care provided by the state, some could even hope to obtain an automobile.
They stole a country for themselves and improved their lot by communizing the best efforts and wealth of their abler classes, but they still burned their eyes out on what the West had.
Bearing in mind that their chosen method of improving their lot was to plunder the abler classes, this puts their militarism into clearer perspective. They ate up their country and it wasn't enough.
Some claim the Soviet Union's militarism was entirely the fault of the powers who tried to intervene in the post-October Revolution fighting. However, not only did the Soviet Union promise to export revolution, the intervening powers may have possibly harbored suspicions about talented people disappearing from places outside the newly formed Soviet Union.
The Soviets did not need their military might solely to ward off aggression. Nazi Germany was not their polar opposite, they simply had a different idea on how to effect redistributionism because of their different degree of industrial development. Until the Nazi regime foolishly went for all the marbles by invading the USSR, the Nazis had been the USSR's ally and received help in rearming.
The point of communism is to put enough power into the hands of the proletariat so they could redistribute not only wealth and the means of production to themselves, but also to coerce intelligent people to provide their help on terms dictated by the proletariat. The Soviet Constitution allegedly guaranteed freedom of religion but the proletariat had the power to deny work or services or assess someone in need of psychiatric institutionalization if they were deemed antisocial. It is easy to suspect that one means of being deemed antisocial was to live the saved life and not share one's thoughts with every proletarian who thought he should have as much intelligence as anyone.
Lastly, the handguns. The Soviet Union's first domestically designed and manufactured handgun was a 25 caliber pocket pistol. The Soviets' main domestically designed military handguns, the TT30/33 and the Makarov, were small, thin, and concealable.
Suppose the idea was to tacitly encourage politically reliable members of their officer corps to "borrow" their service weapons upon discharge from service. Then, it's easy to suspect that from time to time, talented or educated visitors to the Soviet Union were cordially invited to stay by the holders of these guns. Suppose the West could sometimes do nothing but tell the victim's family "we advised not visiting" because of the strong Soviet military.
A typical one goes like this: The Soviet premier visits a city and sees people standing in line for blocks and blocks for bread. He tells the people in line, "I do not want you to have to stand in line for hours for bread." He shouts a few orders to his people and a short time later, several trucks arrive with bread and no one has to stand in line any more.
The premier sees another line, also several city blocks long, and asks "what is this line for?" He is told it is for meat. He says "I do not want you to have to stand in line for hours for meat." He shouts a few orders to his people, and soon a convoy of trucks arrives carrying chairs and no one has to stand in line any more.
People used to interpret these solely as a knock against the Soviet system but some of those jokes may be interpreted in a different light. Before the Soviet revolution, the average Russian peasant was said by some to be even poorer. Then, they took what they could of the country. Some Russian nobility were probably already primed to flee and had exported as much of their wealth as they could, so Lenin decided to demonize, then rob the wealthier peasants. Then the communists made all the scientists and professionals who hadn't escaped work for the good of the people. They had shoes, tractors to till the fields, Kukuruzniks to dust the crops, medical care provided by the state, some could even hope to obtain an automobile.
They stole a country for themselves and improved their lot by communizing the best efforts and wealth of their abler classes, but they still burned their eyes out on what the West had.
Bearing in mind that their chosen method of improving their lot was to plunder the abler classes, this puts their militarism into clearer perspective. They ate up their country and it wasn't enough.
Some claim the Soviet Union's militarism was entirely the fault of the powers who tried to intervene in the post-October Revolution fighting. However, not only did the Soviet Union promise to export revolution, the intervening powers may have possibly harbored suspicions about talented people disappearing from places outside the newly formed Soviet Union.
The Soviets did not need their military might solely to ward off aggression. Nazi Germany was not their polar opposite, they simply had a different idea on how to effect redistributionism because of their different degree of industrial development. Until the Nazi regime foolishly went for all the marbles by invading the USSR, the Nazis had been the USSR's ally and received help in rearming.
The point of communism is to put enough power into the hands of the proletariat so they could redistribute not only wealth and the means of production to themselves, but also to coerce intelligent people to provide their help on terms dictated by the proletariat. The Soviet Constitution allegedly guaranteed freedom of religion but the proletariat had the power to deny work or services or assess someone in need of psychiatric institutionalization if they were deemed antisocial. It is easy to suspect that one means of being deemed antisocial was to live the saved life and not share one's thoughts with every proletarian who thought he should have as much intelligence as anyone.
Lastly, the handguns. The Soviet Union's first domestically designed and manufactured handgun was a 25 caliber pocket pistol. The Soviets' main domestically designed military handguns, the TT30/33 and the Makarov, were small, thin, and concealable.
Suppose the idea was to tacitly encourage politically reliable members of their officer corps to "borrow" their service weapons upon discharge from service. Then, it's easy to suspect that from time to time, talented or educated visitors to the Soviet Union were cordially invited to stay by the holders of these guns. Suppose the West could sometimes do nothing but tell the victim's family "we advised not visiting" because of the strong Soviet military.
