Time for a thread on the USSR, since some on the left seem to have a soft spot for the communist regime. Here's why any sane progressive would have opposed the Soviet Union. I'll even exclude Stalin's quarter-century-long reign.
While the USSR did initially expand rights of women, it was far from progressive by the end of its existence. Women were banned from hundreds of occupations, including the best-paying ones. Yes, wages were not equal. Male-dominated fields paid far more. rferl.org/a/russia-women…
Only 3 women ever served as a full member of the Soviet Politburo (its highest policy-making body). The final Politburo (1990-1991) had 1 female full member (Galina Semenova) out of 20+. She was the first female full member since 1960. ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0…
Homosexuality was illegal in the USSR until its collapse in 1991. All "non-traditional" sexual orientations were considered bourgeois behavior and thus antithetical to the Soviet man (or woman). cambridge.org/core/journals/…
The USSR had a terrible environmental track record. The policy of industrializing at all costs meant pollution was some of the worst in the world, the world's 4th largest lake (Aral) disappeared, and cotton-farming destroyed much of the Soviet farmland. huffpost.com/entry/the-grim…
Soviet military force was used to keep ~120 million in subjugation (excluding the people of the USSR themselves). We know this because from the moment Gorbachev made it clear the Soviet military would not keep its Warsaw Pact puppets in power, all collapsed within a few years.
Dissidents in the Soviet Union itself were regularly sent to mental hospitals, falsely diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, and forced to take highly potent anti-psychotic drugs for years while confined to the mental hospitals. newscientist.com/article/mg1321…
Those convicted of serious crimes (political or otherwise) were sent to penal colonies in Siberia, where conditions were so harsh and violence so widespread that thousands died each year (an improvement on earlier Gulags). Russia kept that system in place. rferl.org/a/heirs-of-the…
Anti-Semitism was widespread and officially tolerated. Millions of Soviet Jews fled the USSR when given the chance in the 1970s and particularly upon the USSR's dissolution in 1991. Only a few hundred thousand Jews remain in Russia today. cambridge.org/core/services/…
Disabled individuals who could not be turned into "productive workers" were forced into institutions with despicable conditions. Neglect and abuse were standard in Soviet orphanages (another policy Russia has left mainly unchanged). sjdr.se/articles/10.10…
The above doesn't include all the day-to-day policies (like blackmailing neighbors to spy on neighbors) that the USSR used to keep its people afraid and obedient. Nor the economic consequences of its communist system. How any progressive can downplay those abuses is beyond me.
A few more events for progressives to read about. Like about the time the Soviet Union secretly killed 180,000 whales.
Or when a system that encouraged secrecy, cutting corners, and a refusal to take responsibility led to a nuclear disaster that increased the rates of some cancers as much as 30 times (China clearly hasn't learned from Soviet mistakes). livescience.com/65634-chernoby…
Or how the Soviet Union so distrusted its ethnic minorities that it shifted power in non-Slavic territories from the native 1st secretaries to Slavic 2nd secretaries. At one point, every 2nd secretary was Slavic. In a country with 12 non-Slavic regions. books.google.com/books?id=t2Ggc…
To conclude, the USSR was the antithesis of progressivism. Authoritarianism became the means to stay in power rather than a stop-gap measure toward utopia. This was obvious by the 1930s, let alone the 1980s. By then, more useful idiots than Soviet citizens believed in the cause.
