that. The state emasculated its men, providing cheap vodka, taking away their children, forcing the women into the factories and trying to destroy the family unit- all the while, creating the largest prison-state ever seen. In the end, more than 20 million human beings were murdered for this most baseless and fatuous of history’s stupid ideas.
In Russia, there was never any workers revolution- there was only the elimination of one harsh and ruthless ruling clique by another even more harsh and even more ruthless. The poor proletariat never had a chance. The “Workers Paradise was created solely to serve the communist elite. What a colossal waste! How could the educated Russian people put up with those overfed, brutal and ugly hogs chowing down at the public trough for all those years?
Everyone, by the 50’s, with even a scintilla of intelligence, knew perfectly well that the system was a farce and the country a shambles. Even those in high positions understood that it wasn’t working and wasn’t going to work. But, the Pigs at the top had the guns, they had the KGB, they had the prisons and they had the hired killers. The system, by that time, was immense and pervasive- repression had been perfected to an unheard of degree. A single utterance of disloyalty or a questioning of any decree by the Pigs was cause for death or imprisonment. People kept quiet because they were afraid- it is as simple as that- government by fear.
All western constitutions recognize the dangers and risks of excessive power being vested in the hands of any single person. After finally ridding themselves of the beastly weight of the syphilitic and increasingly congenitally defective monarchies, the emerging western democracies established a balance of power between the various governmental components such that no one person or part could dominate, thus guaranteeing that none of them could be taken over by ruthless tyrants, kings, dictators or other megalomaniacal wackos.
No single individual anywhere has the right to make decisions for everyone- not now, not then, not ever! In the west, the rights of the individual are recognized as the cornerstone of the jurist prudence system. The right of the collective majority cannot be used to diminish the rights of the individual. In the United States these rights are enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, in France, this is called the “Rights of Man,” In the UK, an early version was called the Magna Charta. By contrast, under the Soviet system, the individual had no rights whatsoever. In fact, no one had any rights except high party officials and whatever any of them had, including their lives, could be taken away in an instant if the “supreme leader” was so disposed.
Today, we live in a world where such retro-thought has thankfully, all but disappeared. Castro, the senile geriatric, is one of the last purely communist dictators- others, such as Egypt’s Mubarak, Rhodesia’s Mugabee and the backward, bearded clerics in the Islamic theocracies, represent the last of this dwindling minority of criminal governments.
Russia today is on the mend. She is slowly waking up and ridding herself of the last vestiges of 70 years of hedonistic feasting at the expense of the people by a gross, greedy and overbearing party elite. Moscow is a vibrant and tough metropolis coming to grips with the myriad needs of a modern civilization increasingly interacting with western business and social individuals and interests. Foreign banks are springing up everywhere.
Société Nationale, one of the largest French banks has ten branches in Moscow, Citi Bank is there. People in Moscow can join the world in the greatest economic growth machine ever- debt financing. Today, almost anyone with a job in Russia can get credit to purchase a car, today banks extend home mortgages, credit card use is growing, however, this is still mostly relegated to hotels and the better restaurants frequented by the thousands of foreigner’s living in the city.
Russia is rapidly making up for her disastrous 70 year experiment in trying to use a political system to force changes in human nature. To be sure, there remains much to be done. The Soviet system was terribly destructive to the environment as well as everything else- the system was as hard on Mother Nature as it was on its slaves- destroying both with gay abandon on idiotic whims. Rivers and lakes are being cleaned up- roads are being repaired, the electric system is being upgraded.
Perhaps, one of the biggest drawbacks to participation in international civil and social life and one that Russia is slowly beginning to deal with is the Cyrillic alphabet with its P’s for R’s and backward E’s for whatever. No western person speaking German, French, English or Italian can possibly even find a bathroom, let alone rent a car and hope to find an address. Menus and street signs are incomprehensible -but, slowly, even this is changing. The past mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luchkov and his staff placed signage in English in the Metro (subway) and many street intersections. There are few restaurants and hotels where the staff is not multilingual. There are no Russian words that cannot be spelled using the Roman alphabet, so nothing of value would be lost by the country ridding itself of this archaic impediment to economic growth. Learning a foreign language for Russian children would be 100% easier of they learned their native language written with Roman letters. My prediction, in 50 years, the Cyrillic alphabet will be history.
What do I see as the biggest obstacles for Russia to overcome? Obviously, the first and most pressing, is the need to settle the situation on her southern borders. The emerging Islamic republics are a threat to the entire western world not only Russia. Chechnya is a manifestation of the emergence of Islamic insanity worldwide. Russia needs to join the civilized world to destroy this spreading barbaric dark sickness -a full commitment to the US effort in Afghanistan and Iraq would be a good beginning. (Don't hold your breath)
Russia secondly, has to create an atmosphere of respect for government. The rascals and ex-KGB criminals in the government at all levels of state and civil government have to be arrested and /or otherwise disposed of. A simple test of ethics, morality and decency has to be set up that anyone running for office has to pass to be on any ballot or appointed to any civil office. Such a standard would insist on transparency and honesty. Those with inexplicable foreign bank accounts have to be arrested and dealt with in open and fair courts. Any with contacts in the criminal underworld would be unable to pass this examination. After a few years, the citizens would begin to gain faith in their elected officials. The point of this is that the country has to collect fair taxes from all who prosper and work in the country. As it is, all feel that, as their leaders cheat so should they.
The third area that needs to be overhauled is the Russian court system. The judges have to be free of political influence completely. Russia has, on the books a reasonably good constitution, a body of laws that appears adequate to protect the interests of its citizens. Currently, however this is being subverted by the heavy influence of the “organs of government.” The result is that Russian courts today are merely rubber stamps for whomever is in power This is much as things were under the worst days of the Soviets. Russia will never reach its potential until this situation is corrected.
With a fair rate of taxes actually being collected the government could pay the police a living wage and increase pensions to a livable level. As it is today, the police routinely shake down motorists and passers-by. Pensioners are desperately trying to survive with ever-increasing costs of living on a miserable pittance after 40 years of work. This is intolerable and has to be changed. Those least able to fend for themselves in this robust new Russian economy have to be cared for by those best able to do so. This is a social obligation of the first order and thankfully, the Russian government seems to be aware of how critical this need is. Russia could train 50% of its police and militia as tax collectors and have them establish offices and contacts throughout the Russian business community. These personnel would be encouraged to work with the employers and business men toward the common good. Once the Russian people see the results in improved civil government all will be willing to participate.
A forth area that needs fixing yesterday is the criminal element. Russia is rife with “bandits” who operate with seeming impunity, robbing, extorting and murdering at an alarming rate. The militia is unwilling or powerless to stop this gathering crime wave and often are being well paid to cooperate with the criminals. One lady caught two bandits stealing her
