Monday, May 25, 2015
On the Russian Economy Only a Few Years After Lenin Took Over
a) One of the most obscene episodes of hyperinflation in all of human history (an 11,400% Increase in the Monetary Base, Per Historian Richard Pipes).............b) Large scale industrial production fell in 1920 to 18% of what it had been just prior to the war.............c) Coal and iron output dropped (during that same time frame) by 73 and 79%, respectively.............d) The standard of living fell by close to 70%.............e) Workers lost the capacity to elect union officials and to strike.............f) There were massive food shortages (by stealing food from the peasants, the peasants understandably responded by producing less) and much starvation.............And g) Lenin responded to these epic failures not by rethinking his philosophy but by going on yet another full-bore killing spree that this time included the use of poison gas and a growth in the size of the secret police to levels that quite frankly would have made even the Czar blush.............Overall score here; F-- and a perpetual status in hell.............Tom Woods (using Pipes and others as his sources) gives an outstanding synopsis on this and I highly recommend it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3-kmo7tGWU
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5 comments:
Yes. Under Lenin, Russia took a wrong turn in just about everything. Starting with his "putsch" which overthrew a new democracy.
Lenin set the template for most of socialism that followed from then until this day. Imagine if he had not lived, or failed. But I suppose someone else would have risen to inspire the slaughter of many tens of millions.
Perhaps I'm missing something here so I hope you'll help me out. How exactly does the democratic socialism of European and Scandinavian countries resemble Lenin's brutal totalitarianism? A system wherein there was no real liberty, economic or otherwise.
Seems to me a more complete definition of terms is in order. The one shoe fits all falls short here methinks. Help me understand where I'm wrong.
Kerensky unfortunately (unfortunate in that the guy was FAR preferable to Vlad) was his own worst enemy in that even his own Minister of War, General Verkhovsky, had informed him that the only way to avoid the Bolshevik takeover was to quit the war (the chaos and dislocations from the war in Russia were incalculable) and Kerensky totally ignored him.......Talk about an unintended consequence, huh (40 plus million deaths, etc.)?
Sweden scarcely resembles Russia at all, Les. Did I ever say that it did?
When I said most socialism, Les, I was referring to the movement in its entirety. Not all socialism. The exception being democratic socialism, of course. But that is just a small part of this movement, which is mostly totalitarian and quite brutal (in terms of countries governed, people ruled and part of parties, etc)
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