V-Grams

V-Gram 11

March 4, 1996


About Russia, Socialism, Confusion

Today's papers are full of alarmist op-ed pieces about the economic slide of Russia into poverty, the political slide of Russia into some sort of totalitarian form of government, the military threat it might soon pose to our security once again. The surprising aspect of these articles is the surprise they display.

It would be helpful to realize that the Soviet Union was not some aberration, merely another phase in Russian history. Secret police, utter denial of free movement to individuals, the Bolshoi Ballet all had been Russian traditions of long standing - not innovations of Lenin any more than was Socialism. This ultimately German philosophical system came to be adopted by Russian revolutionaries, as was previously French culture by the aristocracy.

The Russia which, on the eve of the 21st century, still cannot make it into the 20th, has been with us for some seven hundred years. Socialism has been with us for a hundred and fifty. But while Russia is static, Socialism has been exceptionally mobile. As well as in Russia, it has revealed its worst in Hitler's Germany and Mao's China, then adapted itself for more 'humane' use in Britain, France, Italy, Sweden. Currently, it is playing possum. Or it dresses up as "Caring and Compassion." Or "Peace and Justice." Americans believe Socialism is gone, and this nation is immune to it anyway. I wish.