Sovietism vs Democracy

Эта статья, предназначавшаяся для публикации в англоязычной среде, была написана еще в 2017 году или даже раньше. В ней нет особых "откровений", но есть осознание безнадежности путей этого мира, полностью погруженного в материализм. Увы, "князь мира сего", пользуясь красивыми приманками, привлекает на свою сторону даже тех, кто и в страшном сне не мог бы представить себя материалистом.

Памяти страны, в которой мы получили образование и были воспитаны.

Sovietism vs “Democracy”

When addressing the immensely complicated task of restoring the historical truth about the Soviet Era in Russia one should keep in mind that we are all living in the world that had once been corrupted (if we of course accept the Christian paradigm) thus giving rise to the perverted system of moral values and life aims and priorities. These are the values and priorities that from the time immemorial have been guiding human civilization towards more and more complete satisfying of its mere biological needs and away from the qualities constituting the core value and meaning both of each human being and of the whole mankind.

No wonder that eventually our civilization came to its highest “achievement” in the form of so-called laissez-fair capitalism which being ideologically grounded on the theory of liberalism (for which a good synonym would be individualism or extreme egoism) brought us all to the infamous “law of the jungle”. The only difference between “the jungles” of Stone Age and contemporary ones is that today we can see around us not isolated, individual predators striving to dominate (or at least procure their well-being) in the society of other similar individuals but much more powerful and organized global predators – countries, superpowers, empires and transnational corporations. Their prey is already not a single man or woman but nations taken as a whole. In contrast to the former competition between individuals or even companies, modern economical system of “free market” became absolutely hypocritical in its essence as it readily destroys sovereign nations under false pretexts (e.g. false flag operations) and in the name of “democratization” and liberty. We do not need to say that the financial and military circles responsible for a huge number of crimes against humanity in most cases have nothing or very little to do with the people of countries they are using as “subjects of international law”. In addition it should be mentioned that today we already can witness a complete collapse of the very institute of international law.

Going back to our task it is important to emphasize that the Soviet “experiment” became apparently the first attempt in human history to create and develop a society based not on economical competition between individuals but on their co-operation and mutual help. And furthermore it was not yet the most significant feature of prototype for the future communist society. What really distinguished the era of “sovietism” was not its economy, not its scientific and cultural achievements, not even its almost perfect social services system (free Medicare, free school and University education, close to cost-free housing, state sponsored recreation for trade union members, and much more) but totally different system of human values – sharing instead of personal enrichment, collectivism instead of individualism, cultural and spiritual assets above material and financial ones. Certainly, much of this was due to the traditional Orthodox culture of yet pre-revolutionary Russia. We should not forget, for instance, the concept of ‘sobornost’ that could hardly be adequately translated as one word for its meaning is deeply enrooted in the Orthodox spirituality and denotes a transcendental spiritual unity of people that makes them “one spiritual body” similar to what we mean saying that the Church is the Body of Christ.

Of course, we cannot pass over in silence the fact of Soviet atheistic ideology and sometimes even theomachy of Soviet rulers. It seems to be a sad page of the Soviet history, however, at the same time it may give us a very interesting perspective to shed light upon the spiritual life and foundation of the first socialist state in the world. The fact is, in spite of all the oppressive efforts to eliminate or at least to marginalize Christian community in the Soviet Union, it continued to exist throughout all the years of the so-called “communist regime”. And it not only existed preserving itself but was making its not manifested however very significant impact in the field of upbringing generations and generations of the Soviet youth. It may seem strange at first glance, especially for those who are not quite aware of the inherent congeniality between the ideas of Christianity and those of Communism.

Unfortunately, this congeniality, being put into practice, turns out to be more like a similarity - superficial similarity. This is the problem for those who would wish to put the equal sign between Communism and Christianity. And this might be also the answer to the question why the USSR had collapsed.

When we take the Gospel and read “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21) we see the system of priorities for Christians. In fact, these are priorities for anyone who believes that this mundane life and participation in all those races for material well-being would never be the answer to the only important question of our existence – question about who we are and what is the meaning of our life.

What the founders of the Soviet Union and their successors missed when engaging in the economical competition with the capitalist system of the West was clear understanding that they were going to play an “away match”, to play by the rules of the prince of this world. Did they mean to win the race? Did they take into account human nature which remained basically the same as many centuries ago, as it remains in the “free world” nowadays? Did they expect that people deprived of spiritual values of Christianity and its guidance would still be devoted “communists”, especially with all the propaganda and temptations pouring into their minds through the totally corrupt and manipulated mass media? It could hardly happen. And, as one Russian saying goes “they put the cart before the horse” – assumed that the new wine of highly advanced communist ideology may be easily put into the old bottle of a conventional petty bourgeois Philistinism.

Thus the economical competition with the West accompanied by the Cold War was lost for the Soviet Union. Here we are not going to analyze all other factors that brought USSR to its collapse. This is the task for objective and independent researchers and politologists. Our task now is somewhat different – to show the real meaning and value of Soviet socialism for the humanity. And with this task in mind we should not focus exclusively on the achievements in the former USSR – be they of economical, scientific, military, cultural or social nature. All of them are important but to a certain extent may be attributed to other factors or preexisting conditions. Also the critics of communism may always have ready a number of counter arguments pointing out at different both real and imaginary advantages of the consumer society. What nobody can argue with is that the communist slogan "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" really makes difference transforming enslaved to dollar consumer into human being concerned not with his or her own profit but with best possible use of one’s talents and knowledge for the sake of others. Implementation of such ideology would mean a new stage in human development abolishing the whole class of parasites and exploiters who are present in society just due to the existence of private ownership of the means of production and land.