THE FALL OF THE SOVIETS AND THE RISE OF RUSSIA

Here, I just present some of my observations on the fall of the Soviets and the rise of new Russia.

The Soviet Union did not dissolve due to economic or democratic drawbacks. It was dissolved consciously by the leadership of the communist party. The party staff among others already recognized and expressed before the dissolution the problems of the system. It was sure that economy began to stagnate after the end of 1970s and the supports of the Soviets to its periphery and the other socialist countries were a huge burden on economy. Moreover, American containment policy was added a space war, which could not be matched by the Soviets.

But the main reason behind dissolution, which seems to be consciously realized by the top leadership of the party in retrospect, was that a new stage in the socialist build-up could not realized according to the theory that predicted that only several generations had been needed for the transition from socialism to communism.

It is sure, in the Soviet society, a huge petty-bourgeois stratum of intellectual and bureaucratic content developed. It wanted an open-door policy, more consumption, and more freedom of mobility and interaction with the capitalist democracies.

Maybe the class background of the dissolution was the working class which was tired and ideologically over self-confident, whick led to indifference to the problems of the system and all conspiracies.

To all of these, we should include the global capitalist attacks to the Soviets and socialism, which increased especially after the 1980s.

What was needed was only a cadre in the communist party to start the dissolution process, by rising the prices and creating an artificial scarcity and more importantly, creating so-called free public debate on the frozen aspirations of the nations and nationalities outside Russian federation. All these were accompanied by Gorbachev's confessions to the US and the West, and Germany in particular.

Gorbachev both destroyed the ideological coherence of the system, and provoked an economic crisis.

This dissolution seems to be the responsibility and plan of the petty-bourgeois sections of society and the leaders in the party. The Soviets did have neither serious economic shortcomings that could not be solved or democratic problems which actually existed in a higher level in the capitalist democracies as well. However, Russia, differently, had a historically frozen nation and nationality problem. And it seems that Russians also had serious nationalist aspirations before socialist and communist strategy.

Russia was afterwards freed from other nations and socialism in national and international context. It first collapsed and then began to restore itself. After Primakov's era, it consolidated its national power again. And with Putin, it re-entered the capitalist international system as a powerful state.

Russia today seems to be a state-capitalism, or an oligarchically ruled state and society. Its citizens can buy whatever they demand from the consumption markets. A large part of old state property is now under the command of capitalists and their collaborators. Instead of the Soviet form of participation and government, liberal democratic institutions operate.

Russia for two decades have had a market economy, liberal democratic institutions, but, all under the tutelage of the oligarchy, "power elites", as Wright Mills described American power structure in his same named book.

Russia now, without the burdens of socialism and international socialist relations, applies to power politics, realpolitic, in its global relations. Its weapons, gas and petrol are used for economic wealth and geopolitical influence. And, its "democracy" just means oligarchy, corruption and despotism, which had never been witnessed so much in the Soviet Union.

We have the right to ask what happened to 70 years-long experience of socialism.

When the 1990s came, many people who did not know anything about the Soviet people before, met them thanks to Natashas, who were forced by mafia to move to work into Turkey and other countries for prostitution. It was the real tragedy of the dissolution and collapse. Many honorable and beautiful Soviet women fell into such a position. And many capitalist countries began to know them through this old institution.

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Kautsky had said and then Lenin reminded that centers of the socialist revolutions were shifting from the West to the East at the turn to the twentieth century.

Now, has the center of the revolution left Russia completely by shifting to somewhere else?

Or, is there still a potency for a new and higher socialist revolution in Russia?

Or, is there any neo-Leninizm in Russia, who can seize the power back?