935 Russian Diaries of the period 1917-53 can help in identifying what might happened during and after the Bolshevik Revolution 1917

Though I am not a blind admirer of Bolshevik Revolution 1917, as a believer in the benefits of True Complete Socialism, having identified it for examination as a possible alternative for the stupid Capitalism, I am trying to write here a few blog posts on why the World 2017 is viewing the Russian Revolution 1917 and its experiments with Communism / Marxism / Socialism as total failures. For this purpose only, I have downloaded 45 volumes of the Collected Works of Vladimir Lenin the main leader of the Bolshevik Revolution 1917. I have examined some of the Volumes. I shall put through here, some of my observations / feelings / impressions. In the meantime, it will be worthwhile, to provide a link to a news item, that historians are trying to place diaries of the Soviet Citizens of that crucial period of World History online. I perceive that when compared to the Collective Works of Lenin, the diaries of USSR/Russian Citizens of the period 1917-1953, however obscure individuals those Citizens may be, their recordings will become more reliable, primarily because Lenin's Collected Works published by the Soviet Govt. Agencies of those days, might have, sufficiently been, sanitised by a need to hagiographically eulogize Lenin and Stalin. The Russian Citizens of those years, might have had some fears of persecution if their diaries were to be caught by the Stalin's Agents. Hence, I have decided to try compare Lenin's writings with what the Russian Citizens 1917-1953 wrote, privately for themselves and their families, with no intent to publish them.

We shall start with an AFP news report, published by theHindu.Com: Click here to go to http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/between-the-lines-historians-put-stalin-era-diaries-online/article17693846.ece. One particular paragraph, in this report, is specially and sufficiently interesting, hence I am quoting it here, followed by yb-a-donkey's views, which are nt intended to be imposed on others:

At the same time, most were living in overcrowded accommodation and felt hungry most of the time.

“It’s quite rare for someone to eat till they are full,” Mr. Venyavkin said.

Mr. Venyavkin is: a 35-year-old historian Ilya Venyavkin, who is writing a book about diaries from the 1930s.

this blogger yb-a-donkey's views

About congested accommodation

Though the accommodation provided by Lenin-Stalin-Trotsky Triumvirate during 1917-1953 to their Citizens might have been 'meagre', 'overcrowded' we may have to accept it as an unavoidable reality because 'accommodations' for an entire Nation of impoverished and deprived Population, cannot be created overnight or in a few years. This problem of scant, crowded, and unaffordable accommodation exists even in countries of 2017 which are considered as most Prosperous, such as Japan and United States. In Japan, many workers live in rented spaces what are known as bunker beds. Senior Citizens of Japan, are reported to be preferring to commit minor crimes so as to go to jails which in their view are better than the dungeons outside. In our Great World Ruling country of Uncle Sam, we find its citizens living under fly- overs, living in subways, living in their own cars/station wagons, living in Churches. Of course, two wrongs cannot make one right. Failures of Capitalism, cannot justify the failure of Bolshevik Leaders.

About "rare for someone to eat till they are full"

Let my readers compare the following two scenarios:

Socialist Sharing of Poverty	Capitalist Overeating
Citizens sharing hunger of fellow-citizens, though involuntarily, for a limited period, till circumstances improve, can be considered as something noble.	In 2017, we have several countries, which have scenarios, where 10% rich and super-rich overeat, do little exercise and suffer from metabolic diseases like diabetes, obesity etc., and 90% of their citizens lead a life of precarious existence, unable to earn two square meals a day.
It is not clear whether erstwhile USSR was able to solve this problem between 1954 and 1991.	After 1991 Soviet Union disintegrated, and its Constituents turned to Capitalism. Is there any largE scale improvement either in Accommodation or in availability of food? I do not think in Putin's Russia 2017, there is ample food OR adequate uncrowded accommodation for all its Citizens.

To continue adding / deleting / modifying. और जोडने के हैं। ఇంకా జోడించాల్సినవి ఉన్నాయి.

934 What Vladimin Lenin had done, or had not done to erstwhile USSR is worth analysing!

What Vladimir Lenin, the Legendary Leader of the Communist Revolution (Bolshevik Revolution 1917), had done / had not done, for the erstwhile Soviet Union are worth analysing , without Capitalist or Communist bias, and worth reading for those who have a view that this Capitalist World is really abominable, and is to be trashed, if some viable humane alternative socio-economic system can be found and implemented without bloodshed and tyrannical oppressions. In a few blog posts of mine, made here earlier, I have made one such beginning. Today's trigger: Click here to go to https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/03/how-lenin-manipulated-the-russian-revolution-to-his-own-ends/#, to study some critical analyses on the subject. More are to come from this donkey also. This link contains an article titled "How Lenin manipulated the Russian Revolution to his own ends' by Roland Elliott Brown, which is readable. The writer Mr. Brown says "He even viewed the starvation of countless peasants as a ‘progressive element’ in weakening the Tsar, says Victor Sebestyen (a review of book authored by Sebestyen, says)".

This article starts with viewing Lenin as a 'demagogue'. Meaning, as per Google Inquiry: "...a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument. ...".

ybrao-a-donkey's views which are not intended to be imposed on others:

Even Capitalism, MNCs, the American Government (not necessarily the Trump's Administeration, we can even say 'starting with George Washington'), the Euro Governments do the same thing, i.e. they try to appeal to popular desires and prejudices rather than by use rational argument. The only difference is Marketing does not concentrate much on "satisfying popular wants (My Economics Text book in my XI Standard School days, started with 'human wants', 'necessities, comforts, and luxuries' and progressed into Consumer Behaviors)", but on the 'luxuries of those who have the moolah to purchase'. Had there not been a system called 'Voting Parliaments/Assemblies' every four or five years, the Governments would not have even bothered about popular desires and / or prejudices. Anyway that is a term affair of 4/5/10 years affair. In their daily routine, Capitalist Governments want to 'maximise their income', like the proverbial monopolyist's equilibrium in the Smithsonian Economics or the Classical Economics.

Principal Object of Modern Governments i.e. their raison d'être/ˌreɪzɒ̃ ˈdɛtrə,French ʀɛzɔ̃ dɛtʀ/ -the most important reason or purpose for someone or something's existence.

The need and greed of any Government worth its salt in this World will be to maximise its tax collections, and the Governments will not mind to pay millions to those Experts and Consultants who can invent new ways to introduce new taxes, bring in newer groups of citizens into the tax net, how to raise tax rates without making the Citizens to feel that their blood is being sucked.

What is Smithsonian Economics?

For those Readers who are interested in studying the features of Smithsonian Economics, here is one link to download a pdf: Click here to download a pdf of Reflections on Smithsonian Economics.

LENIN'S AND STALIN'S ADMINISTRATIONS CANNOT BE EXCEPTIONS

Lenin's and Stalin's Administrations cannot be exceptions because RUNNING ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES WITH ALL THEIR concomitant Fads, Idiosyncrasies, Mansions, Cars, Paraphernalia, Regalia, Statues and what not, need investments and maintenance. Huge Police Hierarchies are needed to save the Top Gods Ruling the Administration, whether in Capitalist Countries or in (untruly) Socialist Countries.

To continue adding / deleting / modifying. और विषयांश जोडने की हैं। ఇంకా జోడించాల్సిన వషయాంశాలు ఉన్నాయి.

916 (1 of 100 series). A look at V.I. Lenin, the first person who tried to implement his own brand of Marxism/Communism

We see in the so called democratic politicians professing liberalism, a trait of arrogance, and a sort of self-righteousness, which makes them to be rude when dealing with people and persons. When the recipients of such rudeness or hurtful conversations, later seek corrections / explanations from the speakers, they refuse to withdraw their remarks. They even try to pass on the buck to Media, saying that Media has twisted what they said. Or the politicians blatantly deny what they have said amidst media glare, and even when audio/ video clippings are available. Lenin, the mass leader of the 1917 Russia, who led Bolshevik Revolution there, seems to be somewhat an exception. Lenin might have been a dictator. May be under his tyrannical directions his cronies might have sent dissenters to Labor Camps, or killed them. But, this paragraph from his letter dated 16th June 1921 addressed to his Comrades Koenen, Thalheimer, Fröhlich prima facie shows that he did not hesitate to apologise to the concerned persons or withdraw his words..

Source: Vol. 45, of V.I. Lenin's Collected Works. Vol. 45 deals with his letters, to various persons during the period 1921-1923.

To WILHELM KOENEN, AUGUST THALHEIMER AND PAUL FRÖHLICH

Dear Comrades!

I have received a copy of your letter to our Party’s Central Committee. Thank you very much. I communicated my answer orally yesterday. I take this opportunity to emphasise that I do most resolutely withdraw the rude and impolite expressions I used, and hereby repeat my oral apology in writing.

With communist greetings,
Lenin

yb-donkey's personal views which are not intended to be imposed on others

I am not a worshipper or an irrational critic of Lenin.
This is only an exploratory and truth-seeking blog post. And, this is the first of a series of many, to follow. When new evidence(s) are found, I may change what I have written here. Hence, pl. forbear with me if there are any temporary errors/transgressions / unsound illogical deductions from Lenin's letters .

To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.

911 Why Lenin and Stalin were callous to the Famines in U.S.S.R., during their Reigns?

Lenin is regarded as the Greatest and the First Leader who had tried to implement the ideas of Marxism / Communism / Socialism, in a very large country of Continental Size like Russia (erstwhile Soviet Union- U.S.S.R. stretching from Riga to Vladivostoc). Stalin, is also regarded very highly in India, in spite of his dictatorial tendencies. Many parents in India, named their children as Stalin. For example, the name of the Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly, India, is 'Stalin'. What stuns me very much is, a study of the History of the Soviet Union of 1917-53, gives me an impression that both Lenin and Stalin were apparently callous to famines, and food shortages in Russia, and millions of people died during their Rule. The same was the position in the so called Communist Ruled 1959 China, of the Mao ze Dong fame. It is strange that in India, there are groups which advocate violent Revolutions and Upheavals in the name of "Maoism", and they call themselves 'Maoists'. Were all those famines, just exaggerations of bourgeoisie media propaganda machinery of Europe and America? It can't be 100%, though some exaggerations might have taken place.

To continue adding / deleting / modifying. This issue of the Failure of Communist Regimes in Russia and China, is a 10,000 page subject. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది. ఇది అంతం కాదు, ఆరంభమే.

863 Part 2/out of 10 series We need not celebrate OR mourn the Bolshevik Revolution. We have to analyse.

This is in continuation of our blog post No. 861 Click to go to 862.. Recapitulating: We found renowned Indian author Mr. Mohan Guruswamy, referring to his two visits to Vladivostok and Moscow, just before the disintegration of the erstwhile U.S.S.R. I have given a DeccanChronicle.com link for his article. He seems to have successfully forecast the crumbling of Soviet Union, and tried to convince the Indian Government about it. (Anyway, it is an internal affair of the U.S.S.R., and its constituent Republics, and India might not have had anything to do it,) even if the Government of India were to take the prediction of Mr. Mohan Guruswamy as ominous foreboding. Then we saw another link, to Spectator.co.uk., containing an article by Mr. Max Hasting, titled "The centenary of the Russian revolution should be mourned, not celebrated".

(ybrao-a-donkey's views): Though erstwhile U.S.S.R. might have deviated from the basic tenets of Communism / Marxism / Socialism, during its 74 years of existence, we cannot forget that U.S.S.R. had made some efforts to usher in to bring about some sort of equality, among its citizens. This is notwithstanding the probable fact that top leaders walowed in great comforts and luxuries, leaving the common people to undue hardships, a la their counterparts i.e. the top leaders of the Capitalist countries.

In post NO.552 Click to go to post No. 552, we found that Bolsheviks used Churches as World War II mortuary, and later as potato warehouse.

"...It was built at the spot where Tsar Alexander II, the man who sold Alaska to the United States, was mortally wounded in a grenade attack in 1881. The interior of the church is a virtual museum of mosaics with intricately wrought biblical themes. Closed down by the Bolsheviks for decades, the church was used as a mortuary during World War II and later as a warehouse for potatoes. Today it is more of a showpiece than a place of worship. ..."

We shall, now be back, to inadequate food, and housing in Russia, referred to by Shri Mohan Guruswamy. Here, we shall have to good links, so as to have a look into the community common living consisting of small individual apartments + common rooms towards kitchen, washing machines, toilets. What Shri Mohan Guruswamy discussed was the position of 1991, the year of Soviet Decomposition. We shall now see, links of 2015 and 2016.

2016: Click here to go to http://www.deccanchronicle.com/world/europe/020516/you-re-never-alone-russia-celebrates-its-soviet-era-communal-flats.html . The title of the article is "'You're never alone': Russia celebrates its Soviet era communal flats". The article starts with : "A communal flat or ‘kommunalka’ is a small dwelling shared by dozen or more residents." Date: 2nd May 2016. Probably, this might have been published as a sequel to the 2016 May Day, held on 1st May 2016.

Through further googling, I found the following link. click to go to http://holeinthedonut.com/2015/01/17/kommunalka-living-st-petersburg-russia. The title of the article is: 'Kommunalka Living in St. Petersburg, Russia – Throwback to an Earlier Era'. Date: January 17, 2015. This article is by Barbara Weibel. This article is lengthier than the DC article. It has a number of photos. This article has 19 comments. Most of the comments have expressed a surprise, that this type of 'living holes' still exist.

At the 'holeinthedonut.com' website, we can find a profile of Ms. Barbara Weibel. The site holeinthedonut.com is owned by Ms. Barbara Weibel. She is a TravelWriter. The 'About' page of the holeinthedonut website is quite informative. According to Click to go to study a profile of Ms. Baraba Weibel, Ms. Weibel's 'about' page is worth studying, from the point of view of 'Capitalism vs. Socialism' and probably integral part 'Individualism vs. Socialism'.

Here is a sample form the 'About' page of holeinthedonut of Ms. Barbara Weibel:

"... My name is Barbara Weibel and I’m the owner/editor of Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel. I’ve always envied people who love their jobs. Unlike those lucky souls, my various careers over the years (marketing, advertising, selling real estate, working in a retail store, owning a public relations firm, and selling snow cones in the largest water park in Puerto Rico, among others) were just means to an end – a way to earn money and have a comfortable lifestyle. I never loved what I did and I can’t really say I was ever really happy, but I plodded on because I was raised to be dependable, to always give 110%, and to work hard in order to be able to enjoy a comfortable retirement. All of which meant going to work every day, regardless of how much I despised my job. ..."

LIP SERVICE

What we fail to recognise is, Capitalism pays only a 'lip service' to individualism. In the eyes of Capitalism, an 'individual' does not exist. For Capitalism, all individuals are soul-less robots. For the Capitalism, all are ORGANISMS are (includes not only human laborers, but also, working animals like horses, oxen, camels, elephants, kites and vultures(!!!), sledge dogs, hunter dogs, cattle in the abattoirs, pigs, hens and ducks, etc.) all are just objects of business, and factors of production. If those organisms have to survive on this Earth, they must contribute some surplus / profit to the Enterprise Managers and Corporate Monsters. "Freedom of individual", which bourgeoisie economists profess and canvass, exists only in imagination. "Freedom of individual" is used as a stick to beat Socialism with stick, because individuals want a space of their own. Given a chance, it is true, that individuals do not want to share NOT ONLY THAT SPACE WHICH IS REQUIRED FOR THEIR SURVIVAL, BUT ALSO THE SPACE WHICH OTHERS NEED, BESIDE THEM. But, in reality, we have unlimited SPACE only in the sky, above ATMOSPHERE. On this earth, we do not have such unlimited spaces.

SHARING BECOMES INEVITABLE, WHEN RESOURCES SCARCE

Prima facie, it appears to me that Socialism will not impose, or aim to thrust, SHARING on individuals. Let us take Housing. In Capitalism, every individual has to build or buy his-her own home, using lucre made through beg-borrow-steal-rob-cheat-connive. If they are incapable of doing it, then they have to live in huts, or under flyovers, or in subways, or in parked vehicles outside the city. In Capitalist democracies, though Governments promise houses to poor, and allocate a few millions for building houses to poor in annual budgets, most of all such manoeuvres are token-ist to win some elections. There is no genuine intent.

In True Complete Socialism, though it may appear to be a fantasy, the expectation is that a Socialist State will strive to provide at least a sort of 'vanilla' shelters for all, free of cost, for life. Of course, inheritance should not be expected. In fact, it may be prudent for the Socialist State, to rotate housing quarters given free to its Citizens every three years or five years, so that they do not develop attachments and temptations (In Indian philosophy, this is called 'sangams' and 'mohams'). Indian philosophical thinking calls houses, moneys, wives, offsprings, vehicles etc. all as 'debts', and the relationships between the possessors and the objects as the relationship of debtor and creditor. The objects exist as long as the debt exists, and they go away, once the debt gets satisfied. Here is a relevant Sanskrit verse:

riNAnubandha rUpENA
paSu patni suta Alayaha
tad anubandham
pra Samam yAnti
kA tatra parivEdanA !

English gist: Cattle (paSu), patni (wife), suta (sons, daughters), Alaya (houses) are all 'rINAs' (debts). anu = favorable. bandham = band (Indo-European word). rUpENa = in the form of.

tat=that (Indo-European language). praSamam = gets pacified (probably Indo-European origin). yAnti = goes. kA=why, where. tatra = there. pari= a lot, substantial. vEdana = pain.

This ephemeral relationship between 'things' and an 'individual' is to be understood.

.

Another concept which is relevant is: 'jagat' (=this world). ja=What is born, what takes birth.(probably Indo-European language). ga=go (Indo-European). Jagat is something which comes and goes. It does not stay here. It is not 'eternal'. What is 'eternal', becomes 'sat or satyam' i.e. 'truth'.

Film Star and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State in INdia, who passed away recently, apparently did not realise this ephemeral-ity. Consequently, she seems to have acquired huge wealth disproportionate to the known sources of her income. A case is pending against her in Supreme Court of India. Her dwelling is Poes Gardens in Chennai. She is reported to have recommended a SanD Mafia don for appointment to the richest Temple in India, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Trust Board. She having gone to heaven/hell/nowhere, INTESTATE, those who remain on this earth are fighting for inheriting her wealth, and political mantel.

Similar is the case with Late Shri Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Chief Minister of United Andhra Pradesh, who died in a plane crash in 2009. People believe that he accumulated a trillion Rupees (about $15 billion) through quid pro quo methods for his son, along with a palace called 'Lotus Pond'. His having gone to heaven/hell/nowhere, cases are pending in Indian courts.

So, the INDIVIDUALISTS need not shiver at the very idea of sharing some 'common space' for kitchens, washing machines, toilets, while they get small rooms as their personal space for beds, etc. What appears to me in the USSR effort of Kommunalka seems to be to provide some personal space + some shared space, to every individual citizen. I do not know whether there was NEAR-EQUALITY in allocating the living quarters, in the Soviet dispensations. It is always possible that good quarters are allocated to cronies, and dilapidated spaces are imposed on dumb citizens.

To my Indian eyes, the Kommunalka Apartments appeared quite decent. For us, we the Indians, we have Dharavi slum in Mumbai. All of our cities, both Metros, and the smaller cities have slums, in which people live in pitiable squalor. Besides, we have some millions of people living under trees, foot paths, cement pipes lying on road margins and in the adjacent fields.



To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.

862 (1st of 10 series) No need to celebrate or mourn Bolshevik Revolution in Russia,Oct. 1917. We need to analyse where we have gone wrong!

Once bitten, twice shy. Thus says the traditional English idiom. 100 years have passed since Bolshevik Revolution took place in Czarist Russia of 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution was violent, and in the upheaval, the last Tsar Emperor of Russia Nicholas II or Nikolai I, was killed by Bolshevik Troup led by Yakov Yurovsky. The advent of U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) took place, and Lenin became the undisputed Leader of the geographically the most expansive Nation of the World.

In 1991, when Gorbachev was at the helm of U.S.S.R., it broke into splinters. About the 74 years existence (1917 to 1991) of U.S.S.R., superficially as a Communist / Socialist Nation, there are divergent opinions. According to the Capitalist Press, Communism was a total failure. According to them, it is beyond redemption. They say that, we, should now, mourn, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communism. Lenin might have implemented his brand of Communism, rather boorishly and with procacity. It may be true, that erstwhile USSR went through harrowing and gruesome tales of mass-killings, ferocious persecution, in the hands of succeeding cruel dictators. Their oppression might have, really been brutal.

Here is a link to one article in Spectator.co.u.k., titled: "The centenary of the Russian revolution should be mourned, not celebrated"., dated 10th Dec. 2016, by Max Hastings Click to go to http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/the-centenary-of-the-russian-revolution-should-be-mourned-not-celebrated/. The article has collected all the negative sides of the Soviety History 1917-2017. In reality, Soviet Communism might not have been so sepulchral dark and despicable with ghastly shrieks and charnel smells. We shall have a sample from this article:

"...In the West, the gullibility of the Webbs, Bernard Shaw and the rest of the ‘true believers’ was fed by a desperation to suppose the Soviet example viable. ‘Looking around us at our own hells,’ wrote the historian Philip Toynbee, who became a communist at Cambridge, ‘we had to invent an earthly paradise somewhere else’. As late as 1945, the leftist publisher Victor Gollancz brought posterity’s contempt upon himself by declining to publish Animal Farm, George Orwell’s great satire on Bolshevism. ..."

"...President Putin has made unlawful all published mention of the unspeakable cruelties the Soviet regime inflicted on its own citizens — shooting an estimated 300,000 soldiers for alleged desertion or cowardice — in order to prevail. Antony Beevor’s books, and for that matter my own, are nowadays banned because they describe the Red Army’s 1945 campaign of rape and pillage in Germany. ..."

The defunct Soviet Union might not have been either a paradise or, - a hell as is made out now, from hindsight.

Capitalist writers forget the hells created by Imperialism, Colonialism, and Corporate Multi Nationalism. Of course, two wrongs may not make one 'right'. Like slow poison, industrial and agricultural exploitation too took its toll, making people undeclared slaves, before the pulpit of "CASH".

INDIAN WRITER SHRI MOHAN GURUSWAMY, in DECCAN CHRONICLE.COM.

Here is a link to the renowned Indian Writer's article, Shri Mohan Guruswamy, in DeccanChronicle.Com, dated 24th Dec. 2016, when the whole world was celebrating Christmas. Click to go to http://www.deccanchronicle.com/opinion/op-ed/241216/will-russian-spring-return.html. The title of the article is Will the Russian Spring return?

Every sentence written by Shri Guruswamy is worth discussing and analysing. To start with we shall take one paragraph:

The second time I stayed in a small Moscow apartment belonging to an old Russian widow, who for a small dollar price agreed to part with her state-allotted home for a few days. The flat, a few kilometres away from the Indian embassy at Ulitza Obhuka, was as tiny as they come. The bedroom had enough place for just a single bed. The living room was of the same size and had a sofa-cum-bed. The kitchen was tiny and bare. The bathroom was not much bigger than a train toilet. Food was not available for love or money but there was a lot of love available for food or money. In the small store that stood outside the Indian embassy the shelves were bare, as were the shelves in Moscow’s famous GUM store facing the Kremlin. I wanted to experience typical Russian life and got plenty of it. The ruble was officially on par with the US dollar, but on the street the dollar fetched a dozen rubles at least. And for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes (then $8 in Delhi’s duty-free) cabbies would drive you all over Moscow for as long as one wanted. Such was the plight of the other superpower.

yb-a-donkey's observations

With due respect to Shri Mohan Guruswamy, who says "Will the Russian Spring return?", we can also say "Will the American Spring return? Will the British / French / German / Italian / Portuguese / Spanish Springs return?

To continue. सशेष. ఇంకా ఉంది.