Since the former Soviet and East European states had few or no native big capitalists of the traditional kind, restoring capitalism has meant putting them in hock to foreigners. Consequently, new national democratic demands have entered the programs of Communist Parties and other progressive parties in erstwhile socialist states. There is the possibility of organizing the defense of the nation-state and national independence as part of a campaign to reverse capitalist restoration.
We cannot leave this writing without sharing the impact of this study upon us. We came away with a renewed sense of awe at accomplishments of the seventy-year socialist experiment when, as Tom Paine said of an earlier revolution, workers “had it in their power to begin the world over again.” We came away, also, with a deep sense of the great possibilities lost. The betrayal swept away an attempt at human liberation, which sustained the hopes of millions of working and oppressed people in the 20th century, a noble venture for which so many Soviet people made such staggering sacrifices and from which so many Soviets and non-Soviets reaped lasting benefits.
Nobody can undo the grim facts. Only the peoples in the former Soviet Union and the other former socialist states can decide whether and when socialism will return. It is unlikely the winners of 1991 will have the last word. In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna that restored Europe’s kings to their thrones, the Austrian aristocrat Clemens von Metternich thought that he had done away with “liberty, equality and fraternity.” A little more than a century later, more republican tricolors flew over European and world capitals than ever before. The contradictions that gave birth to 1917 are still growing and will give birth to new attempts at working class emancipation. Learning the lessons of the dismantling of the Soviet Union is the best way both to honor its memory and to ensure that such a calamity never happens again.
Epilogue–
A Critique of Explanations of the Soviet Collapse
What needs explanation is that an international system of states collapsed in the absence of the most evident forms of threat: it was not defeated in war; it did not face overwhelming political challenges from below, Poland being the only partial exception. It was not, despite its manifold economic and social problems, unable to meet the basic economic demands of its citizenry. It did not therefore collapse, fail or break down in any absolute sense. What occurred rather was that the leadership of the most powerful state in the system decided to introduce a radically new set of policies within the USSR and within the system as a whole: it was not that the ruled could not go on being ruled in the old way so much as that the rulers could not go on ruling in the old way. Fred Halliday666
Explanations for the collapse of the Soviet Union abound. They reflect every ideological shade and emotional nuance. They range from the fanciful to the ponderous, from the gleeful to despairing. Many have contributed to our own understanding, which differs from all of them. These theories fall into six categories667 according to the main cause:
1. Flaws of socialism
2. Popular opposition
3. External factors
4. Bureaucratic counter-revolution
5. Lack of democracy and over-centralization, and
6. The Gorbachev factor
In what follows, we shall explain our differences with these theories.
Proponents of the first theory believe that all socialist systems are doomed because they have a “genetic flaw.” Socialism came about illegitimately in the Soviet Union. It was inherently unworkable because it went against human nature and the free market. Jack Matlock, a Columbia professor who served as ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, said simply, “‘Socialism,’ as defined by Lenin, was doomed from the start because it was based on mistaken assumptions about human nature.”668 This theory with variations appears in the works of Martin Malia, Richard Pipes,669 and Dmitri Volkogonov.670
In truth, in spite of its achievements, the Soviet system did have many flaws in 1985. Some were problems associated with centralized planning—insufficient quantity and quality of some consumer goods, decelerating productivity, lagging local initiative, the slow diffusion of computers and other technology, corruption and illegal private money-making. Some were problems associated with the political system. Some methods that were helpful for seizing and holding power proved problematic for wielding power in the long run. These included the overlap of Party and government functions that both kept political initiative at the top and reduced lower bodies to advisory and consultative functions, a problem that similarly affected mass organizations, like the trade unions. There was also the persistence of forms and levels of censorship above and beyond what was necessary in a mature socialist society and of privileges that separated the Party and government elite from the working population. Some problems were clearly related to the Cold War that absorbed resources to maintain a credible military strength and support allies abroad. Some problems had to do with the challenge of maintaining a revolutionary elan, high Party standards, and a relevant Marxist ideology and education in the face of the relentless march of time and inevitable temptations of bureaucracy. The main point, however, is that these problems did not produce a crisis let alone a collapse.
Moreover, the trouble with this theory is that it views Soviet history as unfolding toward an inevitable demise because of its departures from human nature, private property and the free market. Though these views gained ascendancy in the U.S. during the Reagan era, few historians subscribe to an historical determinism based on human nature. In addition, this theory is utterly incapable of explaining how Soviet socialism survived the collectivization of agriculture and the German invasion of World War II, only to fall apart under the seemingly far lesser challenges of the 1980s.
The second theory is that popular opposition brought down Soviet socialism. This category is a bit of a straw man, since no writer of note holds that popular opposition alone brought down Soviet socialism. Nevertheless, some writers have stressed such aspects of popular opposition as the disenchantment of intellectuals,671 the protests of workers,672 the rise of nationalists,673 and the electoral successes of non-Communists. Certainly, the disaffection of intellectuals with the Soviet system was quite widespread. By the 1980s, for example, many prominent Soviet economists favored markets.674 Reform schemes proposed by academics influenced some of Gorbachev’s policies, and in this way intellectuals did contribute to the collapse.675 Other aspects of popular unrest also played a role. The riots in Baku, the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the nationalist protests in the Baltics, the strikes by miners, and the formation of a liberal opposition bloc in the Congress of People’s Deputies stood out as important moments in the unraveling of Soviet socialism. Still, the main defect of this theory is that popular discontent appeared toward the end rather than the beginning of the Gorbachev reforms. It resulted from Gorbachev’s policies rather than caused them. As one wag said, glasnost gave Soviet citizens the license to criticize, and perestroika gave them something to criticize. In 1985, however, at the start of the reform process, popular unrest did not exist. While some Soviet people complained about the quality and quantity of goods and about official privileges and corruption, most Soviets expressed satisfaction with their lives and contentment with the system. Polls showed that the level of satisfaction of Soviet citizens was comparable to the satisfaction of Americans with their system.676 Even in 1990-91, as their leaders moved toward private property, marketetization, and ethnic fragmentation, Soviet citizens by large majorities favored public ownership, price controls, and the maintenance of the Soviet Union.677 In the final analysis, popular opposition acted as a dependent rather than an independent variable, a by-product of Gorbachev’s policies rather than their cause.