Quote:
Originally Posted by NewNick
Dumb point.
The soviet system failed because it lost an economic race against the west. Not because of any kind of issue around crime and deviance.
The point I made was in response to shap suggesting that religion was essential for society to function. (otherwise the poor would steal from the rich)
It is well documented that crime rates have soared in post communist societies, as have congregations.......
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You can say it was the loss of an economic race but the point is more "why did they lose that race".
Lenin and then Stalin actively and aggressively destroyed all of the major underpinnings of society that binds people together and unites them, the biggest of which was definitely religion. They destroyed nearly every traditional institution. I lived in Russia many years. I am fluent in Russian. One cannot possibly overstate the destructive force communism was on the culture and that it turned people into largely shiftless people with no interest in the future. It wasn't purely an "economic" issue. It wasn't an economic issue as well. The economic failure was a symptom of the much greater failure of destroying a culture almost entirely and replacing it with theater, propaganda, lies, violence, secret police and prison camp systems and promises that would never come to fruition.
I was there during the transition. Why was there so much violence? The same thing then happened in reverse. Every institution and the dream of the future was again destroyed and replaced with nothing. Chaos ensued. Very normal. Just as it eventually settled down as it has today.
Why did the same protracted violence not occur in Estonia or Latvia for example? They already had a national identity and more easily reverted back to who they were and reclaimed their identity. They just didn't suffer from the same cultural problems and loss of identity and institutions that Russia did.