HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------I am in the middle of grading 104 term papers so I can't answer all your questions, but I wanted to explain why Gorbachev is so odious to me. As for Yeltsin and Putin, they were not the heads of the Soviet Union. (As for Yeltsin. I'd dance on his grave. And Putin let Yugoslavia die whle Russia disintegrated.)
They were capitalist stooges of Russia. They are beneath contempt. But a man who still has support from the Left, Gorbachev needs to be seen in this context:
In October of 1996, Tom Brokaw said on MSNBC:
"The former President of the Soviet Union of course was a courageous, far-seeing prophet whose reforms set in motion the collapse of the Soviet dictatorship and the end of the Cold War."
And what is he (now) doing? He heads up a think tank, the Gorbachev Foundation, which moved to Northeastern University in Massachusetts after leaving its headquarters at the Presidio ( A Former Military Base ) in San Francisco. Who's funding him? Who is providing the limos and money and stuff?
And how much do you hear from your hero about the anguish of Russia and the immiseration of the people of the republics of the former Soviet Union? Any words of support for the hungry, homeless, jobless, and sickly people whose economic system has been destroyed by capitalism? If he is a communist or a socialist? has Had Gorbachev a heart or courage or outrage, he might be saying something about the destruction of the medical, educational, housing, cultural, industrial, and agricultural systems of his homeland. But no.
Heard any of that from him since 1990? Is he publicly wringing his hands as infant and maternal mortality rates soar, women and girls are forced to sell their bodies, residents of the world's second greatest spource of petroleum and natural gas, and THE major coal producer of Europe shiver and freeze to death in their homes?
No, he would not bite the hand of the international bourgeiosie who feeds and clothes him in 1000 dollar suits and pays him thousands to deliver speeches on world federalism or some such policy-wonkish nonsense.
"How do you rate him vs Stalin, Khruschev, Brezhnev, Andropov, the other old guy, "
You redbating me? I never was anti -Soviet, it's a trap and ultimately leads to opposition to socialism. I always knew that socialism was better for the people of those republics and the world than capitalism. Now the whole world can know it too. Liberals choose not to. Conservatives are laughing all the way to the bank.
The death of the USSR has spelled death to millions not only in the former USSR but in the Third World.. No revoultionary struggle can find succor from the powerful nation which provided support, however paltry, for their movements of national liberation. That Gorbachev chooses not to make any reference to this in his speeches or statements is significant too.
"To me - saying that the US helped destroy the USSR is like saying that Hitler helped contribe to poor mortality statistics for Jews Russians Gypsies and Communists."
But this is a more significant point than you indicate.
I suggest you read Sean Gervasi's seminal article on the destabilization of the USSR in the winter 1991-2 issue of Covert Action Magazine. And the Right Wing here is now gloating about US efforts to overthrow the USSR; so now they are admittting their role; read Peter Schweizer's Victory.
See, the thing is, the myth that socialism didn't work was the way that the ideological spinmeisters manipulated millions to believe that socialism is passé. (They use the anti- Stalinism stuff to "prove" this as well) But the fact that the USSR was destabilized is not generally known.
Hence my intense hatred of Gorbachev. He participated in his nation's demise and then left with some cushy capitalist backing. If he is back in Moscow, he is living well and feeling no pain, remorse, or responsibility. Sitting pretty, one might say.
Was he an agent of the US? I don't know, but Gorbachev's function was to prepare the final solution to the Soviet problem for the USA and imperialist nations. It doesn't matter if he was a plant, he did the job. And he placed himself clearly on the side of the capitalists henceforth. And there he remains.
Heather
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