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This is obviously not as important as the current debate on "foreskin privilege," but there are still a few points to clear up and then we can cut it off. Gary wrote: >,,, occasionally, very occasionally, they strike >and successfully carry off a heroic pose and I >have chosen the word "pose" deliberately. I cited Yelstin >on the tank as one of these instances. No comrade, you cited Yeltsin as an example of the capability of the bourgeoisie to be heroic and thus exhibit a strength that those of us in the "opposition" must acknowledge. There is no courage involved in striking a "heroic pose." For this you received a scathing, but deserved, rebuke from Artesian. >You point out I cited Yelstin on the tank as one of >these instances. You point out that it was a media stunt. >Of course it was a successful pose. He carried it off. Was it a media stunt? Was the whole thing staged with the tank as a prop? Was there even a Russian bourgeoisie at that time for Yeltsin to be a member of? Let us return, briefly, to those heady days of 1991. Boris Yeltsin was the elected leader, and employee of, the Russian Socialist Federated Republic - the largest component of the Union of Soviet Republic. He received a paycheck from the same account that paid all the members of the Congress of People's Deputies. It was clearly his intention then to use the Russian Federation as a power base to confront and eventually dismember the Soviet Union and destroy the Communist Party. Was it, even then, his plan to turn Russia into an oligarchy of cronies and gangsters? Even if that was true would Yeltsin have been acting as a member of a class which he would certainly create but which had not yet come into existence? (Maybe it is my own fault for not understanding the whole state capitalist thing and if you can explain that peculiar doctrine, please do.) As to that storied tank, what actually happened that day? Gorbachev was in the Crimea under house arrest and everyone knew that the coup leaders would have to move against Yeltsin. People started to gather outside the "White House" as a show of support and Yeltsin went out to speak to them. It was in this context that he climbed on the tank and it could have been stagecraft or he could have simply been looking for a place to stand where everybody could see him. The later explanation is not as dramatic as the first but I believe it is equally plausible. Yeltsin would employ American media consultants to help with his re-election but that was in the future and this was in a very chaotic and unpredictable present. What is true beyond doubt is that the world was riveted and Americans especially saw what they wanted to see. They wanted a courageous anti-communist hero who had faced down the Red Empire by the power of a speech on a tank sent to crush freedom, and that is what it became. It as if they had gotten to re-run the events of Tiananmen Square only now the good guys had triumphed and the communist tank had been vanquished. The showdown between the the fading loyalists of the Soviet Union the burgeoning power of the Russian Federation was a hight stakes struggle for state power. We all know who won and the subsequent suffering this caused. Yeltsin undoubtedly showed more than "bottle courage" in risking everything to gain political power. Did this make him a hero? Did his membership in the political elite of the Soviet Union make him a member of the bourgeoisie? Let's face it comrade, Boris Yeltsin, for many reasons, was the wrong person to pick to illustrate your point. You would have better off to stick with Winston. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
