by Chris Doss Oh, I think a lot of Soviet policy was simply a utilitarian, "how do we build up the country as quickly as possible to overtake our enemoies?" thing. Russia engages in these grandiose "catching up with the West" adventures every couple of centuries or so. It has succeeded twice, under Peter the Great and Joseph the Steel, two historical figures I think have a lot in common, except that the Stalin had tanks instead of musketry. There's no way he could beat Peter's Drunken Synods, though. :)
^^^^^ CB: Are you saying that the Soviet people knew they were really just trying to catch up with the West again ,and just used the Communist terminology to cover it up or that they didn't realize what they were really, "pragmatically" doing ( simply trying to catch up with the West) ? Basically the best argument against what you are saying is what the Soviet people said.
