Russia’s economy ended four quarters of contraction with a bigger growth spurt than forecast, putting it on track to return to its pre-war level as soon as next year as it adapts to the impact of international sanctions.
Theres not as much support for USSR or even socialism as you would like to believe. Of course people are not antagonizing it as much as western countries do, but you should also take into account that Russia uses Soviet imagery exclusively as an aesthetic selling point and does not attribute its successes to socialism but rather to the “spirit of the russian people”. Experiences of older people are often dismissed as “grass was greener in my youth” and young people are very much fed distilled anti-soviet propaganda. The great problem with bringing back socialism to Russia lies with general political apathy of the people, getting through it would require rapid and substantial changes of the living standarts, be it good or bad. Best hope lies with China influencing Russian state, otherwise I see no “stumbling into socialism” on Russia’s part without some great disaster to kick off radicalization.
Yeah, I don’t expect Russia is going to stumble into socialism and I absolutely agree with all the problems you’ve identified. Socialism is something people will have to fight for in the end, and it’s the job of socialists in Russia to educate people during the current conditions. China is definitely the biggest factor in my opinion as it shows a successful socialist model working at scale. Hopefully people in Russia will find the model aspirational as they get more exposure to it.
Theres not as much support for USSR or even socialism as you would like to believe. Of course people are not antagonizing it as much as western countries do, but you should also take into account that Russia uses Soviet imagery exclusively as an aesthetic selling point and does not attribute its successes to socialism but rather to the “spirit of the russian people”. Experiences of older people are often dismissed as “grass was greener in my youth” and young people are very much fed distilled anti-soviet propaganda. The great problem with bringing back socialism to Russia lies with general political apathy of the people, getting through it would require rapid and substantial changes of the living standarts, be it good or bad. Best hope lies with China influencing Russian state, otherwise I see no “stumbling into socialism” on Russia’s part without some great disaster to kick off radicalization.
Yeah, I don’t expect Russia is going to stumble into socialism and I absolutely agree with all the problems you’ve identified. Socialism is something people will have to fight for in the end, and it’s the job of socialists in Russia to educate people during the current conditions. China is definitely the biggest factor in my opinion as it shows a successful socialist model working at scale. Hopefully people in Russia will find the model aspirational as they get more exposure to it.
Well they do seem on board with shooting corrupt politicians, so I guess theres a foothold there