USSR

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was an [[[Authoritarian Socialism|authoritarian socialist]] that practised Marxist-Leninist state that was created by the Bolsheviks in 1922 as the Russian Civil War came to an end. It had a long history, which included fighting Nazi Germany and becoming one of the lead players in the Cold War, before the collapse in 1991.

Positives and Negatives

The socialist left is divided into two camps, a pro-USSR camp and an anti-USSR camp. The pro-USSR camp is dominated by Marxist-Leninists and other authoritarian socialists, whilst libertarian socialists tend to dominate the anti-USSR camp. However, we must accept facts and acknowledge the many good and bad things done by the USSR.

Positives

• The USSR increased life expectancy from 43 years to 68 years from 1927 to 1989. This becomes notable after life expectancy dropped 6 years after the collapse of the USSR.
• The USSR massively expanded women's rights.
• Industrialise faster than any other society in history in the midst of the Great Depression without trading with other countries.
• The USSR made several massive advances in science, notably putting the first object, animal and person into space. Some notable achievements include:
  • AK-47
  • Blood Bank
  • Jet Packs
  • Modern Helicopters
  • Nuclear Power Plant
  • Postal Codes
  • RPG-7
  • Space Exploration
  • Space Rover
  • Space Stations
  • Space Suit
  • Stem Cells
  • Supersonic Aircraft
• The USSR also made several large cultural advancements, including:
  • Film Schools
  • Miniature Railways
  • Montage in Movies
  • Tetris
• Almost eliminating unemployment.
• During World War II, the USSR managed to inflict the most damage on Nazi Germany, it's been estimated that 8/10 German deaths in the war were against the USSR.
• From 1927 to 1941, the USSR expanded their freight rail network to be 20x larger than before, surpassing the US. From 1965 to 1980, the USSR build 639km of track a year (or about 1.5km a day).

Major Social Struggles

Note: All of these took place after the seizure of power by Khrushchev and his revisionist clique and restoration of capitalism in 1956, and thus do not represent the socialist USSR under Stalin and the Bolsheviks.

• 1962: Novocherkassk Strike
• 1963: Moscow Protests by African Students
• 1964: Moroccan Embassy in Moscow Sit-In
• 1968: Red Square Anti-War Protests
• 1972: Kaunas' Spring
• 1987: Phosphorite War

Negatives

• A lot of indiscriminate killing and sexual violence.
• Repression of various democratic movements:
  • During the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks crushed the Free Territory of Ukraine and Kronstadt Rebellion, as well as numerous other peasant movements and Russia's urban anarchist movement. Although the USSR isn't technically responsible, it was built on the graves of the libertarian left and shared the same ancestor (Lenin).
  • During the 1950s, the USSR sent soldiers into other Warsaw Pact countries like Hungary, Poland and East Germany to stop democratic revolutions.
• Generating 1.5x as much air pollution and carbon emissions as the USA in 1988 per unit of GNP.
• Creating some of the largest ecological disasters in history:
  • Most famously, the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, considered the worst nuclear accident in history. Having killed 42 people and led to the government creating a 2,600km exclusion zone that has been closed for 33 years. Despite this, scientific teams, tourists and smugglers still enter the area frequently.
  • The Aral Sea between what is now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the fourth largest lake in the world, had dried up thanks to the USSR using it for drainage. But it's also now covered in toxic salt flats as a result of weapons testing, industrial projects, and pesticides and fertilizer runoff. This has led to toxic dust storms and a lack of fresh water for the local population leading to massive health problems and high rates of cancer. Additionally, the loss of the Aral Sea has generated local climate change in the form of cooler winters and hotter summers. Former fishing towns have declined, surrounded by abandoned ship graveyards.
  • The Techa River in the Ural Mountains (Russia) saw 76 million cubic metres (roughly over 30,000 olympic sized swimming pools) of radioactive waste water dumped into by the Mayak complex despite 28,000 people living along the villages. An estimated half a million people were irradiated with potentially 20 times the radiation suffered by the Chernobyl disaster victims, and its worth noting the river connects to the Arctic Ocean, meaning the worlds oceans were potentially contaminated with nuclear waste.
    • The Mayak complex also triggered the Kyshtym Disaster (radioactive clouds spread over 52,000 square km where at least 270,000 people lived across Russia, considered the third worst nuclear accident in history after Fukishima and Chernobyl) and the Pollution of Lake Karachay, having so much radioactive waste dumped into it is considered the most polluted place on Earth (and lacks warning signs on the surrounding roads, meaning anyone could stumble in). By the time Mayak's existence was officially recognized in 1992, there had been a 21% rise in cancer cases, a 25% rise in birth defects, and a 41% rise in leukemia in the surrounding region. This case is very interesting, here is a 15-minute video explaining it.
  • The collapse of the Mailuu-Suu tailings dam (dams to hold in waste at mines) led to the release of 600,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste. Several were killed instantly and the site remains a health hazard, being the most polluted site in Kyrgyzstan and one of the top 10 most polluted sites in the world.