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It's not bonkers at all. Presumably the Kremlin didn't want the brain drain, and labor drain, of these folks leaving. Surely you can agree that it was in the So
by MockObject 4y ago
It's not bonkers at all. Presumably the Kremlin didn't want the brain drain, and labor drain, of these folks leaving. Surely you can agree that it was in the Soviet state interest to retain its slaves for exploitation?
- pvg 4y agoIt's bonkers to use that terminology. The Soviet government called this stuff 'anti-Soviet', pretended they didn't oppress and discriminate, put healthy dissidents in mental hospitals as if they were crazy, labeled everyone a spy, etc. None of these things were true. We don't use, I dunno, Nazi terms to talk about the people who ended up in concentration camps. The musicians who tried to help regular Soviet citizens emigrate were not spies infiltrating the Soviet union for an 'anti-Soviet operation'. It is very much bananas verbiage.
- MockObject 4y agoI'm still not seeing what's bonkers. The point of contention between you and the Kremlin isn't who's on what side, but which side is good and which, evil. But that's not encoded in "pro-" or "anti-". You don't think the dissidents would be proud to consider themselves, and their activities, anti-Soviet? Would they correct us, and insist that they were actually being pro-Soviet?