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Americans really should learn more about the Soviet KGB and its predecessor, the NKVD, and how they ran a campaign of terror against citizens who did little mor

Americans really should learn more about the Soviet KGB and its predecessor, the NKVD, and how they ran a campaign of terror against citizens who did little more than have a different opinion of how the country should be run. Because now that America no longer compares itself to the Soviet Union, this is the kind of police state that is being constructed in the USA. Meanwhile, in Russia, the place where the Soviet system used to be, they have moved in the opposite direction and dismantled most of the police state. In Russia people have more personal freedoms with respect to the state than they do in the USA. Of course one unfortunate side effect of so much freedom is that there was a great increase in corruption and the growth of the oligarchs after the fall of the Soviet Union. But Russia is dealing with this step by step, reducing corruption and reigning in the oligarchs. Their ideal seems to be the USA of the 1960s or 70s, but not the USA of today.

bananacurve 13y ago
>In Russia people have more personal freedoms with respect to the state than they do in the USA. How it is possible for someone to reach such a stupendous level of confusion boggles the mind. Even if the Russian propaganda minister were to make such a declaration he surely isn't deluded enough to believe it to be true.
- memracom 13y ago
  Well, I speak Russian fluently (and therefore can follow the Russian media/Internet) and I have visited the country 3 times. In addition I have visited another ex-Soviet country, Ukraine, over a dozen times. You really have to go to these places to understand them, and preferably have some level of competence in the language so that you can speak to a variety of people, not just some egotistic activist that gets his jollies out of manipulating foreign media.
  - bananacurve 13y ago
    I have spoken to Ukrainians and Russians, students and programmers, and they would be offended at your assessment of the situation. The most telling part of my conversations with them was when I suggested that things are getting at least a little better. They were adamant that things were not getting better. Anyway they were glad to be in the states.
    - memracom 13y ago
      Immigrants have gone through incredible emotional struggle to adapt to a new culture. They are not a reliable source to assess how things are in their country of origin, especially not how things are currently. And to lump together Russia and Ukraine and say that things are not getting better, is gross oversimplification. Ukraine has had weak leaders and strong oligarchs since the fall of the Soviet Union. However Russia has had strong leaders (Yeltsin and then Putin) who have consistently pushed back on their oligarchs. In particular Putin has spent most of his leadership period fighting corruption, reigning in oligarchs, and undertaking the perestroika (redevelopment) that Gorbachev was never able to achieve. Things in Russia are getting better while things in Ukraine are getting worse. They are heading in opposite directions and many Ukrainians are aware of this which is why public dissent has been growing there. Being offended at someone's assessment of a situation is a political statement. We should not be surprised to hear people making political statements about a political situation. None of this makes one person more right or another one more wrong. Politics is very hard to figure out, and we should all be careful of making oversimplified statements. It's not as simple as Ukraine signs an agreement with the EU and then everything is rosy. Neither is it as simple Putin twisting Yanukovitch's arm. This is a bloody complex geopolitical problem and Ukraine is getting no support in solving it from anyone outside Ukraine. They have to work through it, accept the hard knocks, and ultimately reap whatever benefits that their decision brings. Cheerleaders on the sidelines have no skin in the game.

bananacurve 13y ago

>In Russia people have more personal freedoms with respect to the state than they do in the USA. How it is possible for someone to reach such a stupendous level of confusion boggles the mind. Even if the Russian propaganda minister were to make such a declaration he surely isn't deluded enough to believe it to be true.

memracom 13y ago
Well, I speak Russian fluently (and therefore can follow the Russian media/Internet) and I have visited the country 3 times. In addition I have visited another ex-Soviet country, Ukraine, over a dozen times. You really have to go to these places to understand them, and preferably have some level of competence in the language so that you can speak to a variety of people, not just some egotistic activist that gets his jollies out of manipulating foreign media.
- bananacurve 13y ago
  I have spoken to Ukrainians and Russians, students and programmers, and they would be offended at your assessment of the situation. The most telling part of my conversations with them was when I suggested that things are getting at least a little better. They were adamant that things were not getting better. Anyway they were glad to be in the states.
  - memracom 13y ago
    Immigrants have gone through incredible emotional struggle to adapt to a new culture. They are not a reliable source to assess how things are in their country of origin, especially not how things are currently. And to lump together Russia and Ukraine and say that things are not getting better, is gross oversimplification. Ukraine has had weak leaders and strong oligarchs since the fall of the Soviet Union. However Russia has had strong leaders (Yeltsin and then Putin) who have consistently pushed back on their oligarchs. In particular Putin has spent most of his leadership period fighting corruption, reigning in oligarchs, and undertaking the perestroika (redevelopment) that Gorbachev was never able to achieve. Things in Russia are getting better while things in Ukraine are getting worse. They are heading in opposite directions and many Ukrainians are aware of this which is why public dissent has been growing there. Being offended at someone's assessment of a situation is a political statement. We should not be surprised to hear people making political statements about a political situation. None of this makes one person more right or another one more wrong. Politics is very hard to figure out, and we should all be careful of making oversimplified statements. It's not as simple as Ukraine signs an agreement with the EU and then everything is rosy. Neither is it as simple Putin twisting Yanukovitch's arm. This is a bloody complex geopolitical problem and Ukraine is getting no support in solving it from anyone outside Ukraine. They have to work through it, accept the hard knocks, and ultimately reap whatever benefits that their decision brings. Cheerleaders on the sidelines have no skin in the game.