EDIT: Please do not go out and try to harass or insult Enigma. This post was not made to create a witch hunt against them. This post was made to criticise his stance on Russia and nothing more. End of story.
Hello comrades. Recently a fellow comrade of ours named @EN16MA@lemmygrad.ml wrote out a little masterpost to the Communist forum here on Lemmygrad titled “Russia is Marching Towards Socialism”. In this post, Enigma makes a number of claims about the current state of the Russian Federation, but the most prominent one is what the title says: that Russia is moving towards socialism, and has effectively become a dictatorship of the proletariat under Putin’s rule.
Here is the original post: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/175705
I hate to come down on a fellow comrade like this, but to quite blunt, this post is a hunk of shit. It is absolutely riddled with the most ridiculous claims that grasp at perhaps the world’s longest straws to try and make the argument that Russia in its current form is any way “socialist”. It only serves to make the rest of us MLs look like complete buffoons with no knowledge of history or foreign affairs.
This post of mine aims to debunk Engima’s claims and hopefully put both them and the rest of this community on the right path with regards to Russia, so that we all have a better understanding of what exactly is up with this country and where we should stand on it. It is very clear that Engima has no real understanding of current Russian politics and that is what I aim to address in this response.
According to the words of Vladimir Putin himself, since 2020 Russia has been in an NEP. The process of moving towards a socialist state began in 2020 with the establishment of a new NEP. Russia is still capitalist, specifically state capitalist with a strong market sector similar to China but it could be argued that Russia is currently a Dictatorship of the Proletariat:
So basically what Enigma is referring to here is an event in April 2020 in which Putin announced a list of measures of social protection, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and changes in fiscal policy. Putin announced the following measures for microenterprises, small- and medium-sized businesses: deferring tax payments (except Russia’s value-added tax) for the next six months, cutting the size of social security contributions in half, deferring social security contributions, deferring loan repayments for the next six months, a six-month moratorium on fines, debt collection, and creditors’ applications for bankruptcy of debtor enterprises.
In short, Putin’s aim was to forgive all Russian loans and business tax payments for the next six months.
I don’t think I need to explain why this policy bears no resemblance at all to the NEP, other than its focus on helping small private businesses. Putin’s policy here is not some wide-sweeping change to the Russian economy like the NEP was; it’s literally just a COVID-19 relief scheme.
The only reason Enigma tries to equate them is because Putin himself equated his policy to the NEP. This is a comically terrible point for two reasons:
- If Enigma actually did his research, he would’ve known Putin’s claim was bullshit to begin with, and
- As Engima admits himself, Russia is still a capitalist system. Capitalist leaders are literally SUPPOSED to say whatever sounds the best in order to get people to trust and follow them. Why, then, would Enigma automatically assume Putin is telling the truth when he equates his covid relief scheme to the fucking NEP? This whole point is just ridiculous and clearly demonstrates Enigma’s lack of knowledge on Russian and Soviet history.
Well, Enigma must realise his logic is already faltering because he proceeds to try and make the argument that Russia (sigh) has already become a DOTP. How does he argue this, you may ask?
A recent example of Russia being a DOTP was when Putin at the start of the special military operation in Ukraine scolded the bourgeoisie for not falling in line. Russia deals with their bourgeoisie similar to China, with an iron fist.
…What??
What Engima appears to be referring to here, I guess, is Putin scolding members of the Russian elite for not supporting the invasion of Ukraine. How the hell does this have ANYTHING to do with Russia being controlled by the proletariat??? If anything, this only PROVES that the Russian oligarchs are still a problem, if Putin is having to call them out on live television for going against him! Regardless of how you feel about the invasion of Ukraine, this “argument” of Enigma’s is really just a non-argument. I have no idea why he even brought this up to begin with, it means literally nothing. And that comparison with China is so weak. China executes its billionaires on a regular basis. Putin scolds them on national television. Come on. Russia is not a DOTP.
Well, next up Enigma tries to argue that Russia is socialist because of “state planning” and nationalisation:
3/4’s of the economy is owned by the state, while there is also strong and vibrant small and medium medium sized firms in a market sector which have been promoted by the state as alternatives to foriegn oligopolies.
You know, South Korea also executed five-year plans during its recovery from the Korean War. Does that make South Korea socialist now? For Christ’s sake, this is literally a liberal/conservative’s understanding of socialism. Nationalisation does not equal socialism. State planning does not equal socialism. This should not have to be explained to someone who claims to be a socialist, let alone a Marxist-Leninist.
The leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov has high praise for Putin and has even suggested that he should become leader of the party. This suggestion does not come from an empty vacuum, Putin has actually for the last several years not been apart of United Russia and has been antagonistic towards the party. He has instead supported Fair Russia (in the last election) who had talks of joining in a coalition with the Communist Party. Putin has also on multiple occasions praised Communism and Communist figures of the past.
This whole paragraph is rather incoherent and seems to bounce back and forth between “the communists love to putin” to “putin actually hates the communists” to “putin loves communist figures”.
First of all, Zyuganov is a terrible human being. He opposes abortion and LGBT rights, is extremely antisemitic, and supports Reaganist trickle-down economics and the Russian Orthodox Church. So saying he’s buddy-buddy with Putin isn’t a very good look.
Secondly, tagging Putin as a communist because he praises communist figures is just beyond laughable. Not only do Putin’s policies not resemble any Soviet policies as we have established, but he has also gone out of his way a number of times to disgrace figureheads like Lenin and Stalin. Just recently, in fact, the Russian government ordered the bulldozing of a monument of Lenin reading, “Peace and Love to All Peoples!” Putin just says whatever he can to get the people on his side; in reality he doesn’t have any loyalty to his country’s communist legacy. The fact Enigma just finds quotes of Putin praising communists and rolls with it, really shows how unwilling he is to think critically about what he is reading, which is the essence of being a communist.
Alright, so, after this point Enigma goes on a long tangent where he praises Russia for invading Ukraine, but I don’t think I need to get into it. I think I’ve said enough already about why Enigma’s little “masterpost” on Russia is one of the stupidest things I’ve seen from this community in quite a while. I don’t mean any personal disrespect to @EN16MA@lemmygrad.ml, but seriously dude, do your research next time. Posts like these just make the rest of us look like a bunch of uneducated nutcases and will just turn people off from the path of Marxism-Leninism, especially in times like these. Hopefully this post is what you need to start thinking more critically like an actual communist and Marxist.
Russia is not socialist, nor is it on the path to socialism. I hope I have this made point abundantly clear today.
As in your own words, “I hate to come down on a fellow comrade like this, but to quite blunt, this post is a hunk of shit.” I hate to do this but this applies to you.
First of all, this post made by AppleDash is full of contradictory statements, at first he correctly says that Enigma believes that Russia is moving towards socialism, that it’s not socialist, nor is building socialism, yet is coming closer to it by becoming more and more sovereign, building a centralized planned economy, achieving a dictatorship of the proletariat, etc., then accuses Enigma of calling Russia socialist, then switches back to saying that Enigma claimed that Russia is coming closer towards socialism but is not socialist and isn’t building it and then again accused him of claiming that Russia is socialist. This way we can see how our Comrade AppleDash is a living embodiment of contradictions and suffers from the lack of dialectical thinking, instead engaging in hardcore metaphysics and switching back and fourth in his contradictory statements
Secondly, the NEP reform that Enigma is talking about is NOT Putins reforms to protect small businesses and create more social proetction, instead, what Enigma is talking about is Putins United Plan (Единый План Путина), which is from August 2020 and not April 2020, whose intend it is to transform Russia into a centralized planned economy and return the Gosplan under a state capitalist economy (for now), which is what the NEP was
https://barcaffe.ru/v-rossii-proizoshla-tihaja-socialisticheskaja-revoljucija-putina/
Further, Putin has praised central planning before and said that without it WWII couldnt have been won in public, showing his support for central planning in both, his words and actions
"Then the economy. After all, why have they already switched to the NEP? Because even the prodrazverstka did not work, could not. It was impossible to provide large cities with food. Therefore, they switched to market economy, to the NEP, then quickly folded it.
You know, what I’m saying now is my personal conclusions, my personal analysis. Planned economy has certain advantages, it makes it possible to concentrate national resources on the implementation of the most important tasks. This was how health issues were resolved, which was the unconditional merit of the Communist Party of that time. This was how the issues of education were resolved – an absolute merit of the Communist Party of that time. This was how the issues of industrialization in its defense part were resolved. I think that if it were not for the concentration of national resources, the Soviet Union would not have been able to prepare for war with Nazi Germany. And there would be a great probability of defeat with catastrophic consequences for our statehood, for the Russian people and other peoples of the Soviet Union. Therefore, these are all absolute advantages. But in the end, insensitivity to changes, insensitivity to technological revolutions, to new technological ways led to the collapse of the economy." -Putin http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/51206
Later on our confused comrade AppleDash goes on to say that South Korea also had central planning, thus making central planning a phenomenon not solely used by socialist and socialist-orientated states only. True, capitalist countries can also have central planning, however, capitalist countries cant have centralized planned economies for long periods of time as Marx and Engels said in Capital Volume III, and is rather incompatible with capitalist economic mechanisms
From the Third volume of Capital, “All thought of a common, all-embracing and far-sighted control of the production of raw materials gives way once more to the faith that demand and supply will mutually regulate one another. And it must be admitted that such control is on the whole irreconcilable with the laws of capitalist production, and remains for ever a pious wish, or is limited to exceptional co-operation in times of great stress and confusion.”
Central planning is only used by capitalist countries for short periods of time, such as total massive crises and war, this, however, does not apply to Russia right now, especially not in August 2020. Russia is not facing a major crisis of the likes of the Great Depression unlike the Weimar Republic/the 3rd Reich and is not having a direct war on its territory with someone, especially not in 2020 or 2021. Thus, Russia is building a centralized planned economy not to avoid devastation, but to come closer to socialism
Further, I like to mention that all large enterprises are nationalized in Russia. People often forget that 99.2% of enterprises in Russia are small enterprises, which Putin wants to keep private, which is totally fine, even under socialism
Thirdly, Comrade AppleDash mistakens Enigma’s claims of Russia being a dictatorship of the proletariat being solely based on the bourgeoisie opposing the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Though, that’s one reason, ALL Russian bourgeois billionaires (with the exception of three, that being Yuri Kovalchuk, Gennady Tymchenko and Sergey Chemezov) all openly oppose Putin now for starting the special military operation. The bourgeoisie in Russia DO NOT want this special military operation, but the workers and the peasants, the 99%, the people want it. So, by starting this military operation, Russia is going AGAINST the interests of the bourgeosie and is acting according to the workers of Russia. I wouldn’t use this so much as a reason as Enigma does regardless.
What bigger proof there is of the bourgeosie is Putin openly claiming that Russia is a “Soviet-style workers state”
“We have had it for a long time, they always said that the working class is the leading political force in our country. It was a Soviet stamp, but in fact it is,” TASS quoted Putin as saying at a meeting with workers and builders of the new Tsemix dry building mixes plant in Bashkiria."
“Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the working class is a political force in Russia.” https://russian.rt.com/russia/news/893534-rabochie-putin-rossiya
Further, Putin said that the oligarchs should have no influence on decision-making https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/815691480353996881/957009287908036649/Screenshot_20210308-000617-1.png
And Putin and Peskov are claiming that there is no oligarchy in Russia anymore, and that they have no political influence anymore
“In the spring of 2020, President Vladimir Putin explained the difference between oligarchs from the 1990s and modern ones. According to him, in the past decades, oligarchs could influence decisions made by the state in matters of domestic policy, and today’s company executives do not enjoy such privileges. “They don’t even get involved [in politics],” he pointed out.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.lenta.ru/news/2020/06/10/oligarhi/amp/ https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4013473
this is what Putin says, but is this really the case in practice?
The Russian bourgeosie first of all has no state positions, just look at the wikipedia pages of Abramovich, Sechin, Potanin, Rotenberg or whatever, or just read this
https://books.google.ru/books?id=Q_DiCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT90&lpg=PT90&dq=путин+в+россии+нет+буржуазии&source=bl&ots=jmifWptqcO&sig=ACfU3U01NDjNncoAW37fT8PRm0VlMj_SQg&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi60cHrt_juAhVUBGMBHVTsDbs4ChDoATAGegQICBAC#v=onepage&q=путин в россии нет буржуазии&f=false “As a political fact , the bourgeoisie is already poorly recognized — there are no deputies in the Chamber … no cannon shootings at the Loire. Russia has a different case: there is an anonymous ideology and …”
Further, Russia has no lobbyism since 2014, especially since mid 2018.
“Alas, we have practically no such precedents in recent years (of lobbyism) — we live boring, gentlemen.” https://tsargrad.tv/articles/lobbizm-v-gosdume-chi-interesy-predstavljajut-deputaty_230887
Also, Putin once called the bourgeoisie cockroaches.
We are slowly coming to the end
“First of all, Zyuganov is a terrible human being. He opposes abortion and LGBT rights, is extremely antisemitic, and supports Reaganist trickle-down economics and the Russian Orthodox Church. So saying he’s buddy-buddy with Putin isn’t a very good look.”
Even if that’s true, that doesn’t matter, Zyuganov is still a Marxist and we should put economics above social views. And Paul Cockshott opposes trans rights, is supporting Paul also “giving yourself a bad look”?
Next dear Comrade AppleDash is claiming that Putin has multiple times disgraced Lenin. The reason why Putin has said on numerous occasions things like that “Lenin put a ticking time bomb” under the USSR is because he opposes Lenins position on the National Question (and actually called Stalin right on it). https://youtu.be/YF1PMPvp3G8
He also opposes how Lenin destroyed churches and killed priests for no reason. And denounces Marxist social views, in particular the Marxist view on the family (which the USSR upheld).
Really, Putins criticizes Lenin not on economics or Marxism, but on social views, such as the national question, the family and the destruction and killings of priests and churches.
Can u also give an example of Putin disgracing Stalin? Haven’t heard of that
On a very last point, I find it hilarious how you completely ignored the last part of Enigma’s post. The reason why Russia can’t go full-on socialist and whatever is because it’s not a fully sovereign country. Enigma called the military operation Russia’s declaration of independence, it isn’t. Yes, Russia is not dependent on the US and EU at all since spring 2021, but still dependent indirectly on them by being dependent on PRC, a semi-neo-colony of them
Well, thank you for clearing up a lot of these misconceptions of mine, I appreciate it.
Honestly though, a lot of the stuff I was saying was just pure reaction to Enigma’s writing, and tbh the way Enigma worded a lot things (especially his talk of Putin’s NEP) was incredibly vague and thus I had no idea what he was actually referring to. If his post had been written better, my response would have almost certainly been written better as well, even with some of the things I got wrong regardless.
But I do appreciate a lot of these clarifications comrade. I still don’t think Russia is socialist but perhaps we just fundamentally disagree on certain principles of what Putin is doing. In any case, it’s good that you took the time to correct the points that I did make wrong, so thank you for that :)