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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Communism as historical tragedy
Message-ID: <28200340@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Nov-85 15:53:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.28200340
Posted: Tue Nov 26 15:53:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Nov-85 01:16:05 EST
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Nf-From: inmet!janw    Nov 26 15:53:00 1985


[tedrick@ucbvax]
>Anyway communism took hold in Russia only because the empire
>had already collapsed and a partial power vacuum existed, and
>they were ready and able to pick up the pieces.

So far, quite true. Even more : for "partial" read almost complete.
Kerensky was considered indispensable by his colleagues, though
he was weak and hysterical, for the reason that he had the rare
ability to talk a stray band of armed people in the street into
enforcing an order.
	
>It seems absurd to me to think that  the  communists  could  have
>overturned the Tsarist regime without some external factor like a
>major war playing a role.

*Communists* couldn't, with or without war. As it was, Bolsheviks
took *no* part in toppling the Tzar. Not one of them.
Lenin learned of it in Switzerland from a newspaper and *didn't
believe* at first. No one knows how the Petrograd riots happened
that brought the monarchy down. It was the slightest and most
random push possible - and the thing came down crashing because it
was completely rotten. *No* one came to its support. No class,
party, group or military unit. 
Which shows that, though the war was a proximate cause, the
collapse - of one kind or another - was inevitable.

As for preserving the unity of the parts - possible but
only just possible. Centrifugal forces were great - don't
forget that Poland and Finland were parts of the Empire,
as well as the Ukraine, the Baltic areas and the Caucasus.
All of them were boiling with unrest.
Perhaps, if all was very liberal and democratic, some
kind of confederation, a Russian Commonwealth of Nations,
could have been created. Some trade and customs union would
be to everyone's interest. But that's not an empire.

		Jan Wasilewsky