this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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The Soviet Union was, if not a traditional dictatorship, absolutely a totalitarian autocracy. Stalin was a brutal dictator and his successors were chosen by the communist party. Elections in the USSR were for show.
Life was miserable almost from the start of the Bolshevik revolution for most people. The USSR's implementation of communism was so bad, it's become cliche.
"Life was miserable almost from the start of the Bolshevik revolution for most people", said the romanovs.
Were they wrong?
Allow me to repeat myself:
It was one party democracy lol.
Yep. Democracy doesn't mean "choose between parties," it's about the actual impact you can have on policy. More people in China feel that they have a voice in politics than people in the US, despite the US having 2 parties.
Regarding the impact you make, ppl you vote for can be undemocratically removed from the party by party leadership at any time and therefore must comply fully with the will of the party.
Btw, Kalinin's (the head of the state) wife was held hostage in prison camp by Stalin (party leader). I guess that says as much about great Soviet democracy.
So bad that after the fall of the Soviet Union, its former republics all had an immediate, sustained downturn in their quality of life, and a corresponding uptick in mortality.