I’m halfway through Parenti’s Blackshirt and Reds, I’ll post about it when I finish it, like I did for Mark Fisher’s Capitalism Realism, but I actually want to ask where can I know more about the Soviet Union as a whole and about the criticism Parenti does in the book alongside any other issue it might have had?

In Chapter 4 - Communism in Wonderland, Parenti does an actual critique of socialist experiences and it’s, in very broad terms, basically how issues ranged from lack of incentive to corruption, what’s funny is that some of the stuff he presented there is actually stuff I have seen here in Brasil, for different reasons usually, yet still something that happens here, and probably that also happens on other capitalist countries. But what I’m interested really is in how much of what he’s talking about is still considered true given that it’s been 29 years since the book was released and there could be more information about these issues that he might not have had access to at the time. I think I get why he didn’t really expand much into these issues in the book since it feels like the book is structured as a quick read to dispel the myths liberals kept and still keeps parroting to this day.

I know Hakim did a video about Soviet mistakes, but these are not really issues he touches in that video IIRC.

  • RondoRevolution [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    Thanks for the recommendations! Marxist works contextualizing are completely fine, I just want to have the knowledge to properly criticize at least some part of the Soviet Union because it’s some context I lack and something I need to know to properly understand what errors so we don’t make them again.

    Parenti wrote this in the aftermath of the dissolution, causing some skepticism towards the entire project even if he upheld it

    Yeah thought that might have been the case, he even cites Khrushchev’s speech even tho he doesn’t confirm nor deny it, but I guess is to be expected from the time. Regardless this book is really good and I’m enjoying reading it, I saw you recommending it to libs a lot and I can see why, it’s great at dispelling some of the most common lies and reactionary talking points we face.

    • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      Yep, thanks! Parenti is a great way to dip your toes into “maybe the USSR wasn’t so bad after all,” but as far as history goes he’s actually more negative on it than modern historiography, based on the opening of the Soviet archives and primary sources. Parenti is an excellent writer, and is more of a “pro-Marxist” than a Marxist, if that makes sense.

      Modern critique of the Soviet Union largely comes from China and other socialist countries that had to grapple with the loss of such a giant. Roland Boer’s work Socialism in Power: On the Theory and History of Socialist Governance is another great one that shows some of the problems run into by the Soviets, despite what they managed to accomplish, along with bits on the DPRK and PRC.