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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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Comradeship // Freechat
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Western leftists often denounce all of them (Cuba, the DPRK, China, Vietnam, Laos, and the historical experiments), as well as the non-Marxist attempts at socialism like in Venezuela, despite never having achieved anything remotely close to socialism in their own countries
I see that Russia isn't on your list, is it a socialist state or something else?
Depends on what you mean by Russia. If you mean the Soviet Union, then yes, they were most definitely socialist, even though revisionists would later take over and steer it towards the path of complete capitalist restoration.
If you mean modern Russia, then no, they are not socialist, they are capitalist. They have more state-owned industries than normal capitalist societies and oppose the West, but that's like saying Iran is socialist because the exact same description I just mentioned fits them as well. Just because the Russian government sometimes says good things about the Soviet Union doesn't make them socialist or wannabe socialist either, they are just trying to win over the many Russians who are nostalgic for the Soviet era. The Russian government is very much anti-socialist.
Thank you for the explanation. I've seen a lot of support for Russia, so I thought you guys thought they were socialists. I'm still learning about all this, I'm quite new to being on the left.
I encourage you to read about the concept of critical support; you can have fundamental disagreements with somebody that you support in a particular aspect. Things do not have to binary 100% support/oppose.
Most of us understand a lot of the underlying reasons Russia is in the conflict that they are in. We also recognize that we have a mutual enemy in NATO. While at a glance that may look like we really support Russia right now, that is mostly because we don't have the same kneejerk reaction against them in the current political climate. It does not mean we support Russia blindly or that we think they are socialist nation. They aren't even a particular ally to socialism, but we can still support them when our interests align.
There are some people who think that because the USSR was socialist (true) that so is modern Russia, but that is generally a liberal point of view.