the_dunk_tank

The destruction of the U.S.S.R. didn’t ‘decolonize’ anybody. In fact, the USAID and other anticommunists neocolonized the former U.S.S.R., and millions of civilians died as a result.

Soviet Russia’s relations with its sister republics was not colonial, certainly not if we define colonialism as a parasitic relationship. One brief example:

the relatively backward areas share, in terms of formal equality, in the social service benefits of the USSR as a whole, and the financial burden appears to fall disproportionately on the more ‘advanced’ Russians, Ukrainians, etc.^24^

(Source and click here for more examples.)

There was no long term plan to replace the natives (as in occupied Palestine) or keep them in a perpetual state of servitude (as in Puerto Rico). Russians did visit other republics to assist them in modernization and they did promote bilingualism to accommodate them, but colonialism and imperialism aren’t simply about ‘doing stuff’ in somebody else’s country. It helps to think of them more in terms of a parasitic relationship, where the weak must benefit the strong but not the other way around.

If this anticommunist seriously thinks that the U.S.S.R. was the ‘worst colonial empire’, that is only evidence that he hasn’t read much history. Not many anticommunists have, really.