Russia - the facts

[Sanjeev Sabhlok <sabhlok@almaak.usc.edu>]

(Yeeeks! this moderation is costing me time plus 'forcing' me to
participate in discussions at a time when I just can't afford it. This
will hopefully be my last such direct participation till I am free
again. Anyone wants to moderate this list, please raise your hands at
once!)

Vinay said:

"I do not agree with you about corruption and mafia-baazi of
socialist-time in Russia. The corruption and mafia-baazi started in
Russia after Gorbachev introduced Capitalism there. In Soviet Russia,
the mafia used to either get sent to Siberia or used to get Shot."

Dear Vinay,

Ignorance is bliss as usual. You know, somewhere down the archives of
IPI I had pointed out my father's experiences of Russia. You can call
him up at his home and ask him personally if you like. I will repeat
what I said then.

He was Addl. Financial Advisor to India's Defence Ministry and in that
capacity visited Russia to purchase arms and ammunition for India many
tens of times (apart from many other countries). 

His experiences of the early 1980s in the Pre-Gorbachev era were the
ones which he regularly told me about. Being in the Indian government
for 30 years, he was fully aware of the monumental corruption within
Indian government and politics. But he says that he never saw a more
corrupt machinery than the politicians and bureaucrats of USSR. These
guys were simply looting the factories of USSR, and enjoying in palatial
dachas on the Caspian sea (Equality in communism? that was the greatest
farce in the world! Power ALWAYS flows from the barrel of the gun. These
guys controlled the gun; hence enjoyed whatever they wanted. Caviar for
breakfast, caviar for lunch, and whatever else they wanted for dinner).

Many many reports exist on the extent of plunder of USSR by communists.
Please talk to people who have lived in USSR and the causes of the total
failure of Russia will not be too difficult to fathom. In fact,
precisely for the same reasons, it is going to be almost impossible to
revive India which has been plundered by the socialists (dear Vinay: I
have personal direct experience of this plunder and I do not tell lies
about what I have seen or see around me. Not my nature).

But one can try to revive India since there are fortunately a few other
mitigating forces, such as our free press and our constiution. We are
not a dead duck yet. That is why I am here in the first place. And that
is why you are here. We have the luxury of talking, in India. We are not
afraid of some rotten Communist dictator sitting on our heads. And so
our recovery can be rapid into the realms of the top few nations of the
world if we throw away our quaint love with government control of our
lives. 

I do not write all this to "show up" your ignorance. I simply write to
show that ignorance will not solve India's problems. It is just not in
our interest to practice ignorance of the facts.

SS

PS: By the way, in USSR it was not the mafia that used to be shot. It
was the honest and simple folk who were always shot. By the ruling mafia
called communists.


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