Lauren McCain’s Reviews > Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism > Status Update
Lauren McCain
is on page 88 of 166
Democratization-via-suppression began before the actual overthrow of communism. In 1991, Gorbachev, prodded by Yeltsin, announced that the Communist party of the USSR no longer had legal status. Membership funds & buildings were confiscated. 6 leftist newspapers were suppressed, while all others enjoyed uninterrupted distribution. U.S. media hailed these acts of suppression as "moving ahead with democratic reforms."
— May 28, 2026 08:28AM
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Lauren McCain
is on page 105 of 166
In 1990, as the Soviet Union was preparing for its fatal plunge into the free-market paradise, Bruce Gelb, head of the US Information Agency, told a reporter that the Soviets would benefit economically from U.S. business education because "the vipers, the bloodsuckers, the middlemen —that's what needs to be rehabilitated in the Soviet Union. That's what makes our kind of country click!" (Washington Post, 6/11/90)
— May 29, 2026 07:51AM
Lauren McCain
is on page 102 of 166
ZiL, a Moscow plant, saw truck production slump from 150,000 to 13,000 a year & 40% of the workforce laid off. The remaining workers petitioned the Russian gvmt to take back control of ZiL.
Once, ZiL workers "had unshakeably safe jobs". They lived in apartments & attended schools provided by Zil. "I was raised in a country that cared about its workers," said one machinist, who was sorry he had opposed that system.
— May 29, 2026 07:32AM
Once, ZiL workers "had unshakeably safe jobs". They lived in apartments & attended schools provided by Zil. "I was raised in a country that cared about its workers," said one machinist, who was sorry he had opposed that system.
Lauren McCain
is on page 100 of 166
W/ private investment in the East, production did not grow as promised but dropped. 1989-1995, in the Czech Republic, nearly 80% of enterprises were privatized— industrial production shrank by 2/3.
Tech complexes in East Germany, employing thousands of workers, were taken over by giant West German firms… then closed. Under privatization, the former USSR scientific & technical infrastructure was disintegrating.
— May 29, 2026 07:20AM
Tech complexes in East Germany, employing thousands of workers, were taken over by giant West German firms… then closed. Under privatization, the former USSR scientific & technical infrastructure was disintegrating.
Lauren McCain
is on page 100 of 166
Once capitalist restorationists in Eastern Europe took power… they set about dismantling public ownership of production & the network of social programs that once served the public.
Former communist nations were being recolonized by Western capital…The once heavy & mutually beneficial commerce between [countries] was reduced to a trickle as their economies got tied into the extractive needs of global capitalism.
— May 29, 2026 07:07AM
Former communist nations were being recolonized by Western capital…The once heavy & mutually beneficial commerce between [countries] was reduced to a trickle as their economies got tied into the extractive needs of global capitalism.
Lauren McCain
is on page 90 of 166
Yeltsin, “the democrat”, banned labor unions from all political activities, suppressed dozens of publications, exercised monopoly control over all broadcast media, & permanently outlawed 15 political parties.
He scrapped the constitution and presented the public with a new one that gave the president nearly absolute power over policy... For these crimes he was hailed as a defender of democracy by U.S. leaders
— May 28, 2026 01:01PM
He scrapped the constitution and presented the public with a new one that gave the president nearly absolute power over policy... For these crimes he was hailed as a defender of democracy by U.S. leaders
Lauren McCain
is on page 88 of 166
[Anticommunists] grew impatient with the way democratic forms of resistance limited their efforts to install free-market capitalism.
In Russia, assoc. of President Yeltsin complained that "most representative bodies have become a hindrance to our [market] reforms."(1991) Apparently, the free market, said by "reformers" to be the foundation of political democracy, could not be introduced through democratic means.
— May 28, 2026 07:53AM
In Russia, assoc. of President Yeltsin complained that "most representative bodies have become a hindrance to our [market] reforms."(1991) Apparently, the free market, said by "reformers" to be the foundation of political democracy, could not be introduced through democratic means.
Lauren McCain
is on page 53 of 166
The overthrow of communism gave the green light to the unbridled exploitative impulses of Western corporate interests. No longer needing to convince workers that they live better than their counterparts in Russia, and no longer restrained by a competing system, the corporate class rolled back gains that working people in the West won over the years.
— May 23, 2026 10:10AM
Lauren McCain
is on page 53 of 166
The overthrow of Soviet communist gvmts was cheered by many leftists. Now democracy would have its day.
[Instead], the capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe weakened the numerous Third World liberation struggles that received aid from the Soviet Union and brought a whole new crop of right-wing governments into existence, ones that now worked hand in-glove with U.S. global counterrevolutionaries around the globe.
— May 23, 2026 10:06AM
[Instead], the capitalist restoration in Eastern Europe weakened the numerous Third World liberation struggles that received aid from the Soviet Union and brought a whole new crop of right-wing governments into existence, ones that now worked hand in-glove with U.S. global counterrevolutionaries around the globe.
Lauren McCain
is on page 53 of 166
Decentralization vs. Survival
For a people's revolution to survive, it must seize state power and use it to (a) break the stranglehold exercised by the owning class over the society's institutions and resources, and (b) withstand the reactionary counterattack that is sure to come. The internal and external dangers a revolution faces necessitate a centralized state power that is not particularly to anyone's liking.
— May 23, 2026 08:39AM
For a people's revolution to survive, it must seize state power and use it to (a) break the stranglehold exercised by the owning class over the society's institutions and resources, and (b) withstand the reactionary counterattack that is sure to come. The internal and external dangers a revolution faces necessitate a centralized state power that is not particularly to anyone's liking.
Lauren McCain
is on page 51 of 166
The pure socialists see socialism as an ideal that was tarnished by communist venality, duplicity, and power cravings. The pure socialists oppose the Soviet model but offer little evidence to demonstrate that other paths could have been taken, that other models of socialism —not created from one's imagination but developed through actual historical experience— could have taken hold and worked better.
— May 23, 2026 08:37AM
Gorbachev repeatedly cut off the microphones during debate and threatened singlehandedly to abolish the Congress by emergency decree. He forced a vote three times until he got the desired abolition. These strong-arm methods were reported in the U.S. press without critical comment.