Today I jumped on Foreign Policy Review to talk about the Biden administration’s “target fixation” on Ukraine, the Trojan Horse of “civil rights” NGOs, how corruption in Russia compares with the USA, and how people today perceive Lenin and Stalin. And of course, what I think of the latest SBU drama with Gonzalo Lira.
You can watch the whole show here:
Ian Kummer
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It’s an interesting point about our public servants being underpaid. It’s true for low-raking officials and it’s something that can may promote corruption. You are right. Yet, as they climb the ladder salaries become quite high, e.g. member of the Lower House (the Duma) is 400K Rubles (it’s a lot) + a lot of benefits. The problem is people achieve that position by the time many of them are already far from being innocent.
19th century Russia was not more medieval than the 19th century Europe), esp under Alexander III.
As I keep saying, every political leader must be considered within the context. Stalin’s counterparts were Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, Pilsudsky, Churchill(!), etc. He lived up to his job and mission. That’s the ultimate result.
Lenin’s revolution followed the February revolution ( which brought totally incompetent people to power, no better than Nickolas II). His social experiment literally changed the world. The 1918 consititution was the first ever to grant women equal rights!
Unlike some people, I don’t associate the fall of the Empire with Lenin, it was before and largely fault of Nickolas II. But the Revultion was the actual cause of Russia’s later problems and the need to quickly bridge the technological gap. Revulation of course triggered the following unrest, the Civil war, etc.