First of all, all governments are authoritarian, what matters is which class is the one exerting its authority, the Proletariat or Bourgeoisie. States are material things. Further, it isn’t quite accurate to refer to the USSR as “expansionist.” It certainly grew, but it wasn’t a gang of conquesting warlords.
Regardless of what Rosa Luxemburg predicted in 1918, or what the ultimately traitorous Trotsky believed, the Soviet society ultimately was fairly democratic. It wasn’t some Utopia, but Pat Sloan described it quite well in Soviet Democracy, as did Anna Louis Strong in This Soviet World, written well into the 1930s.
Ultimately, the comment I took issue with was your description of the USSR as Imperialist, when in most definitions of the word it was quite the opposite. There are a number of valid critiques to make of it, don’t misread me, but it also played a progressive role in the 20th century and came with dramatic improvements for the Working Class, and the struggles it faced both internal and external can be learned from all the same as many will be universal for anyone building Socialism.
First of all, all governments are authoritarian, what matters is which class is the one exerting its authority, the Proletariat or Bourgeoisie. States are material things. Further, it isn’t quite accurate to refer to the USSR as “expansionist.” It certainly grew, but it wasn’t a gang of conquesting warlords.
Regardless of what Rosa Luxemburg predicted in 1918, or what the ultimately traitorous Trotsky believed, the Soviet society ultimately was fairly democratic. It wasn’t some Utopia, but Pat Sloan described it quite well in Soviet Democracy, as did Anna Louis Strong in This Soviet World, written well into the 1930s.
Ultimately, the comment I took issue with was your description of the USSR as Imperialist, when in most definitions of the word it was quite the opposite. There are a number of valid critiques to make of it, don’t misread me, but it also played a progressive role in the 20th century and came with dramatic improvements for the Working Class, and the struggles it faced both internal and external can be learned from all the same as many will be universal for anyone building Socialism.