Comments by "TotalRookie_LV" (@TotalRookie_LV) on "Did the Soviet Union EVER Recover from WW2?" video.
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Well, I live in one of ex-USSR countries, and it experienced both world wars (unlike current Russia), both times industry got at least partly evacuated to Russia, and loss of life during WWII was one of the greatest in USSR (certainly greater than in Russian SFSR, but smaller than in Belarussia, which suffered the most), and we have no natural resources except some timber and sand, yet we have recovered better and are economically stronger than Russia (per capita, of course, as we have 1/73 of Russia's population).
So, I'd argue, it's not the war to blame, it's current political/economic system.
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LoL, "because of war" was a common excuse even in 1980s, also a source for jokes, especially after Perestroika begun and Iron Curtain got lifted at least a bit, which caused the reaction of "wait a minute, some parts of Germany were obliterated, but look at Germany now, and now look at us, WTF?!"
Also, there was the Cold War, and military-industrial complex had priority over civilian economy, like that was not bad enough, military production was largely made for the sake of production. Even worse, just as TIK mentioned, some share of economy was plain made up, learn this Russian/Soviet term - "приписка", which describes "on paper only" numbers. And Soviet economy... well, there was and still is a proverb - "они делают вид, что платят, а мы делаем вид, что работаем" (they pretend to pay us, while we pretend to work). [Edit] Damn, this was already included in the video! XD
P.S. BTW, have you ever plowed a field the old way - walking behind a horse? It was common in USSR in 1980s, not on large collective farms, of course, but on "private" fields.
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And you are right, people are still defending soviet socialism, even those, who experienced it, of course, they are mostly those, who live on current CIS, as to many of them life has turned to worse. But there is another kind of guys nostalgic for USSR - those, who see corruption in Russia now, and believe social security was better before (guaranteed job, shelter, "free" medicine and education); with these I got into arguments pretty often. Common, are there mass shootings of protesters now, like those in mid 1950s, when people were protesting against rising food prices?! No! Sure, current Russia has had several internal wars, most media are state controlled, and there are no real elections; yet despite all that, even this loathsome state has more freedom than totalitarian state of the past ever had.
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