To call something communism requires advanced “productive forces” (industry/energy/automation) that will enable advanced “production relations” (property/capital/opportunity) where everyone will do what they can and will use as much as they need. The USSR and all so-called communist states were underdeveloped countries where “productive forces” were at a very low level and it was not possible for them to have “communist production relations”. They were autocratic kleptomaniac states, nothing more. The closest example of a communist society is Star Trek. That’s how far humanity is from communism. Today it seems like a utopia, but I suppose that to people who lived in the year 750, the possibility of free movement, choice of representatives, choice of work, opportunity for education seemed like a utopia
Nobody in their right mind would claim USSR had achieved communism. It did achieve socialism to some extent.
USSR was ruled by a communist party, i.e. a party striving to achieve communism. Lenin postulated that in order to achieve communism (stateless, classless, moneyless society), first one has to achieve world-wide socialism (worker ownership on means of production via a state-managed centralized economy), and then transition by withering away the state. Stalin reduced the ambition to just “socialism in a single country”, with the goal of eventually achieving communism at some later date. This was the prevalent ideology of CPSU until the dissolution.
underdeveloped countries where “productive forces” were at a very low level
Based on what? USSR had many great technical achievements, and the industrial base was pretty good at the time too. Planned economy tended to not focus on consumer stuff (which was a mistake in some ways), but industrial&military production was on par with the west if not better.
The USSR and all so-called communist states were underdeveloped countries where “productive forces” were at a very low level and it was not possible for them to have “communist production relations”.
To call something communism requires advanced “productive forces” (industry/energy/automation) that will enable advanced “production relations” (property/capital/opportunity) where everyone will do what they can and will use as much as they need. The USSR and all so-called communist states were underdeveloped countries where “productive forces” were at a very low level and it was not possible for them to have “communist production relations”. They were autocratic kleptomaniac states, nothing more. The closest example of a communist society is Star Trek. That’s how far humanity is from communism. Today it seems like a utopia, but I suppose that to people who lived in the year 750, the possibility of free movement, choice of representatives, choice of work, opportunity for education seemed like a utopia
Nobody in their right mind would claim USSR had achieved communism. It did achieve socialism to some extent.
USSR was ruled by a communist party, i.e. a party striving to achieve communism. Lenin postulated that in order to achieve communism (stateless, classless, moneyless society), first one has to achieve world-wide socialism (worker ownership on means of production via a state-managed centralized economy), and then transition by withering away the state. Stalin reduced the ambition to just “socialism in a single country”, with the goal of eventually achieving communism at some later date. This was the prevalent ideology of CPSU until the dissolution.
Based on what? USSR had many great technical achievements, and the industrial base was pretty good at the time too. Planned economy tended to not focus on consumer stuff (which was a mistake in some ways), but industrial&military production was on par with the west if not better.