What was the best Soviet Republic?

[Quartia and Karafuto]

Georgia because their language is so unique and interesting

[Molopovia]

Belarus is pretty chill, in my opinion.

[The Archregimancy]

Georgia because their language is so unique and interesting

Interesting, yes; unique, no.

While Georgian (4 million speakers) is by far the most widely spoken of the Kartvelian languages - with only Mingrelian (500 thousand speakers) passing more than 50,000 speakers - there are four languages in the Kartvelian family (Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan), all of which use the same Georgian alphabets.

So a fascinating language, no doubt; but it's not a language isolate, so it's no more inherently unique than any other language that forms part of a broader language family, even if the language family is a relatively small one in this case.

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

Georgia because their language is so unique and interesting

Interesting, yes; unique, no.

While Georgian (4 million speakers) is by far the most widely spoken of the Kartvelian languages - with only Mingrelian (500 thousand speakers) passing more than 50,000 speakers - there are four languages in the Kartvelian family (Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan), all of which use the same Georgian alphabets.

So a fascinating language, no doubt; but it's not a language isolate, so it's no more inherently unique than any other language that forms part of a broader language family, even if the language family is a relatively small one in this case.

So, it's still unique.

[The Huskar Social Union]

From what i remember reading about it years ago (might be wrong though) the Baltic SSR's apparently were pretty decent in terms of living standards, access to the west etc (particularly estonia iirc)

So i guess them.

Or just Russia, but that probably depends on which part of the RSFSR you are in.

[Kubra]

In terms of living standards obviously the southern stans.
Sure, you don't live as good as the folks up north, but you're safe in the knowledge that it could be worse.
The baltics? Sure, you have the best standard of living, but then you're always beset with knowing "man we could live a lot better if we shunted off the rest of these assholes."

[The Archregimancy]

Interesting, yes; unique, no.

While Georgian (4 million speakers) is by far the most widely spoken of the Kartvelian languages - with only Mingrelian (500 thousand speakers) passing more than 50,000 speakers - there are four languages in the Kartvelian family (Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan), all of which use the same Georgian alphabets.

So a fascinating language, no doubt; but it's not a language isolate, so it's no more inherently unique than any other language that forms part of a broader language family, even if the language family is a relatively small one in this case.

So, it's still unique.

Yes, but by definition all languages are to some degree unique; otherwise they wouldn't be separate languages. So saying a language is 'unique' is tautological.

But languages that are members of language families also share characteristics with other languages that allow us to group them together. As Georgian is a member of a language family - albeit a small one - it's not as unique as, say, Basque, Burushaski, or [extinct] Sumerian, none of which have any known relatives, and which are therefore truly unique.

On that basis, the only truly unique language still spoken in the former Soviet Union is Nivkh; and even that's disputed based on whether you consider Nivkh to be a single language (and therefore an isolate), a dialect continuum, or two separate languages that are both part of what might be the world's tiniest language family in terms of total number of speakers of all extant languages.

[Big Jim P]

The socialist one?

[Socialist States of Ludistan]

None, The USSR fell far from Lenin's ideals. I'm not going to say "not true Communism" or anything, but if Lenin stuck to his ideals what the USSR would be very different then today.

Elections, freedom, free religion instead of state atheism, farmers allowed to sell there crops.

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

[Big Jim P]

None, The USSR fell far from Lenin's ideals. I'm not going to say "not true Communism" or anything, but if Lenin stuck to his ideals what the USSR would be very different then today.

Elections, freedom, free religion instead of state atheism, farmers allowed to sell there crops.

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

Sounds familiar.

[The Blaatschapen]

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

Sounds familiar.

Yes, but Lenin succeeded with the cheating.

[Big Jim P]

Sounds familiar.

Yes, but Lenin succeeded with the cheating.

As have others.

[The New California Republic]

Sounds familiar.

Yes, but Lenin succeeded with the cheating.

Lol. Virgin Trump vs Chad Lenin.

[The Archregimancy]

Sounds familiar.

Yes, but Lenin succeeded with the cheating.

It wasn't so much cheating in Lenin's case; at least not in the sense that the thread seems to be assuming.

The Constituent Assembly was allowed to convene on the 18th of January 1918, with the seats distributed as per the election (notwithstanding the awkward issue over the split in the victorious Socialist Revolutionary Party between the Right SRs and the Left SRs). After the Assembly refused to pass the Bolshevik agenda, and it was clear that the Assembly wouldn't endorse Lenin's platform, the Bolsheviks simply shut it down early the next morning and never let it convene again; it met for a total of 13 hours.

So it's more in the nature of shutting down the representative body elected by the people - which can be construed as a form cheating, but is closer in action to a coup - rather than fiddling with the election results.


Fortunately, in this day and age the idea that supporters of the losing side would attempt to shut down a meeting of a legitimately elected representative body just because they don't like the result is no doubt inconceivable.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

None, The USSR fell far from Lenin's ideals. I'm not going to say "not true Communism" or anything, but if Lenin stuck to his ideals what the USSR would be very different then today.

Elections, freedom, free religion instead of state atheism, farmers allowed to sell there crops.

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

Yes.

He was indeed. But that is because he fell away from the original ideals he subscribed too.

Lenin never subscribed to any ideals other than the ideals that led to a dictatorship run by Lenin.

I wish people would stop pretending otherwise.

Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Or at least that's what I heard I think?

I'm not sure, I would love to see your take on it.

[The Blaatschapen]

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

Yes.

Lenin never subscribed to any ideals other than the ideals that led to a dictatorship run by Lenin.

I wish people would stop pretending otherwise.

Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Well, Stalin definitely made it worse. And it's hard to ascribe responsibility for all of Stalin's actions (or the ones of the USSR post-Lenin in general) to Lenin.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Yes.



Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Well, Stalin definitely made it worse. And it's hard to ascribe responsibility for all of Stalin's actions (or the ones of the USSR post-Lenin in general) to Lenin.

Absolutely true there, Stalin just made everything thousands of times worse.

[Neanderthaland]

Yes.



Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Well, Stalin definitely made it worse. And it's hard to ascribe responsibility for all of Stalin's actions (or the ones of the USSR post-Lenin in general) to Lenin.

Stalin certainly makes for an excellent scapegoat if you're the type who wants to defend Lenin (not saying that you, personally, are.)

I don't know what a USSR under the continued leadership of Lenin would have looked like. I'm reasonably sure it wouldn't have been as terrible. But there's still plenty of room in there for it to have been pretty damn terrible.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Well, Stalin definitely made it worse. And it's hard to ascribe responsibility for all of Stalin's actions (or the ones of the USSR post-Lenin in general) to Lenin.

Stalin certainly makes for an excellent scapegoat if you're the type who wants to defend Lenin (not saying that you, personally, are.)

I don't know what a USSR under the continued leadership of Lenin would have looked like. I'm reasonable sure it wouldn't have been as terrible. But there's still plenty of room in there for it to have been pretty damn terrible.

It would have been like maybe 25% to 50% less terrible.

But still terrible an a authoritative hellish landscape.

[Punished UMN]

Lenin literally cheated the election because his party didn’t win.

Yes.

Lenin never subscribed to any ideals other than the ideals that led to a dictatorship run by Lenin.

I wish people would stop pretending otherwise.

Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Or at least that's what I heard I think?

I'm not sure, I would love to see your take on it.

I would say Lenin and Stalin never stopped being dedicated to the ideals of Marxism. It was elements of these ideals that led to the establishment of the dictatorship in the USSR.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

Yes.



Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

He fell away from that very early on, and that made the USSR a hellhole.

Or at least that's what I heard I think?

I'm not sure, I would love to see your take on it.

I would say Lenin and Stalin never stopped being dedicated to the ideals of Marxism. It was elements of these ideals that led to the establishment of the dictatorship in the USSR.

Marxism as a criticism of capitalism doesn't need a dictatorship state.

With hindsight, some of Marxism criticisms where correct as capitalism continues to enslave people, pollute the world, and really just fuck up everything over and over again.

[Punished UMN]

I would say Lenin and Stalin never stopped being dedicated to the ideals of Marxism. It was elements of these ideals that led to the establishment of the dictatorship in the USSR.

Marxism as a criticism of capitalism doesn't need a dictatorship state.

With hindsight, some of Marxism criticisms where correct as capitalism continues to enslave people, pollute the world, and really just fuck up everything over and over again.

Marxism wasn't just a criticism of capitalism though, but was expanded into proposed solutions, and part of that solution was violent revolution. Engels (Marx's co-author and probably the most influential person in Marxism after Marx's death) was quite an adamant proponent of dictatorship to crush counterrevolution.

[Rusozak]

Karelo-Finnish. Showed up fashionably late and ghosted the party early before it got sad.

[The Archregimancy]

Lenin never subscribed to any ideals other than the ideals that led to a dictatorship run by Lenin.

I wish people would stop pretending otherwise.

Are you sure?

Lenin was a total asshole and became a bloodthirsty dictator. I'm not denying that.
But I think that he had good ideals at the very beginning.

I'm reasonably sure.

You only need look at his career in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to see that the dictatorial tendencies were there more or less from the very beginning. The whole concept of the 'vanguard of the proletariat' - the concept outlined in What is to Be Done that led to Lenin's rise to prominence in the party - is essentially 'those useless workers can't be trusted to do the right thing by themselves, so it's up to a small dictatorial cadre of intelligentsia, of whom I just happen to be the natural leader, to force them to do the right thing, establish class consciousness from without, and crush the bourgeoisie'. And years before What is to Be Done he was committed to violent revolution as the means to achieve his goals.

Perhaps some of the ideals that Lenin claimed to support might have looked superficially attractive outside of the context of advocating violent revolution and the risible self-justification of the vanguard of the proletariat, but Lenin's career is inseparable from his willingness to violently crush all opposition to his dictatorial control over the party and, subsequently, the state. The Red Terror was carried out under Lenin, not Stalin; the Red Terror was inevitable and necessary from the Bolshevik perspective for the simple reason that they lacked any real popular support across their nascent revolutionary state, and wiping out the bourgeoisie, Orthodox Church, and governing elite was all part of the programme anyway.

Stalin simply finesses and industrialises mechanisms of violent oppression that were inherent to Lenin's vision well before he achieved power, and any romantics trying to convince themselves that the Soviet Union would have been a better place had Lenin lived and avoided Stalin's takeover probably aren't really paying attention.

[Predsedatel]

All of them were the best. Союз возродился - and shall it be so again. Russian Soviet was however the most influential, and so I can only see it as the best from that.