I refer to your recent article ( This is not the Soviet Union, Mr. Biden, published March 19 ) about the fall of Soviet Union being a result of religious ignorance.
The author is hugely emotive and inaccurate.
To suggest that the Soviet Union failed because it grew away from religion is both incorrect and insulting. Russian Orthodox Christianity was every bit as strong and positive an influence on societal behavior and law as our own brand of Christianity.
The Soviets were every bit as devout as Americans. Hard working and self-sufficient in a sometimes brutal climate, the Soviet population was proud and tough, and went to church.
Their religious beliefs were purely faith based. Religious organizations did not crave political power like our Christian right wing currently do. They did not abhorrently manipulate and control the lives of thousands of young women, like the Duggars and other such cults. They didn’t encourage Christian families to breed breed breed in order to take political control, or to accelerate the End of Days. They believed in God and worshipped accordingly.
If you haven’t watched the ‘Shiny Happy People’ documentary, please please do. It will shock you.
The Soviet Union fell because of human frailty among the leadership.
Communism itself was much more than an ‘experiment’, as described by your contributor. It was an attempt to ensure that everyone had ‘enough’. The state provided. Here, people feared communism because they didn’t understand it.
The press demonized the idea that everyone could have enough, and not too much, preferring a system whereby we have super rich at one end and homeless at the other.
We celebrate excess, and praise those who attain the status of swimming pool owner, and have multiple overseas vacations, rather than distributing that money to more needy areas. And at the same time families survive using foodbanks. Selfishness and greed are lauded, and success is measured in belongings, whereas the Soviets looked after each other.
To suggest that America is more religious that the Soviets were, is ridiculous.
Let’s take a couple of the Commandments:
1/2-No other God before Me? False idols? The bulk of Americans worship money, and celebrities, period.
6-Shalt not murder? Gun crime is out of control, and even schoolchildren kill each other here. The Soviets never once had mass school shootings.
7-Shalt not commit adultery? Seriously? We all know people, including national politicians and local civic leaders, who have done this many times.
Steal? Bear false witness? Covet? We lost the ability to claim status as a truly religious country many years ago.
I’m not suggesting that the Soviet era didn’t break the commandments too. Just that we should not pretend that we are better than they were. We are the same as them!
To present the Soviets as entirely negative just isn’t right. Soviet Moscow was the capital of a country with many fine people and many fine achievements. The athletes and gymnasts of the 1980s were dominant. Soviet ballet was world leading. Architecture in the capital, and in St Petersburg, is stunning. And art; if you ever have the opportunity to visit the Kremlin Armory Chamber, you will see not only the best of the Faberge eggs, but historical art and trinkets that are eye wateringly beautiful.
They had heroes, true heroes, like Cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov. Kamarov was a friend and colleague of Yuri Gagarin. During the Space Race, the Soviet president ordered the launch of a Sputnik that was not ready. Gagarin or Kamarov would be the pilot, condemned to death, and Kamarov volunteered in order to save his friend’s life. He left behind a widow and orphans.
Soviet Communism failed because of human greed. Those at the top of politics were using their power to line their own pockets (sound familiar?), and a black market economy crippled national finances. But it was nothing whatsoever to do with lack of religion.
An excellent YouTube video exists which explains in detail the change from Soviet Union to Russia, and the American inputs into the subsequent problems. The current horrors in Ukraine in no small part our fault.
See: Vladmyr Poznan — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7Ng75e5gQ
Also worth a look is this short but brilliant piece of writing:
On YouTube, search “Jeff Bridges Newsroom Opening Speech” which will lead you to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk .
Failing that, read the Joe Bageant’s book Dear Hunting With Jesus, or BBC correspondant Martin Sixsmith’s book — ‘1,000 yrs of Russian History’. These are hugely educative.
Since travel to Moscow is kind of awkward at the moment(!), some of the beauty of the Armoury Chamber can be seen at https://www.kreml.ru/en-Us/visit-to-kremlin/what-to-see/oruzheynaya-palata-zaly/
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