logo

Voronin and neoimpressionism... Op-Ed by Victor Pelin


https://www.ipn.md/index.php/en/voronin-and-neoimpressionism-op-ed-by-victor-pelin-7978_1095725.html

“This approach by the Communists who are eager to return to the Bolshevik methods makes us wait for the manifestation of new neoimpressionist colors of the political struggle in our country...
---


No occasion missed for mourning communism

Over two months have passed since the commemoration of the centenary of the late USSR. Moldovan Communists’ expectations about the restoration of the Soviet empire ahead of the centenary of the USSR under the slogan “Revived Union – path to the salvation of the brotherly nations!” – faded away. Consequently, the pathos of the Soviet restoration turned into a farce – the automobile racing event devoted to the centenary. Disappointed with the failure of the long-awaited Soviet restoration, the Communists started to take Soviet myths out of the drawers, resuming the dissemination of these and threatening with the use of Stalinist methods as a practical guide. This trend in the policy of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) deserves to be monitored. The point is it emphasizes both the effects of the deceitful propaganda of the Communists and the degrading dogmatism that both started to cause occasions for laughter within tens of thousands of kilometers from the Byk River of the Republic of Moldova up to the Tiananmen Square in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

The most recent propaganda pearl of the PCRM is devoted to the tenth congress of the party of the Soviet Bolsheviks of March 8-16, 1921, which decided to approve a temporary compromise concerning the renouncing of the Bolshevik economic policy – war communism – in favor of the so-called New Economic Policy (NEP), based on elements of the market economy. In fact, the compromise was imposed by peasant uprisings that started suddenly in a series of regions of Soviet Russia. Regrettably, the Russian peasants who represented approximately 80% of the country’s population realized too late that the Bolshevik slogan “Land to the peasants!” was the most perfidious lie possible, being a real trap for the many underprivileged.

Respectively, the peasant uprisings were bloodily suppressed by the red army. Namely in the struggles against the revolted peasants, the military skillfulness of the legendary commanders of the red army –  Tukhachevsky, Frunze, Budyonny, Yakir, Uborevich, Kotovsky, Golikov, Zhukov, Yagoda, Ulrikh and many others – was polished up. Most of these commanders were annihilated during the Stalinist terror of 1937-1938. Currently, knowing about the physical extermination of millions of people, the Moldovan Communists eulogize the genius Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin so as to resort to a compromise for saving a totalitarian regime. Moreover, the PCRM insists that the Bolshevik methods concerning the NEP are applicable to the current situation in the Republic of Moldova!

Inexhaustible source of communist lies...

Another unsuccessful manipulation of the Moldovan Communists is related to the assertion that owing to the NEP, the economy of the USSR towards 1929 was raised to a twice higher level that  in 1913. In fact, statistical data show that the GDP per capita in the USSR in 1929, after the collapse of 1918-1924, nearly equaled that of 1913, of tsarist Russia. In this connection, it should be noted that the industrial reconstruction of the USSR witnessed a powerful growth following the acceptance of cooperation with the large American and European industrialists Albert Kahn, Henry Ford etc. which involved tens of thousands of engineers and technicians from the U.S. and Europe. The Holodomor – confiscation of the rural population’s products for paying the costs of industrialization – was the price of Soviet industrialization:  “In the context of the years of famine in the history of Russia, the particularity of the famine of 1932-1933 resides in the fact that it was the first organized famine in its history, when the political factor was decisive and dominated all the other factors…

Speaking about the USSR’s accomplishments, the Communist propagandists prefer to speak about the successes of collectivization, industrialization and militarization, avoiding speaking about the living standards of the Soviet citizens. Why? Because the studies of sociologists and economists show that the caloric value of the ration of a worker before the revolution of 1917 reached that in the USSR only at the end of the 1950s and the start of the 1960s. Who doesn’t believe the conclusions of the people of science can remember the revolt of 1962 of the starving people from the Soviet city of Novocherkassk, which was bloodily suppressed, evidently with the participation of units of the Soviet army. Those who consider that the events in Novocherkassk were a single case should remember that the problem of food shortage in the USSR was a chronic one.

Surely, the fact that in 20 years of the events that happened in Novocherkassk, the authorities of the global military superpower - the USSR - had to adopt the so-called Food Program is not at all accidental: “On May 24, 1982, the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the CPUS adopted the Food Program. Its main goal was to overcome the shortage. Food production started to be subsidized in a chronic way by the state, while the pace of the GDP growth remained serious behind the growth pace of the money mass. The policy to artificially limit the prices led to a shortage of goods. The Soviet Union became one of the main importers of wheat and meat of the world. Under the Food Program, the shortage of food was to be overcome until 1990. Nevertheless, even then many economists called these plans unrealistic”. This is asserted not by class enemies, but by the state-owned news agency RIA-Novosti! 

Given the aforementioned, it is important to note that since the very first days of the establishment of the USR until its collapse, the new administrative class of the USSR – the Communist nomenclature - and the rest of the people – had eaten different food. Anyone can learn about this from the work of the great Soviet poet, Nobel Prize laureate, Boris Pasternak, who in his famous novel Doctor Jivago depicts in detail how the main character, doctor Jivago – a Russian intellectual struck by the adversities of fate – back in 1918 became familiar with the charming spetspayok (food parcel) intended for the managers and supporters of the Bolshevik power (those who want to refresh their memory can see episode 7 of the popular film “Doctor Jivago”).

In connection with the abovementioned, it is noteworthy that the history of the USSR can be studied easier through jokes and anecdotes that are extremely instructive! For example, about the unity of the Communist party and the Soviet people, the official slogan says: “The people and the party are united!”, while the people’s creation introduced an important correction: “The people and the party are united and only the shops are different”. That’s why the Moldovan Communists’ regret about the lost paradise is not at all accidental.

How did they mix up neo-imperialism with neoimpressionism?
 

The Moldovan Communists are not only anachronics, as we mentioned above. They are also extremely ingratiating and also shrewd or even unlettered. This way, on the national political arena, depending on its position – whether it was in the government or in the opposition - the PCRM behaved like a real political weathercock, without any moral or doctrinaire scruples. On the other hand, the Moldovan Communists’ toadying to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which supposedly embraces the same Marxist-Leninist doctrine, became proverbial. Indeed, the leader of the PCRM, Vladimir Voronin, doesn’t miss any occasion to congratulate the leaders of the PRC. It happened so, for example, in 2017 and more recently, in 2022, etc. In his last message to the leader of the CCP, Voronin, besides routine things, such as: “In the name of the Moldova Communists, I congratulate you on your reelection as president of the People’s Republic of China”, cannot refrain from fawning praise: “Under your management, China became the biggest economic and technocratic power on earth. In time, China managed to overcome poverty. Your initiatives “One belt, one Road” and “Community of Common Destiny for Mankind” are a challenge to the neoimpressionism and neocolonialism supported by the capitalist West”.

Someone can say that Voronin’s message contains a simple technical error as it goes to neo-imperialism not to neoimpressionism. Even so, this cannot serve as an excuse as one can believe that these are allusions to the unfavorable effects of the phenomenon of Communist gerontocracy. Evidently, Voronin’s assertion is not a crime and can be a simple mistake, but its consequences can be more serious than those of a crime.

It can also happen that there had been no mistake. Voronin’s flattering tune can be a well-thought-out one. Indeed, now that Russia wages an imperial war on Ukraine, speaking about neo-imperialism is inappropriate for the PCRM that dreams of restoring the Soviet empire. On the other hand, the leaders of the PRC know very well what condemning neo-imperialism means as they earlier condemned the hegemony of the USSR. It happened exactly ahead of the resumption by China of cooperation with the main capitalist states and that cooperation led to the transformation of the PRC into a real economic and technological giant. Then, at the end of the 1970s, the USSR was designated as “enemy No. 1” and the doctrine of “the united international front against the Soviet hegemony” was being promoted. The concept of the united front suggested that “the United States, China, Japan, Western Europe and other countries should unite to reject the Soviet hegemony”. Apropos, Soviet hegemony is nothing else but the Communist version of imperialism.  

Namely in this delicate situation, the main option of the PCRM - toadying to China, on the one hand, and avoidance of condemnation of Russia’s neo-imperialism, on the other hand - was fully manifested. In this delicate situation, the neoimpressionist techniques, used to give a special color to the status of the PCRM - being on both sides of a fence - turned out to be very useful. We have to only hope that the Chinese mates have a developed sense of humor and reacted appropriately, with laugh, to the effects of the Moldovan Communists’ neoimpressionism. (For history, and also for any eventuality, the screenshot of Voronin’s message was saved).

Conclusions

It would have been sad if it hadn’t been funny, but we are all witness to the offer of the revenge-taking 80-year-old Communists to save the Republic of Moldova from the “Economic impassewith the efforts of the Communists (and who else?)… The PCRM will definitely cope as its historic experience, including the one gained in the implementation of the New Economic Policy of the start of the 1920s, serves as a guarantee in this regard. This approach by the Communists who are eager to return to the Bolshevik methods makes us wait for the manifestation of new neoimpressionist colors of the political struggle in our country.