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A look into the Soviet Coup of 1991 and what America can learn. |
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1991 Soviet coup d’état, what America can learn from it, the current path of our nation, and how to build a more humanitarian society The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics lasted for 71 years, from 1922-1991. A coup d’état led by Boris Yeltsin toppled the regime, and led to the resignation of the General Secretary of the Communist Party (head of state) Mikhail Gorbachev. The 1991 Moscow coup d’état (or August Putch) was instigated by communists opposed to the reforms by late General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Hard line communists were frustrated by Gorbachev’s reforms, including glasnost and perestroika. They were also angry by his “New Union treaty” which gave more freedoms to the Soviet Republics, including the Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, etc. They believed Gorbachev was a threat to the standing of the Soviet Union, and that his reforms would take away Lenin’s goal of a communist state, although Gorbachev did claim his reforms would preserve Leninism in the USSR. Communists were also frustrated by his cooperation with the West, especially the United States under the Reagan Administration, and later, the Bush Administration. Apart from perestroika (Restructuring, reorganizing, Russian), which aimed at restructuring the Soviet economic and political system, Gorbachev also pressed for glasnost (Being open to the public, publicity, openness, Russian) This reform aimed to give Soviet citizens access to the actions of the government agencies, including freedom of information. Gorbachev hoped this would reduce agency corruption and improve the image of civil rights in the Soviet Union. The last reform was called Uskoreniye, meaning “acceleration” and the purpose was to “accelerate” or move forward Soviet economic and political growth. A similar policy to China, it also included factors to stimulate the Soviet economy and increase economic growth and standards of living. Uskoreniye was de facto replaced by perestroika during the late 1980’s. Gorbachev carefully used his reforms to please the Soviet people. In fact, he was extremely careful with even the names of the reforms. Glasnost was used in Russian since the late 18th century. It was a typical word, referring to a task being done openly, or transparent. Perestroika has a meaning of completely restructuring something, or reorganizing its base, giving it the artificial meaning that the reforms will completely change and fix the Soviet government. The words used to describe the Soviet reforms were much more powerful than their actions. While many, especially communists, argue the collapse of the USSR was based just on the reforms of Gorbachev, the effects of the reforms were mostly psychological, to the Soviets and to the rest of the world. The Soviet political system and economy become unstable even during the period of Brezhnev and the short rule of Yuri Andropov. Brezhnev held a strong personality cult, yet not as serious as Joseph Stalin. His cult was denounced by Gorbachev, just as Stalin was denounced by Khrushchev. Yet, just as Khrushchev deeply sealed the murders and terror during the reign of Stalin, Gorbachev refused to fully stand against the ideology of Lenin. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan during Christmas, 1979. The UN and the US were quick to condemn the invasion, and the US began a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow as a direct result. The USSR also boycotted the Las Angeles Olympics in 1984; just Cuba, China, and North Korea joined the USSR in the boycott. The CIA began funding terror groups in Afghanistan, who carried out terrorist attacks against 500,000 Soviet Troops and millions of Afghan civilians. Ronald Reagan called the terrorists “democracy loving” and “peaceful”, meeting them in the Oval Office in 1985 promising aid and weapons to kill Soviet troops and Afghan civilians. Over 1,000,000 civilians were killed during the war, not including thousands of militants and Soviet troops, and the cost to the Soviet economy was devastating. The CIA’s terror funding program devastated Afghanistan as well, pushing the country in control of thugs and militants, anarchy, along with a 30 year civil war which still lingers on today. Afghanistan is still devastated by the US and Soviet games in the 1980’s. Soviet Tanks and weapons still scatter the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, and the economy is shattered with the highest rates of poverty, starvation, unemployment, and the youngest lifespan out of Africa. Gorbachev announced all Soviet troops will leave soon in February, 1988. Just three and a half years before the USSR’s collapse. This war deeply injured the Soviet Union’s already fragile economy. At this point, Gorbachev was pressing for his reforms, which added political instability to a cracking economy. Yet he was careful to avoid opposition from communists. This did not work. His reforms angered communists, and put an already unstable country at risk of collapse. Economically, the Soviet Union was at its worst point since WWII. Standards of living were down, production was down, etc. Politically, this will damage the dictatorship which held the USSR on thin strings for 70 years. His reforms failed to change the opinion of much of the Soviets, and even a transformation to democracy would be dangerous for the survival of the Soviet Union especially during this time period, including risking the survival of its republics. The Soviet Republics were already given more rights, but this did not change their opinion. In 1991, Armenia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Estonia, Uzbekistan and several other Soviet Republics declared independence from the USSR and expressed their intentions to form free nations. Communists were furious. The puppet Marxist dictatorship in Afghanistan was overthrown by US-backed terrorists, and the Central Asian nation fell deeper into civil war and anarchy. The US economy was prosperous, growing at its fastest rate in years, still growing despite heavy military spending, high debt, and low taxes which was aggravated during the Reagan administration. The Soviet economy, still on thin strings, was close to its final breath. A coup was organized by communists, and non-communists led by Boris Yeltsin to overthrow the regime based in Moscow bloodlessly. Thousands of men attempted to break into Soviet political offices, protesting for the first time in 72 years The KGB and other government agencies quickly began burning and destroying secret documents dating back to the reign of Stalin to avoid capture. The statue of Stalin collapsed in Moscow, and children threw their shoes on it and kicked its face, just as Saddams statue in Iraq in 2003. Yet, this time it was not US propaganda like in Baghdad. No companies were profiting off a war for oil. It was real. The people actually wanted the coup, and no foreign occupying army was doing it. The red flag representing communism was torn down, and a new flag, similar to that of the Russian Empire, was flown over Moscow. American soldiers posing as Iraq’s for the camera. Baghdad, April 2003. Not propganda, children beating Stalin’s head with a hammer. Quite ironic choice to use a hammer, though. Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation in December, 1991. The Soviet Republics won independence, this time the nation of Russia was freed from its chains. Boris Yeltsin, who led the coup, became the first president of the Russian Federation until his resignation in 1999. Vladimir Putin, currently the Prime Minster, became President in 1999. Russia then signed a treaty with the former Soviet Republics respecting their sovereignty, a move so radical even Gorbachev would not have signed. Unfortunately, this treaty did not work well for Georgia. Boris Yeltsin should have included that bullying the former Soviet Republics is banned too. Georgia wanted to be detached from Moscow’s apron strings, unlike Armenia and Ukraine who enjoy very close relations with the Russian Federation today. Russian GDP growth since the USSR’s collapse: Even during the 1998 Asian crisis, the Russian economy still stayed stable. The collapse of the USSR however did not change America’s arrogance and military buildup. America loves to have an enemy. In the 20th century, it was communism. It would be acceptable to invade any country and launch a coup anywhere to defeat communism and Soviet influence. Today, the enemy is terrorism. Oil companies and military industrial complexes love to have an enemy, too. They profit off of it while the rest suffer from it. US military spending compared to the rest of the world. You see, US spending is higher than China, Russia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Central/South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, combined. Although America’s political and economic system are even now much more stable than the USSR has ever been, and the American people obviously have no regard for current affairs and will not overthrow their regime, the United States is still at risk for economic or political collapse. The United States dollar is worth little compared to the past. Debt is 100% of the GDP and is expected to rise to 1,000% in 70 years (About 140,000,000,000,000 not including change in GDP, estimating GDP is $30,000,000,000,000 debts will be $300,000,000,000,000). This would destroy the economy, as no investors would trust the US anymore. Most economists say 100% of GDP is the limit for debt. Having debt over all products produced is dangerous for the economy. We are at the 100% peak now. Imagine having a house net worth of about $700,000, a negative income, and having credit card debt of 7,000,000 and rising. This is where the US will be at this rate. US debt over time. You see it was aggravated during WW2 and stayed stable during the Cold War. It increased drastically since Reagan took office, and went even higher during Bush’s terms. US debt/surplus by president. China, a capitalist nation with a red flag, will overcome the US as the largest economy and military superpower and many of our lifetimes, they recently overtook Japan as the second largest economy. And it expected to overtake the US in 2016. This would not have been expected even 3 or 4 years ago. China’s state capitalism lifts millions out of poverty per month, and its industrial factories are gold to the economy. Just like the USSR, China lacks civil and political rights, calls themselves socialist, but has a capitalistic industry controlled by the government (state capitalism) China buys billions worth of US bonds, effectively making the US economy a slave. US bonds are frequently purchased by even nations the US has shaky relations with. Russia, under Putin, has increased its share of American bonds by 1,600%. Social Security and Medicare Costs are rising. The US has doubled military spending since 2001, doing all this while cutting taxes. Any fool realizes cutting taxes and increasing spending leads to budget deficit, turning to debt. But Congress has played the borrow and spend game for years. If any nation not as trusted as America played this game for a decade, their economy will collapse. We are almost there. Militarily, the United States needs to change. The US currently is a member of a group of thugs by the name of NATO. Allegedly founded to stop Soviet influence in Europe (NATO worked perfectly in the East), the group now relies on war and terrorism to earn profit and increase its influence in the world. The US is a bully to the rest of the world along with NATO. Propaganda allows this to happen. Although the US has invaded a handful of countries, murdering millions and creating even more refugees, the enemy is the one who is not war-mongering and lives in a country will tons of oil. Any nation who stands against the US is now on an economic hit list. They did this to former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. Saddam’s terrorism against Kurdish civilians and the people of Iran was supported heavily by the Reagan administration. Saddam used chemical weapons against Iran, and killed over 100,000 Iranians in an aggressive war. This was supported by the US. Yet, Saddam invaded oil-rich US ally Kuwait (with a green light from the USA) and then, they were plastered an enemy. The US put sanctions on Iraq, killing over 1,000,000 civilians, killing more innocents than the Armenian Genocide. The Sanctions blocked medicine, water, and food from reaching Iraq. Civilians murdered in Iraq, 2003-2008. Russia’s bullying of Georgia is nothing compared to this, and the 1,400 deaths of Palestinian civilians by Israeli operations in 2008/2009 is also little compared to this. America’s power is diminishing. Military won’t fix this. The US must start at home. America must rebuild its standing in the world by production and reforms in the workplace. When the world buys American products, and the money is sent to America, the US will have more influence than killing millions of civilians and spending trillions on war, just for profit or to increase influence, like they have done in the past. The American political system is collapsing, we are seeing it today and we have seen it for years. The United States cannot continue its selfishness, arrogance, and stupidity without suffering severe consequences. Our economic system is based primarily on the greed of corporations and the rich. Although nearly 20% of the US is poor, almost fifty million people live in food stamps just to get by, corporations make billions in profits while refusing to hire. The rich pay less in taxes than the middle class. Our economic system is not just a threat to our country, but to the rest of the world. The United States economy is like a parasite, well put by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. America sucks resources out of poor countries, including the nations in Africa and Southern Asia which suffer from the highest poverty and malnutrition rates in the world. Our nation has killed millions of people to make money, steal resources, and increase its empire in the world. In the poorest nations of the world, America bombs it to bits in the name of freedom or democracy. This system is so filthy, so inhumane; it can be comparable to the crimes of the worst dictators the world has ever seen. The enemy is not capitalism; the enemy is those who kill for money. The enemy is those who take resources away from the suffering and occupy their lands, for a profit. The enemy is the fact that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer daily in horrific conditions, some as a result of the US, some not, and Americans use resources, food, and technology at a wasting level. It is barbaric that Israel takes most of the water found underground in the Palestinian Territories and diverts it to Israel. Palestinians suffer with barely enough water to survive, while their Jewish neighbor who had a house torn down to live there gets enough water to last him a lifetime as he is the “chosen person”. It is barbaric that the Israeli government pays more on the public education of Jewish students than Arab Muslim students. It is simply racism at its finest to treat one group better than the other. Israel, although, does not suck the resources of the world like the United States. Israel minds its own business, its affairs and its security unlike the West. You cannot tear down the house of a poor Palestinian family to allow a Jewish man to move in as “God says he is the chosen one” nor invade a poor country to steal its resources without getting a response from locals. The locals as poor as they are, are not terrorists as they are simply fighting occupiers. Terrorism is not opposition to occupation. By this definition, the Americans who attacked the British redcoats would be terrorists. Terrorism is simply using fear as a weapon. By this definition, there are likely thousands of terrorist actions committed by the US government during the Cold War and leading up to today. The enemy is not Capitalism, Zionism, or Americanism like many radicals put it. The enemy is a specific type of capitalism that we have built which is anti-humane, and relies on the suffering of the majority of the world so that a few can benefit. This form of capitalism is a parasite to the world economy, to the well-being of all humans, and must be destroyed. American politicians talk a lot about “equal rights”, etc. Why not have the rights not to be oppressed by a world super-power? Why not the right not to have your house torn down to allow a Jewish settler to move in? Why not the right for a country to control its own affairs, without the US and Western intervention? The United States and its allies have violated these rights of millions of people. The United States has murdered hundreds of times more innocent civilians than all terrorist attacks on the US, combined. The military, political, and economic system we have is so evil, so bloodthirsty, and is against the beliefs that 70% of Americans claim to have. The self-described prophet Jesus talked much about donating your money to the poor, and has spoken out against the upper-class during his short life. So is Jesus an evil communist for wanting you to spread your money to help others? Do you think if Jesus existed he would support America for killing millions around the world and acting as thugs to the rest of the global economy and poorer countries? The beliefs of Jesus clearly indicate his socialistic views. Jesus would obviously support the poor than the cooperate jet-owners and CEO’s with billions in profit. Jesus would view George W. Bush and his predecessors as Satanic for invading nations and shedding the blood of millions for resources and influence. Conservative Christians love to distance themselves from these claims. They claim God wants you to fight for yourself, not from the reliance of a government. The truth is, God is whatever you think of it as. If you believe Santa Claus has white hair, Santa Claus has white hair. If you believe Santa Claus has brown hair, he has brown hair. If you believe God hates supporting others, than God hates supporting others. The imagination is a fantastic tool, but the truth is, nobody cares about your imagination other than yourself. Our entire nation needs to wake up from the current lifestyle it has. The current system will destroy the rest of the world first, and then destroy America. It is a path to death for everyone. Our culture is too selfish for survival, and we are seeing this now. For what the average American wastes (food, materials, energy etc.) The developing world is lucky to get a drop of water. For what we spend on war, materialistic items, and expensive gifts, millions of people could be fed. America is not a land of opportunity with high standards of living because of Capitalism, but because the average American sucks up more resources than any other person in a developing country. For the resources the average American uses, the food they eat and waste, and the amount of money they spend on wasteful items, we would need to have 3-4 Earths to support the world if everyone lived like an American. For $1, you could feed a person in a developing for one day, or pay the daily salary of a teacher in Pakistan’s tribal areas. In America, $1 will be treated as trash. Chances are, all Americans have destroyed a dollar bill or spent it on a worthless item. For $12,000, a school could be built in the tribal areas of Pakistan. What do Americans spent $12,000 on? The US has spent $3,000,000,000,000 on war just as the financial cost in the past 10 years. Not including the millions of murders, and millions of refugees who had to flee their homes, adding to more poverty and need for aid. $3,000,000,000,000 could fill 12,000,000,000,000 cups of rice. Assuming a person will eat 2 cups per day just to survive (Although many Americans would eat 70 cups of rice per day, I am talking about the current famine in Somalia) this could feed the whole world for 100 days. This is just what the US spent on war. If you take what the US produces per year (GDP) it is about $14,000,000,000,000. This would fill 56,000,000,000,000 cups of rice. Yes, 56 Trillion, which would feed 6,153,846.15 cups of rice PER PERSON to the entire population of Somalia. Assume a person needs 4 cups of rice per day; this would feed 14,000,000,000,000 people, 14 Trillion. But there are only about 6.9B alive today. And this number is just based on the US economy. The whole world’s economy is worth $74,000,000,000,000. This would buy about 300 Trillion cups of rice per year. The world population, assuming it is 7,000,000,000, would get more than enough food and water based on this. 300 Trillion divided by 7 Billion is about 42,000,000,000. So every person would get 42,000,000,000 cups of rice per year to survive. This is millions of cups per day for every man, woman, and child. It is too much? It will go to waste! Add water, housing, clothing, and other foods to the equitation. You will find a world where everyone has enough to survive. We live like this today even with a capitalistic system in in a little over half of the world. However, there are two problems, greed and availability. Some companies have the ability to feed millions of people per day and barely place a dent in their profits. Famines, wars, and natural disasters make it difficult for some to gain access to food and water. The United States needs to find a new system in order to survive in the age of global dominion. The current philosophy of globalism, imperialism, and the care of just profits is a threat to the well-being of all humanity, especially those in developing nations across the Earth. Oil is blood to an economy, just as money is blood to a person today. We don’t need materials, nor profit. What we need is a new understanding, a new philosophy. A philosophy that teaches to care about others, not to be selfish, and that killing and destroying is not an acceptable foreign policy tool in the 21th century. Equality is not necessarily the only way to reach a world where materialism is not present and the community runs on needs, rather than profit of a few. Redistribution of wealth has its fair share of problems. However, most of Europe runs socialist economies. These nations have lower levels of poverty than the US, higher life expediencies than the US, happier citizens than the US, are more developed than the US, and have less crime rates than the US. Human nature makes this difficult. If you had everything handed to you, and paid all your income as a tax, wouldn’t you prefer to read a book or play baseball than to work? It is natural. Not working will destroy the economy, as it will produce fewer goods. This means everyone suffers, rather than just you if you decide not to work. Socialism can also cause selfishness. Capitalism can, too. But Communism is frowned upon based on the extreme poverty and death it caused in the USSR, China, North Korea, etc. Capitalism and Globalism causes suffering in the rest of the world, rather than the nation it is implemented in, where their resources are stolen by big companies, the average salary is $1 per day, and the unemployment level and poverty rates are both above 50%. Socialism would work perfectly if however everyone decided to do their fair share. In a capitalist system, there are enough resources to take care of yourself and many others. The problems are just that. How can people be motivated to spend their money to help others? In a socialist system, many decide not to work as everything is handed to them anyway. This is a chain reaction, and hurts everyone. In a capitalist system, you work and keep all your profits, while others suffer. If you are forced to donate your money, you would be less motivated to work, thus, destroying the whole purpose. We have no culture. We have no language, no foods, no arts; nothing other than a government with no care other than their own interests and profits. Our nation has no moral values despite claiming to be Christian. As Christianity, for many reasons, might not be the best source of morals, we need to build our own. We will not stone Harry Potter to death as demanded in Leviticus 20:27. We will not murder homosexuals as ordered in Leviticus 20:13, nor will we stop growing both tomatoes and raspberries in the same field which is banned in Leviticus 19:19. It is important to note these rules are from the Old Testament (which is originally Jewish) and was copied into Christianity when the New Testament was made up. We need to build a culture based on values of our own which are separate from the ones we share today. The Bible is a horrific source of a lifestyle, but it is however much cleaner than today’s culture and lifestyle. Most of Europe, especially the North, is atheist (excluding Italy of course). A study has shown that those who identify themselves as liberal and atheist tend to be more intelligent than those who call themselves conservative and religious. Europe has more morals than the US. Europeans enjoy a lower crime rate, they are happier than Americans, and have more equality economically and socially according to GINI. When the US economy was at its peak, we had a 90% tax rate for the rich and a very low GINI level. This means more equality and redistribution of wealth. Ronald Reagan cut taxes on the rich along with cutting Medicare, Social Security, and drastically increased military spending. This is where it started. See Chart 1.0 It is not a decision between money and humanitarianism; it is not a decision between socialism and capitalism. It is a decision between doing what is morally right and doing what is morally wrong. All of these systems have been tried in the past. They have led to riches, war, death, murder, and genocide, both of the systems. Is it moral to donate your money to charity? Or is it moral to waste your money and use up resources so other will suffer? Is it moral to go to war for resources and plaster those who resist as terrorists? You must make this decision. And this decision will affect directly and indirectly, the path for the future. Chart 1.0, GINI level of the USA over time: To compare, Denmark has a GINI level of .20, the most equal nation in the world. The US is just as unequal as Nicaragua. Denmark is twice as equal today as the US was in 1967. Denmark also has lower poverty levels and is one of the happiest nations in the world. The US became less equal following Reagan’s inauguration, and during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. GINI Levels of Europe: As you see, the former USSR and Turkey is less equal than most of Southern, Western, and Northern Europe. Norway and Demark appear the most equal. Compare the unemployment level in Russia to the GINI level: Russia’s inequitably skyrocketed since 1992, along with unemployment. Ignore 1998/1999, as it is likely the result of the economic crisis in Asia during this time period. Russia is just as unequal economically as the US. How GINI works: 100 Means complete inequality. 1 Person controls all the $100 in the economy, while the rest have $0. 1 Means complete equality. 100 people each control 1 dollar. There won't be any revolution in America ... the people are too clean. They spend all their time changing their shirts and washing themselves. You can't feel fierce and revolutionary in a bathroom. Eric Linklater, British writer, Juan in America, 1930 The American political system is like fast food - mushy, insipid, made out of disgusting parts of things and everybody wants some. P. J. O'Rourke Frustrate a Frenchman, he will drink himself to death; an Irishman, he will die of angry hypertension; a Dane, he will shoot himself; an American, he will get drunk, shoot you, then establish a million dollar aid programme for your relatives. Then he will die of an ulcer. S. A. Rudin, Canadian psychologist In the four corners of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play? or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to America's physicians and surgeons? ... Who drinks out of American glasses? or eats from American plates? or wears American coats and gowns? or sleeps in American blankets? Finally, under which of the old tyrannical governments of Europe is every sixth man a slave, whom his fellow creatures may buy and sell and torture? Sydney Smith, British clergyman, essayist and writer America is the only nation in history which has gone miraculously gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilisation Georges Clemenceau In America the President rules for four years and journalism governs for ever and ever. Oscar Wilde, Irish author, playwright and writer |
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