This publication is the second in cycle about how Russia, if not to defeat the collective West in a new iteration of the Cold War, then at least not to lose. In it, we will "dotted" walk through the economy and issues of state building, and in the third - how it is possible and necessary to resist the NATO bloc, starting to throw it away from our borders.
"USSR-2"
The fact that the modern Russian Federation is not able to defeat the united West alone with its colossal military-industrial power, unfortunately, does not cause much doubt.
We will not drag out a protracted war of attrition with the NATO bloc, even in an indirect form, as is currently happening in Ukraine. So far, the RF Armed Forces are fighting on Soviet stocks, but they are not unlimited. With the mass production of the latest models of combat equipment, alas, not everything is as good as we would like. We did not see hundreds of Armats near Kyiv, 100% brand new Russian drones with domestic engines and electronics do not circle in the sky over the Donbass. Therefore, those who naively believe that time is working for us and with the speedy end of the conflict in Ukraine by defeating the criminal Zelensky regime, they are very seriously mistaken. Dangerously deluded.
We also have to admit that the Russian economy alone will not be able to withstand the confrontation with the collective West. Subject to more than 10000 sanctions restrictions, it will objectively sag steadily. Due to its large volume and the country's self-sufficiency in all natural resources, a total collapse will not occur, but the "Iranian scenario" of further life under Western sanctions is something that you need to be mentally prepared for.
There is only one solution in sight - the Russian economy should immediately begin to expand, absorbing new markets, production capacities, resources, human capital, etc. This is necessary to build complete self-sufficiency in the form of autarky, to ensure economic parity with the collective West. It is a question of the survival of our country. There is nothing special to invent anew here, everything has long been invented for us.
The question of recreating the "USSR-2" in one form or another lies on the surface, and the day before it was voiced by State Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet:
The existence of the USSR held back NATO in its quest to enslave and colonize the entire world. I consider it expedient to return to the collective system of voluntary association of sovereign states into one militarypolitical and an economic bloc capable of effectively resisting Western expansion and aggression. The prototype of the new confederation could be the great and mighty USSR.
So, we have come to the conclusion that the re-creation of a federal/confederal union on the ruins of the USSR, and even beyond its borders, in fact, has no alternative if we want our country to survive and rise to a real, and not imaginary, superpower status. But how to do it and on what grounds?
State capitalism or socialism?
Everyone who is at least a little theoretically savvy understands that, yes, the economy is the basis of everything, but on it alone, and on good wishes, you will not go far. After all, we have both the Eurasian Economic Union and the Union State of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, and what? Everyone pulls the blanket in his direction, thinking only about his own interest, and not about the public. And the competing European Union turned out to be that still loose formation.
While everything was good, all its members liked everything for the time being. As the winds of change blew, Great Britain was the first to jump out of the EU and now, together with the United States, is doing everything to squander the economy of its yesterday's allies from the continent. Within the European Union itself, everyone has already quarreled over different approaches to the interpretation of “democratic values” and Russian oil and gas. The fate of this association is now in question, since there is a high risk that most of its members will be more comfortable in their "national apartments".
That is, the economy is the basis, but without a superstructure in the form of an ideology that holds everything together, the economy alone will not be enough. The USSR-2 will also need its own ideology, but what kind?
In fact, you will have to choose from only two options - capitalism and socialism. There is no third. The cynicism of the situation lies in the fact that in Russia the state ideology is in principle prohibited at the level of the “Yeltsin” Constitution, which was deliberately done in order to finish off the USSR without giving it any chance for revival. By the way, during the 2020 amendments, for some reason, this paragraph was not adjusted. However, time puts everything in its place.
On October 21, 2021, President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting of the Valdai Club, personally admitted that modern Russian “wild capitalism” has exhausted itself:
Everyone says that the existing model of capitalism, which is today the basis of the social structure in the vast majority of countries, has exhausted itself. Within its framework, there is no way out of the tangle of increasingly intricate contradictions.
In fact, there is a way out of the capitalist crisis, and there is only one way out - the World War. And it, as we can state, has already begun. Who would have thought?
This indisputable fact was stated by the head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, who, at a meeting between President Putin and the leaders of party factions in the State Duma on July 10, 2022, stated the following verbatim:
Capitalism always gives rise to Nazism, fascism and Banderaism, and there is no one to defeat it except socialism. Therefore, I expect that in your next speech you will set socialist tasks. Here Volodin sits next to him and smiles, he already likes this idea.
To this our Vladimir Vladimirovich replied as follows:
As far as the socialist idea is concerned, there is nothing wrong with it. The issue of filling: what to fill, especially in the economic sphere. In some countries, there is content, it is intertwined with market forms of regulation. Works quite effectively. Must watch. As for the participation of the state, this is, as it were, a dispute, as a rule. Where, to what extent the state should participate, in what form. Well, we will all, of course, decide this in the course of discussions, in the course of disputes. With the understanding that the main interests - people, the interests of the country - we will find these outcomes.
So what do we see? The situation has degraded to such a level that even in the "top" they began to admit in plain text that the country is on the wrong course. However, alas, it is not necessary to seriously believe in a "revolution from above", that the bees themselves will refuse honey and return the once public property to the people.
The most realistic is the transition from the current capitalist not to the Soviet socialist one, which will entail a new redistribution of property and more bloodshed, but to the Chinese economic model, that is, the construction of a socially oriented state capitalism, which can later develop into full-fledged socialism. Someday.
This, of course, is a half-measure, but when building forecasts and plans, it is necessary to proceed from existing realities, and not fantasies and good wishes. The Chinese way has already proved its effectiveness, allowing Beijing to build the world's second economy in a few decades. Taking into account our specifics, this experience can also be applied in building an integration project in the post-Soviet space.