• PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Colonialists use that excuse, I’m very aware, the difference is that they’re lying when they say it. Number of hospital beds per capita, salaries, number of teachers per capita, conservation of local language through language choice in education and written publications such as books or newspapers in the local language, industrialization of the area

    Holy shit, literally “The British built schools hospitals in Africa” level colonization apologia. Jesus Christ. And tankies wonder why I don’t view them any differently than any other authoritarians.

    • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      If the british had built comparable infrastructure in India as in the UK, if they had industrialized it, if there had been no extraction of wealth, resources and of human labor, if there had been a similar amount of doctors and hospital beds per capita as in the UK, if there had been a similar amount of teachers per capita as in the UK, if there had been similar salaries for locals in India as those in the UK, if there had been education in the native language sponsored by the UK… If all of those things were true, then the UK wouldn’t have been committing colonialism in India. The difference is that they didn’t do these things, where as the USSR did. It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s simply factual. So, yes, the UK committed colonialism against India. the USSR never committed colonialism to any of its republics.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        if they had industrialized it, if there had been no extraction of wealth, resources and of human labor

        Fucking lol. Imagine claiming credit for developments of Estonia’s economy before you invaded, and then asserting that you caused that AND trying to sweep your own extraction of value under the rug.

        Fascists never change, huh?

        • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I’m not saying the USSR was responsible for the development of the Estonian economy, Estonia was relatively industrialised prior to the establishment of the USSR. But the Estonian industry grew very fast even after the annexation to the USSR. Again, you’re grasping to whatever you can, because all the evidence points towards the same: there was no colonialism in the USSR.

          trying to sweep your own extraction of value under the rug

          Please. Show me the data for that. Show me how exploited the Estonians were, how much lower their wages were than in the rest of the USSR. Spoiler alert: data contradicts your claims.

          • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            I’m not saying the USSR was responsible for the development of the Estonian economy,

            Really? Because that rather sounds like what you’re saying with the comparison you make here

            If the british had built comparable infrastructure in India as in the UK, if they had industrialized it,

            But I don’t know why I expect consistency from red fash.

            Please. Show me the data for that. Show me how exploited the Estonians were, how much lower their wages were than in the rest of the USSR. Spoiler alert: data contradicts your claims.

            The second external strategy employed by the Soviet Union to rebuild its devastated economic infrastructure was the joint company. It became a ubiquitous institution in Eastern Europe. The joint company enabled the U.S.S.R. to extract resources and products from a region partially occupied militarily by the Soviet Army and completely reorganized by the Communist Party. So effective had the joint company and Soviet exploitation become that the economic world of Eastern Europe was turned upside down. Not only did the U.S.S.R. impose the goals of socialism and industrialism on essentially peasant societies, it altered the region’s traditional trade pattern that had focused on commerce with Central and Western Europe. By 1947, commerce flowed in the opposite direction as seventy-five percent of all Russian imports originated in Eastern Europe

            But tell me more about how THIS form of market capture over vassalized states is TOTALLY different than the British Empire’s form of market capture over vassalized states /s

            https://www.jstor.org/stable/24664533

            • volodya_ilich@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              Trading between different republics within the USSR wasn’t subjected to unequal exchange, which conforms the BASIS of colonialism. Saying that Estonia went and started trading more with the USSR than with the west is as useful and interesting analysis than saying after the 90s Poland started trading more with the west than with Russia.

              Again, please, for the love of god, read a fucking book on what colonialism is and what “unequal exchange” means. It’s literal high-school stuff, the whole “import raw materials and cheap labor, export complex to manufacture goods”, remember???