Live data from Hacker News

Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

militera.lib.ru

91–100 of 116 posts

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#91
post #58
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope your research leads to the correct conclusion that trying to force people into equality leads to the use of force to stop dissent, and leads people to flee or campaign against it. Socialism ends in death and misery, every single time . At this point death and misery is a feature, not a bug that can be fixed.

i'd like to hear more about this, exactly how horribly miserable would you end up if you have trillions and you would be forced to give up 99% of your wealth?

I'd say pretty miserable, may end up in suicide.

But the biggest issue would be that someone else would now control that money. And there are no guarantees that they would do it better.

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#92
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putin's administration justifies the current economic state and the rampant corruption in Russia by that Russia has is own 'special way' of development which is limited the history and the socio-economic heritage of the communist regime. If Ukraine(or any other ex-Soviet country) manages to get rid of the current cleptocratic system and launches succesfull socio-economic reforms that tackle corruption, it will be a s…

Ukraine is broke. They owe Russia millions of dollars and have been living on pretty much free gas (courtesy of Russia). I assume you live in US? Do you not find it ironic that you blame Russia for taking this seriously (in their own backyard) while US have been staging government coups within other countries (with multiple death tolls) for decades? And in regards to corruption: "People who live in glass houses shoul…

That is the same logic as "I beat my wife because my neighbor does the same".

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it is true that the SR-71 & A-12 were spy planes, and that the GP makes a slightly asinine statement, the pedant (and aviation geek) in me feels obliged to point to the YF-12[1]. The YF-12 was a twin-seater derivative of the A-12 that was developed as a fighter aircraft, complete with a look-down/shoot-down radar and missile bays. The F-12 never made it to production, but a small number high-speed of weapons te…

Just out of interest, was the MiG-25 'all steel' and 'all valves'? As in no electronics as we know them, just valves? I had heard that it was EMP-proof due to the lack of any transistors on board...

80% nickel steel alloy, 11% aluminium, and 9% titanium. Using valves instead of transistors meant for easier maintenance in addition to resistance to EMP. [0]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#94
post #90

Author of this book has committed treason and famous for his pseudo-historical books, that usually paint USSR in blackest colors possible. No serious historian in Russia takes his works seriously. So I'd question anything that written in the book.

No kidding, half of Americans think that Snowden is a traitor.

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#95
post #90

Author of this book has committed treason and famous for his pseudo-historical books, that usually paint USSR in blackest colors possible. No serious historian in Russia takes his works seriously. So I'd question anything that written in the book.

False. - anybody went along with Soviet Union dissolution technically committed treason - he is not a professional historian, and it shows. However majority of his theories have been confirmed by professional historians, such as Solonin (http://www.solonin.org/en), Hoffman (http://www.amazon.com/Stalins-War-Extermination-1941-1945-Do...), Danilov, Gorkov, etc

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping/reinstating Communist governments through military force was a cornerstone of USSR foreign policy for many decades at that point - e.g. Prague Spring.

Well, Romania was keeping Communist government so they didn't have to worry.

Concurrent to the Hungarian uprising of 1956, there was some unrest in Romania as well, and the Soviet military presence there was strengthened in response. Romania began to oppose the Soviet hegemony in the 1960s—Ceaușescu spoke out against 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Romania built friendly relations with the anti-Soviet bloc. So it's not entirely a given that the Soviet Union would not have considered military intervention in Romania at some point like they did in Hungary or Czechoslovakia. You can't excuse the Romanians for wondering how their government could afford to get away with their open defiance of Soviet hegemony.

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#97
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope your research leads to the correct conclusion that trying to force people into equality leads to the use of force to stop dissent, and leads people to flee or campaign against it. Socialism ends in death and misery, every single time . At this point death and misery is a feature, not a bug that can be fixed.

That's not true, look at Sweden, France, Germany, UK ... all practising socialism. It's helped their people with free health care, education. There are many good things about socialism. The Bolsheviks were dictatorial bastards, no doubt. And many people think Bolshevik communism is the only way to go, it certainly is not.

Add Canada to that list. Free market but it's definitely trying to emulate the socialist policy successes in Scandinavian countries.

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#98
post #60

As someone very interested in Soviet Union, it's system, this is a great resource. I'd love it if this was available on kindle or a paperback. Even Russians will say Soviet Union is shit or people will react like, 'why are you learning russian and so obsessed with Soviet Union', I think it's because I think it could've been a great system, it's a noble ideology that men and women of all races are integrated and all r…

>I'd love it if this was available on kindle or a paperback. I can mail you a copy in Russian (: If there is one in a local book store, not sure Rezun is popular currently.

please do, although it will take me forever to read with a Eng-Rus dictionary.

Challenge accepted.

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#99
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine is broke. They owe Russia millions of dollars and have been living on pretty much free gas (courtesy of Russia). I assume you live in US? Do you not find it ironic that you blame Russia for taking this seriously (in their own backyard) while US have been staging government coups within other countries (with multiple death tolls) for decades? And in regards to corruption: "People who live in glass houses shoul…

That is the same logic as "I beat my wife because my neighbor does the same".

And then "she went to police - police should told her to keep quiet and all would be well, right now I have to beat her up and it's all the fault of police - gave her funny ideas".

Re: Inside the Soviet Army (1982)

#100
post #50

As someone very interested in Soviet Union, it's system, this is a great resource. I'd love it if this was available on kindle or a paperback. Even Russians will say Soviet Union is shit or people will react like, 'why are you learning russian and so obsessed with Soviet Union', I think it's because I think it could've been a great system, it's a noble ideology that men and women of all races are integrated and all r…

I hope your research leads to the correct conclusion that trying to force people into equality leads to the use of force to stop dissent, and leads people to flee or campaign against it. Socialism ends in death and misery, every single time . At this point death and misery is a feature, not a bug that can be fixed.

> Socialism ends in death and misery, every single time.

Leninism and its descendents might, but every country in the developed West -- where the 19th Century socialists criticism of capitalism was focussed, and whose conditions their program was largely designed for -- adopted, between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, a substantial portion of the socialist program, and its generally not ended in "death and misery", indeed, compared to those same countries experience under the system for which the name "capitalism" was created, its alleviated the "death and misery".

You can't really judge "socialism" by the results of a particular family of efforts to implement it outside of the context for which it was designed, which is exactly what judging socialism by Leninism and its descendants is.

Post reply on HN