Do you think that you can help bring about the revolution or do you just want a minor less risky role? What kind of role can you participate on and die with a smile in your death bed when you think about how you lived your life?

    • urshanabi [he/they]@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      5 months ago

      what you said reminds me of what Stalin said in an interview with Emil Ludwig, link here

      Stalin: You are being modest.

      Ludwig: No, that is really so, and for that very reason I shall put questions that may seem strange to you. Today, here in the Kremlin, I saw some relics of Peter the Great and the first question I should like to ask you is this: Do you think a parallel can be drawn between yourself and Peter the Great? Do you consider yourself a continuer of the work of Peter the Great?

      Stalin: In no way whatever. Historical parallels are always risky. There is no sense in this one.

      Ludwig: But after all, Peter the Great did a great deal to develop his country, to bring western culture to Russia.

      Stalin: Yes, of course, Peter the Great did much to elevate the landlord class and develop the nascent merchant class. He did very much indeed to create and consolidate the national state of the landlords and merchants. It must be said also that the elevation of the landlord class, the assistance to the nascent merchant class and the consolidation of the national state of these classes took place at the cost of the peasant serfs, who were bled white.

      As for myself, I am just a pupil of Lenin’s, and the aim of my life is to be a worthy pupil of his. The task to which I have devoted my life is the elevation of a different class — the working class. That task is not the consolidation of some “national” state, but of a socialist state, and that means an international state; and everything that strengthens that state helps to strengthen the entire international working class. If every step I take in my endeavor to elevate the working class and strengthen the socialist state of this class were not directed towards strengthening and improving the position of the working class, I should consider my life purposeless.

      So, you see, your parallel does not fit.

      As regards Lenin and Peter the Great, the latter was but a drop in the sea, whereas Lenin was a whole ocean.

        • Shinhoshi@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          5 months ago

          Stalin would probably scold you for wasting your time machine on him instead of bringing about communism

          • SadArtemis🏳️‍⚧️@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            5 months ago

            Agreed, at the minimum one could at least bring as much knowledge (books, etc) regarding future sciences, technology and industry, agriculture, weaponry, medicines, the history as it's to come to pass, etc. along.

            I'd also bring as much documentation as possible of how the Soviets fell (were betrayed from within), and how the Chinese model has succeeded especially since Deng and now with Xi- I'd bring as much information also, about the emergence of BRICS. I'd do my best to convince them to expand the Soviet model of development (which hopefully would adopt many aspects of the Chinese), to expand that prosperity and cooperation with not only the rest of the Warsaw pact (ideally I'd travel before WW2, that said) but to communist and trustworthy anti-imperialist states in the global south- ideally starting with Eurasia as the most "secure" continent to do so. (Personally I'd be hoping that a sort of "comintern/warsaw pact+ASEAN or SCO/if we're really optimistic, a sort of "greater Soviet federation" would emerge- spanning not just Russia and eastern/central Europe, but China, India, Iran and Afghanistan, the Turks if they could be brought into the fold, from there the Arab world and southeast Asia, eventually down into Africa and Latin America- basically, a generally contiguous, defensible, and ever-expanding union of Soviets, ideally with ever-increasing integration and cooperation, intense focus on development, exponential growth through scale).

            And I'd bring whatever actual technology was possible, over as well. The current technology ubiquitous in daily life (computers, phones, routers, even- hell, even game consoles or TVs, speakers, etc. to ideally provide a glimpse of what Soviet soft power could be like and the technologies/ecosystems necessary to conquer the hearts and minds of the world with it. A generator as well (presumably one would hope that it could be reverse engineered), solar panels and batteries, information on radar systems, and whatever older tech I could get my hands on that were building blocks that brought our society to where it is now- calculators, pagers, older TVs/radios and other such electronics, DVDs, cassettes, floppy discs, older cameras (digital and pre-digital), maybe even some older punchcard system if I could get my hands on it, you name it.

            It would naturally take a long while to reverse engineer and bring to production- but whatever can be carried over, by all means I'd do so.

            Go back far enough (pre-WW2) and I think there's a possible chance that by this point in time (2020s) in the changed history, that a global, or at least Eurasian, Soviet/Comintern will have emerged.

      • Sleepless One@lemmy.ml
        ·
        5 months ago

        I'm flattered by the comparison, but unlike Stalin, I've barely made any steps to strengthen the working class.

      • Sleepless One@lemmy.ml
        ·
        5 months ago

        I'm a very materially comfortable first-worlder. I have a lot to lose from the immiseration of my class that would materially put my skin in the game, as opposed to simply relying on some sense of morality to carry me. I'm worried I might be compromised; although I suppose recognizing this already puts me ahead of many so-called leftists in the Great Satan.