The Soviet Union and China are the two important states in the world history that practiced a form of communism. However, communism in the Soviet Union collapsed while it still survives in China. What were the reasons: what caused the collapse in the Soviet Union and why has the Chinese communist-party state has been more durable than the Soviet Union? The Soviet communism ignored basic human desires like desires to own property and to express your opinions freely. Under communism, there were no free elections, no freedom of thought, and no freedom of speech. Communism bounded to create a surreal society in which people keep their thoughts to themselves being tied to the official ideology in public. Consequently, human desires and freedom were suppressed. On the contrary, the aim of Soviet communism was to increase the satisfaction of human desires. Then, how could it be that the communist regime in the Soviet Union achieved the opposite? In the former Soviet Union, every means of production was state-owned. Everything you produced, everything you did was for the sake of state. The communists in Russia were mistaken by the belief that abolishing private ownership would lead to a higher economic growth. Yet, if people do not own their means of production, they have no incentive to be efficient or innovative. Hence, many sectors in Russia reflected inefficient use of work force. Labor productivity was low and work discipline was weak. A Soviet saying of the time describes the situation very well: we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us. There was a very low level of inequality. Everyone got almost the same wage regardless of how skilled they were, or how hard they worked. Why should people be more efficient when they do not gain from such efficiency? The Soviet Union also couldn't t develop technologically. Why should the people be interested in trying or developing a new technology when all get the same salary anyway? With
The Soviet Union and China are the two important states in the world history that practiced a form of communism. However, communism in the Soviet Union collapsed while it still survives in China. What were the reasons: what caused the collapse in the Soviet Union and why has the Chinese communist-party state has been more durable than the Soviet Union? The Soviet communism ignored basic human desires like desires to own property and to express your opinions freely. Under communism, there were no free elections, no freedom of thought, and no freedom of speech. Communism bounded to create a surreal society in which people keep their thoughts to themselves being tied to the official ideology in public. Consequently, human desires and freedom were suppressed. On the contrary, the aim of Soviet communism was to increase the satisfaction of human desires. Then, how could it be that the communist regime in the Soviet Union achieved the opposite? In the former Soviet Union, every means of production was state-owned. Everything you produced, everything you did was for the sake of state. The communists in Russia were mistaken by the belief that abolishing private ownership would lead to a higher economic growth. Yet, if people do not own their means of production, they have no incentive to be efficient or innovative. Hence, many sectors in Russia reflected inefficient use of work force. Labor productivity was low and work discipline was weak. A Soviet saying of the time describes the situation very well: we pretend to work, they pretend to pay us. There was a very low level of inequality. Everyone got almost the same wage regardless of how skilled they were, or how hard they worked. Why should people be more efficient when they do not gain from such efficiency? The Soviet Union also couldn't t develop technologically. Why should the people be interested in trying or developing a new technology when all get the same salary anyway? With