this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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is "soviet nostalgia" an actually viable tool for socialist agitation in former eastern bloc states, what are your thoughts on it and the organisations which rely on it? (hexbear.net)
submitted 15 hours ago by Lisitsyn@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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my opinionwhen you look at the political scene in eastern europe, the primary way communist parties try to gain support is to appeal to disaffected 40-60'ish people with some form or another of "ostalgie" or "soviet nostalgia". there's nothing principally wrong with it, but i feel it is way too oriented towards the past instead of the future. "look what we had" is good for some but ultimately it isn't enough to build movements. you see communist parties who still refuse to recognise the collapse of the ussr.

my gripe with this isn't that i disagree with them ideologically or morally, as the liberals do, the problem is the union is definitively gone. there is no hope of restoring it, there hasn't been for nearly 40 years. we need to start from the beginning again, the old structures have been fully dismantled and the union will not return, not in the next few decades.

this is ignoring the fact that this is really only appealing to.. well.. 50 to 70 year olds. we should focus our agitprop and work towards the youth of our countries instead of a group of people who ultimately will go "extinct" soon.

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[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 28 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

For all their flaws, they achieved something that was truly progressive in a society that not too long before was backward and full of violence. It was a mark of progress for humanity. We can and should accept all that and still admit its flaws and mistakes.

Do not let anyone erase that achievement. Do not let anyone convince you that the Soviet Union was a defective system that no longer has any relevance to our society today. Do not let anyone rewrite history. You’ll find yourself fighting an even worse uphill battle if you concede on these grounds.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 13 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Agreed, but is that necessarily the same as nostalgia? Uphold the USSR resolutely and absolutely, but it may not be the most effective political strategy to say "let's go back!".

[–] quarrk@hexbear.net 4 points 8 hours ago

Agree, nostalgia is a tool of reaction. It will backfire if that’s how you recruit support.

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