ReHacked vol. 333: Empire of the absurd
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<...> the Soviet system seems so hard for foreigners to understand they would prefer to ignore the fact of its existence rather than try to learn about it. --Mart Laar (Estonia’s ex-prime minister)
Pitch drop experiment #science
A pitch drop experiment is a long-term experiment which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. "Pitch" is the name for any of a number of highly viscous liquids which appear solid, most commonly bitumen, also known as asphalt. At room temperature, tar pitch flows at a very low rate, taking several years to form a single drop.
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Empire of the absurd #history #longread #book
The Big Failure
In May 1991 a Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyev was sent into space. At the end of the year he was still circling around the Earth waiting for a spaceship to bring him back. He had left a Soviet Union that was still a superpower but would return to a world where there was no Soviet Union any more. The Soviet empire had just ceased to exist and had dissolved itself. One of the biggest experiments of the 20th century had ended in failure.
How many human lives were lost during this experiment, nobody knows. It is stated in the „Black Book of Communism” that in the Soviet Union alone the death toll of communist terror was at least 20 million people. Recent Russian studies put the count of lost lives and unborn children as high as 170 million people. Communism has been not only the biggest but also the most expensive experiment in the history of mankind.
For a moment it looked like communism and communist ways of thinking were dead and gone for ever. Unfortunately, this was not the case. While nazism and its crimes were condemned after World War II, making the return of this form of totalitarianism impossible, this has not happened with communism. It still seems almost respectful to wear Che Guevara T-shirts, demonstrate on the streets with red flags and the Soviet Star and present slogans such as „CCCP 4 ever”. This is the main reason why we still see so much communism in the world around us.
Another reason for this is that the people from the other side of the Iron Curtain have not realized what the Soviet system actually looked like. They have long held Hitler as the biggest criminal and murderer of the 20th century. It is hard to believe that, actually, Stalin murdered significantly more. Not only are the crimes of communism not condemned, but they are by and large not known. Because the Soviet system seems so hard for foreigners to understand they would prefer to ignore the fact of its existence rather than try to learn about it.
To avoid this and to spread authentic knowledge about this criminal regime it is important to know how the Soviet system really worked in everyday life. Lauri Vahtre’s book is an excellent guide to the Soviet reality, combining descriptions of everyday life with an analysis of Soviet ideologies, foreign and security policies. Vahtre’s book is especially useful for the people who still dream of building a paradise on earth. Such attempts have always ended in the same way – with massive bloodshed.
Vahtre’s book helps to explain as well, what is going on in modern Russia, which was infected by the virus of communism for much longer than other countries. The result is that even with the Soviet system in Russia being gone, absurdity lives on. Vladimir Putin has declared the fall of the Soviet Union the biggest tragedy in the history of the 20th century. The West may perceive this statement as an absurd humour but for the neighbours of Russia it sounds like a distant thunder. If we do not want history to repeat itself, we must all know the truth.
Lauri Vahtre is an excellent person to talk about the truth. He was born during the heights of Soviet Absurdity and lived most of his life under it. He was personally touched by the highest levels of absurdity as a youngster when some verses in one amateur poetry-almanac took him to the interest-field of the KGB. Such almanacs were actually not forbidden, but since they were neither allowed, the very fact that one would participate in such activities was enough for the KGB to label a person as “under suspicion”. Later, just before graduating from university, Vahtre was expelled – a punishment, which, in these days, was almost equal to a march-order to Afghanistan. The actual reason was his antipathy towards the Soviet regime, Soviet ideology and Soviet reality which he couldn’t hide. After such experiences it was only through strong personal integrity and an excellent sense of humour that has allowed Lauri Vahtre to become what he now is in modern Estonia – Member of Parliament, Ph. D., well-known columnist and bestselling author of books on history and philosophy.
Estonia’s ex-prime minister
Mart Laar
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