this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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The USSR had to deal with a civil war, rising up during WWI and being sabotaged by the Germans, more civil war, foreign meddling, and all while being the first successful communist revolution. Yet they still managed to raise literacy, raise health outcomes, raise average life expectancy, gender equality, science and technology, end the cycle of famines (after the first one or two they had when they were still building up), had faster growth during that period than any capitalist country (except maybe the US, which was doing imperialism at the time and the biggest hegemon), all while helping sustain other socialist countries, like Cuba, Venezuela, or North Korea.
Comparing the Nazis to the Communists is a form of Nazi Apologia, originating with Double Genocide Theory. The truth is that they are in no way comparable, read Blackshirts and Reds..
The Soviet Union existed for the workers. They doubled life expectancy, over tripled literacy rates to 99.9% from the low 30s, dramatically reduced wealth inequality, provided free and high quality healthcare and education, and democratized the economy.
Comparing Finland to the USSR is... odd. Finland funds its safety nets through Imperialism. The Soviet Union was also far larger and far more populous, and yet cared for its people while detached from much of the global economy. The Soviets did 80% of the combat against the Nazis and had half their buildings destroyed and 20 million people killed by the Nazis, while Finland saw no such comparable devastation. The Soviets largely rebuilt on their own, while Western countries had an unscathed United States propping them up. The point is that Finland didn't accomplish any of this on their own, and moreover a lot of these concessions came to prevent revolution like was seen in Russia.
I recommend reading Blackshirts and Reds.
You forgot to mention that the Finnish ruling class tolerated Fascist propaganda, tolerated antisemitic propaganda, was happy to market nickel to the Third Reich, interned 24,000 ethnic Russians in concentration camps, let 4,200 of them die, collaborated with the Empire of Japan, allowed the Axis to use its military sites even before redeclaring war on the USSR, deported more than 2.8k POWs (including many Jews) to the Third Reich, let some of its men massacre Jews, sought a Greater Finland, and has cemeteries for Axis soldiers.
Anticommunists will tell you with a straight face that absolutely none of this is even remotely the perpetrators’ fault. In fact, it’s yours; you declared war on Finland back in ’39 (because you had nothing better to do).