The Soviet Union was quite literally built on slave labor (http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/work.php). Arguably, the Gulag system of slavery was even more brutal than that of the American South. And like the South, they ultimately fell behind technologically and industrially to a free society.
What is forgotten today is that there were men who contemporaneously made the connection between communism and slavery while advocating for it, including George Fitzhugh:
Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society (1855) was George Fitzhugh's most powerful attack on the philosophical foundations of free society. In it, he took on not only Adam Smith, the foundational thinker of capitalism, but also John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and the entire liberal tradition. He argued that free labor and free markets enriched the strong while crushing the weak. What society needed, he wrote, was slavery, not just for blacks, but for whites as well. "Slavery," he wrote, "is a form, and the very best form, of socialism."
Built between 1931 and 1933, the White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal was the first massive construction project of the Gulag. Over 100,000 prisoners dug a 141-mile canal with few tools other than simple pickaxes, shovels, and makeshift wheelbarrows in just 20 months. Initially viewed as a great success and celebrated in a volume published both in the Soviet Union and the United States, the canal turned out to be too narrow and too shallow to carry most sea vessels. Many prisoners died during construction.
Vorkuta, a city built by gulag labor in the tundra 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow and 100 miles above the Arctic Circle, is slowly dying - and those who remain in many cases cannot afford to leave.
A Soviet-era sign that remains atop a central building exhorts people to mine more coal, the resource that first attracted the gulag's architects in the 1930's and resulted in forced labor by two million prisoners before the camps shut down in 1950's.
And are those all of the things that were built, created in the USSR at the time? To the extent that it allows you to claim that "The Soviet Union was quite literally built on slave labor?" Were they even a fraction of a percent?
You seem to be pointing out that the GULAGs existed and are providing sources for this fact. I'm not really disputing the existence of the labor camps. Let me ask you this, do you know anyone who lived in the USSR, who worked in the USSR and who was not a convict in a labor camp? I know lots. Are you saying that they do not count?
Comments
The Soviet Union was quite literally built on slave labor (http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/work.php). Arguably, the Gulag system of slavery was even more brutal than that of the American South. And like the South, they ultimately fell behind technologically and industrially to a free society.
What is forgotten today is that there were men who contemporaneously made the connection between communism and slavery while advocating for it, including George Fitzhugh:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fitzhugh
Sociology for the South, or, the Failure of Free Society (1855) was George Fitzhugh's most powerful attack on the philosophical foundations of free society. In it, he took on not only Adam Smith, the foundational thinker of capitalism, but also John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and the entire liberal tradition. He argued that free labor and free markets enriched the strong while crushing the weak. What society needed, he wrote, was slavery, not just for blacks, but for whites as well. "Slavery," he wrote, "is a form, and the very best form, of socialism."
This sort of propaganda bullshit is popular in the US. That's like saying the US was built on slave and prison labor.
Sure, they contributed, but, at what scale?
Millions upon millions, entire cities built by gulag labor.
http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/work.php
Built between 1931 and 1933, the White Sea-Baltic Sea Canal was the first massive construction project of the Gulag. Over 100,000 prisoners dug a 141-mile canal with few tools other than simple pickaxes, shovels, and makeshift wheelbarrows in just 20 months. Initially viewed as a great success and celebrated in a volume published both in the Soviet Union and the United States, the canal turned out to be too narrow and too shallow to carry most sea vessels. Many prisoners died during construction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/international/europe/06rus...
Vorkuta, a city built by gulag labor in the tundra 1,200 miles northeast of Moscow and 100 miles above the Arctic Circle, is slowly dying - and those who remain in many cases cannot afford to leave.
A Soviet-era sign that remains atop a central building exhorts people to mine more coal, the resource that first attracted the gulag's architects in the 1930's and resulted in forced labor by two million prisoners before the camps shut down in 1950's.
And are those all of the things that were built, created in the USSR at the time? To the extent that it allows you to claim that "The Soviet Union was quite literally built on slave labor?" Were they even a fraction of a percent?
You seem to be pointing out that the GULAGs existed and are providing sources for this fact. I'm not really disputing the existence of the labor camps. Let me ask you this, do you know anyone who lived in the USSR, who worked in the USSR and who was not a convict in a labor camp? I know lots. Are you saying that they do not count?
>in just 20 months. [...] the canal turned out to be too narrow and too shallow to carry most sea vessels.
So, did they spend some more months and modify it or did they just abandon it. I'm guessing the architect met with a nasty accident?