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[–] libman [S] 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago  (edited ago)

Also remember that military spending figures don't capture the war machine that the Soviet Union was building. It had a nearly unlimited amount of manpower brainwashed and willing to suffer and die in the name of the World Revolution! This propaganda was everywhere! And it had unprecedented amounts of international "soft power", funding every far-left party all over the world!

The Soviet rulers (and not only Stalin) were willing to starve millions of Soviet peasants to fund the industrialization and militarization effort. And after the third 5-year plan they'd be ready for World Revolution: India, Europe, and beyond!

It is impossible for communism to peacefully coexist with relatively free market-based societies, because the latter will always make them look terrible in comparison, and the smartest people would be willing to risk their lives to escape to freedom. Communists know they must achieve world domination, even at the expense of watering down their ideas, or they have no chance. North Korea is a joke when you have something to compare it to, but if the whole world is like North Korea people won't know the difference!

The spread of communism had slowed, only thanks to the United States. When oil prices fell in the 80s, the USSR could no longer fund the global communist agenda, and the emerging new media and the Internet have made manipulation of public opinion ever-more difficult for them. They knew it had to step back and come up with a new plan. They needed Google and Facebook! They needed Huawei! They needed Antifa calling all non-communists "nazis"! And now it's a new kinder gentler greener gayer globalist socialism that is gradually taking over the world...

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[–] mememeyou 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Good video. From @00:40-00:48 in the video Russia grows while all others shrink for about 3 years.

From your link on the 5 year plan:

"A major event during the first Five Year-Plan was the famine of 1932–33. The famine peaked during the winter of '32–'33 claiming the lives of an estimated 3.3 to 7 million people, while millions more were permanently disabled. The famine was the direct result of the industrialization and collectivization implemented by the first Five Year-Plan... Because of the successes made by the first plan, Stalin did not hesitate with going ahead with the second five-year plan"