Promoting Reliable People: Equality or Equity: The Soviet Experience

How to promote the disadvantaged? Is the goal equality before the law? Or is it equity i.e. equal outcomes for people of disadvantage? These issues are considered here based on Soviet experience. The Bolsheviks launched a campaign in 1924 to promote the disadvantaged people to positions of authority. The old "bourgeois" specialists were deemed unreliable and the new semi-literate upstarts were to replace them. How this social experiment was run? What were the mentality of the upstarts? How did they define their role? Did they manage to fulfill their task? Is their experience relevant for the contemporary world and for the United States?

[eleanorkett]

Thank you Dr. Brovkin for another eye opener.

[Niagaradream]

Grateful I found you professor! Getting your book. I am Polish living in US. I am unpacking the russian phobia grown on unresolved polish trauma (ribbentrop-molotov in my view). I want to understand Russians and help heal painful common history to stop the wars 😢

[fredkilner]

When you mention appointing incompetence it reminds of people I know in real life.

[jasonbauter]

We're having these types of problems here in the states unfortunately. I wish we would learn from other peoples mistakes instead of just jumping off the cliff like we're doing here. Thanks for the video Mr.Brovkin. Very informative !!

[williamtell]

It indeed sounds familiar to us today in the west.

[manfredstolze]

Thank you, Dr Brovkin. Interesting, informative, clear, and well narrated, ad always

[williamniggle]

Vladimir Brovkin, you are an intellectual with integrity and conscience. It seems to me that in the age of Stalin who is the true leader of the Soviet Union. First, Trotsky was a Jewish that the Russians were unlikely to accept him; Second, he was too bookish losing touch with reality. Though Stalin had many mistakes, he defeated Hitler and paved the foundation of transforming Russia into an industrialised power.

[bobilaforce]

Тhank you professor.
Every single video is enriching.
Поздрав од срца из Београда.

[srikantdelhi]

This presentation is - A meritocratic lens on history! Another point is - of what worth the education and competence was if it allowed the 'uneducated' and 'incompetent' to decide the future and rule over everyone including the educated and the competent ones!

[charlesiragui]

The concept is clear: if qualifications are abandoned, and incompetence is tolerated in the name of an ideological goal, errors will result.
There is a credible alternative side to this question, also coming from an economic/libertarian standpoint. What if the initial system has itself arbitrary discrimination and favoritism? Aristocracy, parentage and belonging to the dominant ethic or religious group could theoretically create much the same incompetence as the revolutionary attempt to change. Tsarist Russia did seem to suffer from some of this. The most glaring examples: Nicholas II and the Jewish Pale.

[Felipe_Porto]

Thanks for the inspirational insight, Professor!

[paulmicks]

Great discussion on political mechanics, looking forward to a discussion on economic mechanics, how socialism brought millions out of poverty, how housing, medical services and educational opportunities expanded.
The Bolsheviks for all their mistakes broke Russia and it's people away from imperialist capitalist behaviors.
In the Russian civil war they able to keep the imperialist western Europe and US from getting a foothold in Ukraine and other areas after WW-1
The western elites then funded Germany to create a huge military juggernaut to attack again in 1941.
Germany then became the EU and NATO to attack again for the western empire elites via Ukrainian imperial nazi nationalist.

[faydiborio]

Thank you Vladimir for the great book 😊

[Bogdan-xobb]

9:00 - 9:20 sounds very similar to my experience in American college. I can only imagine what it’s like at university level.

[andreikalashnikov]

During the tsarist period the Russian literacy rate was 25%. The Soviets made sustained efforts like "Likebez" to educate the masses. They achieved 100% literacy by the end of the second world war. If the Soviets were against intellectuals they would have never educated the masses

[ahmuqasim]

Thank you Vladimir, interesting analysis. But given the incompetency of the party and its violence against non party people how did the USSR win WWII? How did they become the first to go into space?

[Kafkaesque]

Thank you Professor. Started reading your latest book. Quite interesting.

[cranklesnacks]

thank you - there are many parallels in the u.s. right now to the soviet union — but the remnants and tatters of the founders thankfully still exists and is building once again..

[simonbagel]

It appears the US Secret Service operates on the same equity model lifted from the "dictatorship of the proletariat".

[giorgimerabishvili]

Respect to you MR. Brovkin, but I have to disagree with you: How was is possible to achieve so much success in all spheres of the country during 30s and 40s if everyone were so incompetent? Just compare Russia 1920 vs Russia 1950. So many advancements and achievements in all fields! Then How was it possible??