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Property, the Nomenklatura, and Nomenklatura Property All of Communist theory can be expressed in one single phrase: the abolition of private property! —Marx and Engels The bureaucracy has the state in its possession. . . . [I]n essence, the state is the bureaucracy’s private property. —Marx 1 a complete history of the relationship between the soviet nomenklatura and the Soviet nomenklatura state, the history of their torturous conflicts and the eventual alienation of the former from the latter has yet to be written. But for the moment we can posit at least this: the Soviet system was devoured from within, by its own ruling class. Marx wrote that the bourgeoisie was digging its own grave.1 Well, the Communist oligarchy, too, may have dug its own grave, but this was a shrewd and mercenary gravedigger, and it aimed to profit from its own death. More accurately, it aimed to turn a funeral into a party, a celebration of liberation from the old system and of the birth of a new one—which, by the way, it would also control. This became obvious between 1989 and 1991. I hardly need mention that the most active part of the liberal-democratic intelligentsia (the “project managers of perestroika”) were by no means dissidents; 4 59 to the contrary, the majority of them had government ties of one sort or another. This may be almost inevitable when a political revolution is preceded by a spiritual one. Much more important here is the fact that the rank-and-file nomenklatura , political and economic alike, took “the anticommunist revolution ” quite calmly, and in fact was rather sympathetic to it. This explains why this particular revolution was so easy, so bloodless, and yet remained only half-finished, why later so many people felt that their hopes and ideals for social change had been betrayed. And, of course, the true nature of the nomenklatura-antinomenklatura revolution became clear when the time came to divvy up state property, and everyone saw that the nomenklatura and its “subsidiaries ” (“Komsomol Inc.,” for example) were the first to get rich. Terms like nomenklatura privatization, nomenklatura capital, nomenklatura capitalism, and nomenklatura democracy became common parlance. In the Manichaean minds of that part of our society obsessed with conspiracy theories, what we had here was a global conspiracy, instigated by the old Soviet nomenklatura (of course) and its cronies in Washington and Tel Aviv (But look here. . . . This was a planned disaster . . . a wolfish plot backed by trillions of U.S. dollars. . . . These dollars were what launched the entire thing . . . )—a conspiracy that in some paranoid fantasies went as far as “CIA agents in the Politburo.” There is no doubt that what took place in 1990 and 1991 was a major geopoliticalupheaval,regardlessof one’sattitudeproorcon.Itnotonly took most Soviet citizens by surprise (dissidents included); it stunned professionalSovietologiststoo.LookatwhatnotedhistoriansAleksandr Nekrich and Mikhail Heller were writing at the time: “Now, on the eve of its 70th anniversary, this state born in October of 1917 is rounding out the eighth decade of the twentieth century as the last world empire. From Cuba to Vietnam, from Czechoslovakia to Angola, the sun indeed never sets over the Soviet empire. . . . Its success as a system is obvious.”2 This was the view from a West still panicking at the thought of Communist aggression. Communism collapsed for any number of reasons. But our focus here is its internal disintegration: the social and psychological degen60 Property and the Nomenklatura eration of the elite, and the subsequent “trickle-down” political and economic degeneration of the system itself. In the very first days of the regime, the Soviet nomenklatura sealed itself oªfromitsownpeople,nottospeakof therestof theworld.After all, it had its own issues to resolve—chief among which was to insure itself against a “capitalist restoration.” The only real way to do so was to give ever more power to the “guarantor”—that is, the Communist elite.Asitturnedout,thisveryelitewouldeventuallybecomethe“chief restorer” of capitalism in Russia. The degeneration of the elite, and of the system, is a very long story. What follows is a brief outline. 1917–1921.WarCommunism.Privateownershipisabolishedinareas controlled by Communist forces. Civil war, Red Terror. The nomenklatura is locked in a fight to the death; they see themselves as latter-day Jacobins. 1921–1929. NEP. Peacetime, a breather, a mixed economy, the closestthingtoanEasternstate (ora“Leninistimperialist”one).Subsistence economies, small businesses, private ownership, state-capitalist enterprises , and socialist ownership exist side by side. Communism’s first majorcrisis,thefirsthintof “degeneration,”of...

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