Soviet Communism
Article
Soviet Communism is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between July 13, 2022 and January 18, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “threat to civilization now came from totalitarianism on the left, that is, Soviet Communism”; “the 70s almanac interpreted this as meaning Soviet communism would fall peacefully”; “celebrate the 50th anniversary of Soviet communism”. It most often appears alongside AI, Germany, New York.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 3
- Issue count: 3
- First seen: July 13, 2022
- Last seen: January 18, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
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External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
In the 1940s and 1950s, he was equally convinced that the threat to civilization now came from totalitarianism on the left, that is, Soviet Communism, and his commitment was just as unequivocal to fighting it with whatever weapons lay at hand, scientific and economic as well as military. It was a matter of utter indifference to him, I believe, whether the threat came from the right or from the left. What motivated both his intense involvement in the issues of the day and his uncompromisingly hardline attitude was his belief in the overriding importance of political freedom, his strong sense of its continuing fragility, and his conviction that it was in the United States, and the passionate defense of the United States, that its best hope lay.
But I remember this very clearly - the almanac was from 1970-something. So how did the faker know Russian communism would collapse?
…and the 70s almanac interpreted this as meaning Soviet communism would fall peacefully. Reading this in 1995 or whenever it was I read it, a few years after Soviet communism did fall peacefully, I was really impressed: this is the only example I know where someone used a Nostradamus quatrain to predict something before it happened.
24: The USSR wanted to launch an especially dramatic Soyuz mission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Soviet communism. Everyone in the space program knew the craft had cut too many corners and was doomed, but anyone who complained or protested got fired. Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was picked to pilot the craft, and knew it was a one-way trip, but agreed to go so that his friend Yuri Gagarin wouldn’t have to. When the spaceship predictably broke down, he died screaming and cursing everyone involved. According to legend, Gagarin later “threw a drink in [Russian Premier Leonid] Brezhnev’s face” over the incident.
Inline links: he died screaming and cursing everyone involved