Thread: Communism: Do Russians think the USSR was communist?

It might probably help if Химик provided brief definitions of both terms to make a sort of terminological corridor.

It's not likely that younger generations (born after late 80s) can really help much here.

The attitude towards these ideas was different during the course of the Soviet history and they were developing and changing due to propaganda and educating Soviet generations according to the official ideology (i.e. in 1920s and 1980s the attitudes were different). I suspect the early stages of the Soviet state are not of interest here, so just a brief remark that anti-communism among the people was big during the beginning of the new Soviet state.

So phrases commonly used were: we are building communism, this generation of the Soviet people will live in the society of communism (Khrutschev in 1961, implying that communism will have been built within life of this generation).. so you see the idea of building was present.

So the word 'communism' has a more practical meaning in minds of Russian people compared to 'socialism', the latter being some sort of theoretical and sometimes even philosophical basis, often some abstract idea (at least in its classical meaning). Whereas 'communism' is some concrete realization. At least this is official theoretical description that people born in 50s and 60s would find satisfactory (in USSR contexts) I am suggesting.

Now as for today, the word 'communism' is not so popular in the media, maybe it's heard in some debates and historical contexts (i think the idea that this was an erroneous course is quite popular in the Russian society today, though some older people are quite nostalgic about the Soviet past).

But I often here people in Russia today commenting on Norway and Sweden using phrases like У них там социализм (They have socialism there). I think this is quite interesting. The meanings of words are really evolving and changing.

Bourgeois - immensely popular term today in Russia, the connotations are different (e.g. 'all those westerners', 'all those capitalists', ... might be negative, might be humorous)...

Working class and proletarian - these words are not so popular, as they are part of earlier Soviet class based theoretical ideology (so they may be used humourously or in scientific literature), ... but Он из рабочих (he is from working class family) - without the word 'class' - can still be used.

Bourgeois - immensely popular term today in Russia

Do you mean semi-humorous "буржуи"?
"Буржуазия" is not so popular term now. I think it may appear in rhetoric of modern communist party due to historical connections, but it is not widespreaded.
"Буржуй" as semi-humorous description of business class with connotations to "exploitation of the working class" can be met in inofficial speech often, yes...

Originally Posted by Alex80

Do you mean semi-humorous "буржуи"?

Yes, и все производные.