The world 30 years after the Soviet Union

Exactly 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with Associate Professor, Dr. Major General Le Van Cuong - former Director of the Institute of Strategy and Science, Ministry of Public Security on this topic.

PV:After the collapse of the Soviet Union, international anti-communist forces believed that Marxism-Leninism was no longer valid, and that developing in a socialist direction was a dead end and would fail. What is the Major General's opinion on this issue?

Major General Le Van Cuong:The loss of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's leadership, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the collapse of the socialist system in Eastern Europe created fundamental changes in geopolitics on a global scale. The world shifted from two poles to one pole, under the domination of imperialism, headed by the United States.

International public opinion, especially anti-communist forces, have published tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of articles, saying that Marxism-Leninism is completely wrong and that any country that follows the path of socialism will surely reach a dead end and fail. And until now, 30 years later, international anti-communist forces still put forth such arguments.

On this issue, in my opinion, we should not identify the Soviet socialist model with the Marxist-Leninist scientific doctrine. The living soul, the red thread of this doctrine is through struggle, to achieve the ultimate goal of making all power in this society belong to the workers, the people have the right to decide in modern society. This is absolutely true, this ideal itself is eternal, illuminating the way for humanity.

Even though the Soviet Union collapsed, progressive humanity continued its journey to find the ultimate goal of people having the right to decide important issues in their lives. The collapse of the Soviet Union was the collapse, the breakdown of a model built on the theory of Marxism-Leninism.

The international anti-communist forces have been distorting concepts, making excuses, and attributing the Soviet Union to Marxism-Leninism, but it is not, it is a concrete model realized in life. Anyone who still spreads rumors either has bad motives or cannot distinguish the difference between a concrete model and the theory that guides it.

Soviet President Gorbachev and East German leader Honecker during a meeting in October 1989. Photo: EPA

PV:Can the Major General explain why the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lost its leadership role, leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union?

Major General Le Van Cuong:This is the most important issue when studying the collapse of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Eastern European socialist system, and has topical significance for the current leading communist parties such as the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Communist Party of Cuba, etc.

There have been thousands, tens of thousands of articles and research works explaining the collapse of the Soviet Union, explaining the reasons why the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lost its leadership role. But in my opinion, before mentioning the reasons for the collapse, it must be affirmed that, in the process of building a socialist model in the Soviet Union based on the scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union achieved brilliant achievements.

We can briefly mention the brilliant achievements such as the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, headed by Stalin, the vitality of the new socialist society that crushed Hitler's fascism. Or the Soviet Union in 1957 successfully launched the first satellite into space, surpassing the US to become the leading power in conquering the universe, reflecting the new vitality of socialist society.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the brilliant development of socialism also created a solid wall to prevent imperialism. More than 320 million Soviet people enjoyed a peaceful, stable and happy life.

Besides its achievements, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union also made mistakes in the later period, the Soviet Union entered a period of stagnation in the 70s of the last century.

The first mistake was economic policy, maintaining the centralized bureaucratic subsidy economic model for too long. During the war, that model was necessary, but after the war, it was necessary to switch to another model. The centralized bureaucratic model that the Soviet Union maintained for nearly 70 years eliminated the driving force for development because it did not care about the interests of workers.

On this planet, interests are what motivate people to act. Therefore, in the late 1980s, the Soviet economy stagnated, product quality was poor, Soviet goods could not compete with the West, affecting the lives and giving rise to ideological problems among the Soviet people.

In the political field, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union made major mistakes. First, in terms of personnel work, they were unsuccessful, if not failed, in training the next generation of leaders, and failed to select people who were loyal to the communist ideal and dedicated to the revival and development of the Soviet Union. By the 1980s, the leadership of the Party fell into the hands of opportunists.

Second, in 1987, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the opening of “Pandora’s box”, opportunists supported by the West took full advantage of the free atmosphere, openly publishing articles criticizing the October Revolution, criticizing Lenin and Stalin, distorting history, and distorting the truth.

Third, the Soviet Union abolished Article 6 of the Constitution, stating that the Communist Party is the leading force of the State and society, along with depoliticizing the military and taking the KGB intelligence security force out of the Party's leadership.

Finally, it is also necessary to mention that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union failed to prevent corruption and degeneration. In the 1980s, corruption and degeneration in the Soviet Union were extremely terrible. Officials fought for power, shared benefits, and did not care about the lives of the people. These were decisive mistakes that directly led to the failure, disintegration, and loss of leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin with the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Photo: EPA

PV:During its 74 years of existence (1917 - 1991), how did the socialist system under the leadership of the Soviet Union contribute to the development of the world?

Major General Le Van Cuong:Talking about the contributions of socialism in the 74 years of existence in the Soviet Union is invaluable, no one can deny. It is the decisive contribution of the Soviet Red Army in defeating fascism, saving humanity from disaster.

Second, under the existence and development in the three decades of 1950, 1960 and 1970, with the support of the socialist system with the Soviet Union as a stronghold and spiritual assistance, 130 nations rose up to escape from old colonialism and neocolonialism. This only happened in the context of the Soviet-American confrontation, when the Soviet Union was a stronghold, such a powerful socialist system forced colonial policies to adjust, creating conditions for enslaved and oppressed nations to rise up and fight.

So it can be said that the national liberation movement in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s of the last century was the result of the efforts of communists on this planet. The ruling communists carved a brilliant historical period into the history of human civilization.

PV:If you evaluate the world picture over the past 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, what is your comment, Major General?

Major General Le Van Cuong:Looking back over the past 30 years from 1991 to the present, in terms of economics, I see the highlight being the trend of international integration, leading to economic globalization. Looking back before 1991, the world was divided in two, like a river with the socialist world on one side and the capitalist world on the other.

Since 1991, this river no longer exists. The whole world is a market. Along with economic globalization, the rapid development of science and technology, especially information technology and the Internet, has brought people closer together.

Leaders of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia,... attended the signing ceremony to abolish the USSR and establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. Photo: RIA Novosti

PV:Dear Major General, public opinion holds that over the past 30 years, non-traditional security issues have had very unpredictable developments, threatening lives around the world. What is your comment on this view?

Major General Le Van Cuong:In fact, non-traditional security issues are not new, they have existed for thousands of years, but since 1991, many non-traditional security challenges have developed and emerged.

Why? Before that, the confrontation between the Soviet and American systems put humanity on the brink of nuclear annihilation, while other issues sank. When the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving only the unipolar United States, the pressure of nuclear annihilation was gone, but other issues arose.

First isRegarding ethnic and religious issues, I think that never before have religious and ethnic conflicts developed as terribly as in the past 10 years. The Middle East turmoil since 2011 has been the biggest feature of non-traditional security in the past 30 years.

Second isFinancial and monetary security and economic security are non-traditional security issues. The 2008-2010 Great Recession that started in the US brought the entire world economy to a standstill.

Third isclimate change issue, in recent years the whole of Europe has been strangely hot, many places have had terrible storms and floods, then in the past 2 years humanity has faced the Covid-19 pandemic, it has devastated humanity, killed millions of people, the world economy collapsed, difficult. Therefore, I think it is completely correct to express the above opinion.

PV:How has the world political situation changed over the past three decades, Major General?

Major General Le Van Cuong:After the Soviet Union collapsed, the world became unipolar, the US became the only superpower, at its peak in 10 years from 1991 to 2001, dominating in economics, science, defense, information...

Then, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York changed the world situation. The US began to fight against terrorism, which did not end until August 2021, making many mistakes in its anti-terrorism policy and its domestic economic and social policies.

Thus, the biggest characteristic of the past 30 years is the United States' rise and decline, parallel to that process is Russia's recovery and China's strong rise.

In the 5,000-year history of human civilization, there has never been a country that has developed as quickly and strongly, creating such a miraculous breakthrough as China. In 1991, on the world political stage, on the international economic forum, people rarely mentioned China, but now this country has become the world's number 2 "character", the US-China relationship has become the most important relationship on this planet. Every ups and downs in that relationship makes the world shake.

In other words, the second major feature of the past 30 years is the change in geopolitical structure, shifting the global political terrain from Euro-Atlantic to Asia-Pacific. This point is directly related to Vietnam.

Associate Professor, PhD, Major General Le Van Cuong. Photo courtesy

PV:So, what general assessment can the Major General make about Vietnam over the past 30 years?

Major General Le Van Cuong:When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Vietnam had just gone through its most difficult period, gradually trying to escape the great economic and social crisis in the country, and began to reorganize international relations.

The greatest success of the past 30 years, in my opinion, comes from our Party's successes in world perception.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were determined to restore and successfully restore major relations such as Vietnam-China and Vietnam-US relations, join ASEAN, break the siege of imperialism and reactionary forces, deeply integrate with the world, and successfully serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for two terms and as ASEAN's rotating chairman for four terms.

As General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said, our country has never had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today. That is the greatest achievement, every Vietnamese person has the right to be proud of the country's development over the past 30 years. In the absence of Soviet assistance, under the leadership of the Party, the Vietnamese people stood up and built a new life, that was a historic turning point for our nation and our Party over the past 30 years.

PV:Thank you very much, Major General!