austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

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58 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL CHAP TER J THE DOCUMENTED FA CTS ABOUT EA STERN EUROPE AND COMMUNISM: A REFUTATION OF POPULAR MYTHS ABOUT THE TRUE GOOD GUYS While most have a false impression of USA benevolence or "kindness," many believe that the former governments of Eastern Europe (and other communist states) were (and are) horribly totalitarian, economi cally inefficient societies that collapsed because they did not serve the people of those countries (Pipes, 1993). This chapter explains the true causes of the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe, provides facts refuting the popular myths surrounding Eastern Europe and com munism, and clarifies why the USA won the Cold War despite having an inferior system. ECONOMIC PHENOMENA CONTRIBUTING TO THE CoLLAPSE OF COMMUNISM IN EASTERN EUROPE The virtually bloodless collapse of communism in Eastern Europe has caused many to conclude that the communist system was removed there largely as a result of its own economic failure to improve the stan dard of living of the people (Campbell, 1992). While it is true that eco nomics did play a roll in the fall of communism, the communist system itself was actually reasonably effective economically, as is indicated by the higher average real economic growth rates experienced by Eastem Europe under communism (compared to capitalist countries) from 1 946-89, as well as before that time interval in the Soviet Union where communism took hold earlier in 1917 (Murphy, 1998). In fact, Eastern
60 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL Europe enjoyed higher growth rates than Western Europe even in its final critical years (IMF, 1993), and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe can be more attributed to the economic failure of the system in existence there prior to communism than to the mistakes and problems of communism itself. In particular, prior to communism, Eastern Europe had had substan tially lower economic output per capita than Western Europe and the USA (Mead, 1994). For instance, the gross national product (GNP) per capita of Russia was about 10% of that of the USA during peacetime before communism in 1913 (Gregory, 1982), and GNP per capita was even lower by the time of the communist revolution there in 1917 (Hutchings, 1982). Thereafter, real GNP per capita in the Soviet Union under communism caught up significantly, rising to 31% of USA GNP per capita by 1991 (UN, 1994 ).' That performance occurred despite the very destructive Foreign Interventionist Civil War of 1918-22 (Krivosheev, 1997), which reduced Soviet output by about half (Hutchings, 1982), and despite the almost as destructive Nazi invasion of 1941-44, which reduced Soviet GNP by over 20% (Maddison, 1969). 2 After growing faster than the USA in all peaceful decades up to the political collapse of Eastern Europe in 1990,3 Russia's economy deteriorated enormously following the capitalist takeover by Ye ltsin, with real GNP falling by about 50% between 1991 and 1996 (IMF, 1997a). A comparison of real economic growth rates in the Soviet Union and the USA shortly before and after the collapse of Eastern European com munism in 1990 is provided in Table 2: TABLE 2 ANNUAL REAL ECONOMIC GROWTH RATES IN RUSSIA AND THE USA IN THE YEARS JUST BEFORE AND AFTER THE END OF COMMUNISM Communism in Eastern Europe , Capitalism Annual Country: 1975-84 .l.2.8l .128.6 .1.281 .1288.. .12a2 .1.220 1991-98 Soviet Union 4. 1% I. 7% 3.6% 2.8% 5.3% 3.00/o -2.3% Russia -7 .9"/o USA 2.5% 3.2% 2.9"/o 3.1% 3.9"/o 2.5% 1.2% 2.5% Source: IMF (1993, 1998). CHAPTER J Similarly, real economic growth in all of Eastern Europe under com munism was estimated to be higher than in Western Europe under capP. talism (as well as higher than in the USA) even in communism's final decade (the 1980s), and real economic o�tput fell by over 30% in East em Europe .as a whole in the 1990s after the reimposition of capitalism (IMF, 1998: 171). So why was communism overthrown in Eastern Europe, if real eco nomic growth was higher than under capitalism? One answer can be found in the area's historic poverty. Although communism had partially bridged the huge gulf in standard of living differences between Eastern Europe and developed capitalist countries, it had not completely done so, and many people began to incorrectly associate communism with poverty. Increasing contact and communication with richer capitalist countries contributed to this feeling.4 As a result, many Eastern Europe ans (including many of their leaders) began to falsely perceive capital ism to be a get-rich-quick scheme to bring their standard of living up to the level of the developed capitalist countries (Marcy, 1990). OTHER FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE COLLAPSE OF CoMMUNISM IN EAsTERN EuROPE There were, of course, other factors that reduced people's support for the communist system in Eastern Europe and therefore contributed to its demise. Many of these other factors related back to the economic problems in Eastern Europe. However, the Soviet participation in a civil war in Afghanistan may have played a role independent of economics in reducing support for, and confidence in, the communist system. General Problems Relating to the Economy The efficiency of communism may have enabled Eastern Europe to overtake the richest capitalist countries by 1989 (and may have thereby avoided communism's undeserved reputation for economic inefficiency) if it had not suffered so much destruction from war and had not there fore also felt the need to expend enormous resources on defense. In Particular, the Soviet Union had been invaded militarily by over a dozen countries in the first 25 years of its existence (including by the very powerful capitalist countries of the USA, Britain, Germany, and Japan). Subsequently, it had been subjected to various threatening Cold War acts by the USA, including a massive number of military flights over 61
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