One of the most powerful political organization in the world was initially named Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
In 1912 Russian Social Democratic Party was split into bolshevicks (majority) and mensheviks (minority). The name bolshevik is still used today. Few people realize that it means majority coalition of Russian Social Democratic Party. The party was renamed into Russian Communist Party few years after they got into power.
Modern social democrats are trying to distance themselves from russian bolsheviks. It’s very odd because every single modern liberal policy was implemented in USSR to the fullest extent possible. The official name of the soviet economic and political system was “Developed Democratic Socialism”.
Lets look at the some Soviet policies and you can judge for yourself.
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage was a issue in liberal society all across the globe. Russian social democrats were way ahead of everybody else. It was implemented as nowhere in the world. It was truly universal. All men and women under age 16 could vote. Felons, mental clinic patients, everyone! Bolsheviks could hang you tomorrow, but today you still have voting rights. There was not a single country with such extreme universal suffrage at the time.
Hate speech laws
Hate speech laws were introduced almost immediately. Hate speech was punishable by death or jail time. Hateful speech subjects included: not approved russian history, jews, political jokes, religious talk, non marxist economic, biology and anything that local commissar would consider “hateful” using “revolutionary consciousness”. Hate speech was extremely important in the process of finding “enemies of the nation”. Most “enemies of the nation” sentences were based on “hate speech law”. Being son/daughter/wife of the “enemy of the nation” became a crime as well. Means were justifying the ends. It’s hard to overestimate how hard russian liberals were fighting the “hate”. Nobody wanted hateful and evil nazies running free. Support from “freedom loving” masses was overwhelming.
It should not be underestimated how sophisticated were hate speech laws. Big academicians and scientists were involved in process developing and crystallizing the rules what was allowed. Just to list some “hateful” subject: genetics, cybernetics, sampling statistics, quantum mechanics, intuitionistic mathematics.
USSR had probably largest number of scientists per capita than any other nation. It worth to say that EVERYTHING in Soviet Union was in full sync with “science”. Every scientific result was always based on “settled science”. It was settling in different places from time to time, but at any single point in time it was totally settled.
White Supremacy
During soviet times term “white supremacy” term was not invented yet, but it would not work in Russia anyway because most minorities did not have big skin color differences. “White race” term is an american invention mostly.
The same idea was pushed by bolshevicks under the name of “Great Russian Chauvinism”. Lenin’s work condemning chauvinism was studied in all schools (“On the National Pride of the Great Russians”). Russian was labeled “prison of the nations”. Every race except Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians was declared oppressed minority. Central Economic Planning agency was heavily favoring minorities regions. Racial quotas, affirmative action were almost everywhere.
Only truly “oppressed” had the right to special treatment. As usual there was a ruthless competition among the “oppressed” for the right to be “truly oppressed”. And as usual it was extremely dangerous to be in “privileged” class because the main privilege you get is death sentence.
Gender Equality
Gender equality was a big issue. Men and women differences were declared being purely a social construct. Unisex fashion became very trendy. In 1920s and even 1930s some women were cutting their tits off to look more like men. (advanced sex change surgery was not available at that time). Employment for women was highest in the world. Women were getting payed the same amount of money for the same job title. Workers salaries were approved by Central Planning Agency.
“Patriarchy” was strongly condemned by the society and the party. Any nuclear family traditions were ridiculed and prosecuted. Women were given any advantage possible. Feminists should be extremely proud of Soviets.
New economic policy
Right after bolsheviks seized partial control in Russia they declared “war communism”. That turned out to be a huge disaster. They managed to starve to death millions of people in the country that was mostly agricultural. The disaster was so big that US government decided to allocate some humanitarian help from ARA program.
Once total political control was established “new economic policy” was introduced. Some elements of “free market” under very strict government control. The system was almost identical to italian fascism. The economic system is currently most common across the globe. People just shy away from “fascism” word, and prefer to call it “well regulated market system”, “crony capitalism”, etc.
In case of bolsheviks “new economic policy” was just a prelude to centrally planned economy.
Abortion
Soviet Russia became the first country in the world to allow abortion in all circumstances.
Free schools, childcare, healthcare
Free universities, free schools, free childcare, free abortions. Questionable quality, long waiting times, “under the table payments” to get bearable services….but it was all “free”.
Full employment
“Soviet citizens have a right for job”, the Soviet constitution reads. The government guaranteed that you have a job. For example, once you get a degree – you assigned a job that you must hold for 3 years. Only after that term you were allowed to look for a job yourself. If you cannot find a job – government assigns it to you.
Just to illustrate the idea how it looked like. Lets say you finally got your MIT degree in engineering. Central Planning Agency determined that they urgently need an engineer in Emmonak, Alaska. Here you go to Alaska for 3 years. I’m not exaggerating.
Gun control
As soon as bolsheviks got more-less full control of the country – full gun control was introduced. Nobody wants armed people killing people. All those killers must wear uniform, have a nice pension, and face no resistance. There is nothing new – gun control laws were cherished by every big government since very beginning of the written history.
Environmentalism and animal welfare
Environmentalism was a big talking point in 1920s. It tuned out that Russia was industrially lagging behind the west. They needed to push industrialization hard which was hard to combine with environmentalism. Soviets were really interested in changing environment to make it more suitable for the people. As a result, Soviets were famous for all kinds of ecological catastrophes which were all done in the name of improving environment.
Environmentalism and animal welfare were much bigger issue for Nazi Germany. “Healthy nation, healthy environment” fits better into nationalist socialism doctrine rather marxism. No wander that Nazi Germany leaded the world on those issue. Even in todays world most dedicated environmentalists also have national socialists views.