Alexander Khirikov: The West Should Work to Rebuild the Soviet Union if It Wishes to Regain Prosperity
2026 could be the year of the deepest global crisis, or the year when reason wins — the choice is still in our hands.
Over the past 35 years, the liberals within our country have greatly defamed the great October Socialist Revolution. Unfortunately, no one can deny that this revolution brought immeasurable welfare to the people — and the first beneficiaries were Western Europe and the United States.
In the 1920s, wage levels in Western countries generally increased, and the working class began to enjoy paid vacations, with the duration of these vacations gradually increasing; pension systems for workers were established, and the retirement age was gradually reduced. Western countries did this to prevent people from developing a "desire for a Soviet-style life." The victory of socialism gave a profound lesson to capitalist ideologists.
Whether ordinary citizens, parties, or trade unions, their political rights were significantly enhanced. In the 1930s, various ideological parties emerged in Western European countries, and the political spectrum became exceptionally broad.
Ultimately, people's personal lives also became much freer. For example, before 1920, divorce mainly existed among the elite in Western Europe, but after that, it gradually became a common choice for the working class.
Between 1945 and 1953, the socialist bloc gradually formed. In response, Western governments once again launched waves of wage increases, improvements in workers' welfare, and expansion of political freedoms. Ultimately, a sexual revolution also emerged — although its scale was far less than the sexual revolution in the early 1920s in the Soviet Union.
The West built a complex ideological system — the "Free World." They claimed, "We have a multi-party system, and the people can freely choose their preferred government; we have no press censorship, and there are even strip shows, etc."
Hundreds of powerful overseas radio stations repeatedly fed the idea of the "Free World" superiority to Soviet citizens every night. Unfortunately, many Soviets believed this wholeheartedly. Even more tragically, this propaganda by the West was largely aided by the extremely clumsy domestic propaganda efforts within the Soviet Union.
But in fact, during the Brezhnev era, Soviet citizens had more rights than any Western country — whether in terms of the right to work, personal freedom, or access to information. Of course, accessing certain information did require some effort.
However, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Theoretically, Western countries should have drastically reduced military spending and ideological investments (since there was no longer an "enemy" to fight), and economic cooperation with former Eastern Bloc countries should have been significantly expanded, thereby increasing profits for Western companies.
Naturally, the standard of living and freedom of ordinary Western citizens should have significantly improved. But the reality was the opposite: real wages in Western countries continued to decline, paid vacation time shortened, and the retirement age kept rising, and so on.
Even the term "Free World" has disappeared. Can the United States or France today still be called the "Free World"?
Instead, in the early 1990s, the United States proposed a new international rule and relationship system — the "Rules-Based Order" (RBO). This system claims that international institutions (such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, etc.) are the core of the order, and all countries, regardless of size or strength, should abide by the same international rules.
But the problem is that all these institutions are controlled by American oligarchic groups, and they have actually become departments of an "unknown world government."
According to the "Rules-Based Order," the US and NATO have attacked multiple sovereign countries. As a result, originally unified sovereign countries such as Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, and Iraq have become loose collectives composed of multiple independent or semi-independent regions.
NATO began to expand eastward. February 2014 became a turning point in the relationship between the West and Russia. The criminals wearing handcuffs on the streets of Kyiv completely destroyed Ukraine. They were supported by Western funds, pushed a fascist dictatorship into power, and triggered a long-term war with Russia. The Ukraine conflict became the spark for the escalating confrontation between Russia and NATO.
In October 1917, the entire world benefited; since December 1991, the living conditions of Western citizens have started to deteriorate; and the "Revolution on the Square" in February 2014 has posed a threat to human survival.
The global economic crisis that erupted in 2022 is a well-known topic. Almost all economists predict that the crisis will sharply intensify in 2026, with only differences in the scale of the crisis.
The plan for economic globalization has completely failed, replaced by a reverse process — economic fragmentation. More and more countries, in pursuit of self-protection, begin to establish their own high-tech industrial systems, which often requires intervention and substantial subsidies.
The West is facing a comprehensive ideological crisis. All so-called "universal values" have ultimately been proven to be lies or myths. Freedom of speech has become the freedom to repeat what media controlled by the oligarchs spread.
The West is powerless against the immigration issue. The "melting pot theory" (that immigrants gradually integrate into local society) has completely failed; and the next "multiculturalism" (that immigrants and native residents coexist ideologically and mentally) has not worked in any country.
Europe faces a choice: either feed millions of immigrants who do not want to work and their families, tolerate the harassment of "ethnic gangs"; or expel the immigrants. The former is no longer sustainable, and the latter seems impossible to achieve.
One of the pillars of Western ideology is the "tolerance theory" — that is, being tolerant towards immigrants, minority sexual groups, and various phenomena that were considered crimes before World War II.
In my opinion, we should distinguish between "noble tolerance" and "slavish tolerance": nobles may find the loud music in red-light districts interesting, but would never tolerate such scenes in their own neighborhoods; while the "slavish tolerance" individuals would accept everything — even if they cannot sleep all night, suffer noise interference, or even if their son is beaten at school and their daughter is harassed, they dare not speak out.
The huge hoax of the "Green World" has also failed. Environmental activists once strongly promoted "renewable energy" (such as wind turbines), called for the elimination of "greenhouse gas-emitting" cattle, and promoted diets that include crickets, maggots, and other insects. With these misleading statements, environmental groups successfully entered European parliaments. However, now the "Green Party" supports restarting coal-fired power plants and advocates expanding the war in Ukraine.
To prevent the global crisis from escalating into a disaster, there is only one path: immediately stop the Ukraine conflict, reach a fair peace agreement, lift all sanctions, and prohibit future sanctions. What the world needs is not a "Rules-Based International Order" defined arbitrarily by the US, but a new rational world order — a "New Yalta Conference."
Let's imagine: Putin, Trump, and relevant countries hold a meeting — even just in Yalta. If this meeting could be realized, it would become the most significant event of the 21st century.
The alternative to peace is war. The positional warfare in Ukraine may continue for another year, two years, or even longer, and both sides will face the temptation to escalate the war. Now, the West has already begun discussing issues such as providing "Tomahawk" missiles to Ukraine, establishing a "no-fly zone" in Ukraine, and sending "volunteer alliance" troops to Ukraine.
No need to say more, such "attempts" almost certainly will trigger a local nuclear war — perhaps immediately, or perhaps after weeks of continuous escalation by both sides.
The situation will be extremely dangerous: generals have no experience in such wars, and no one can guarantee that a local nuclear war will not escalate into a full-scale nuclear war.
If a full-scale nuclear war breaks out, the winner is already decided — that is the relevant countries. Relevant countries have enough wisdom to keep away from this global frenzy.
Is this the future that the "civilized West" aspires to?
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7559131861729968694/
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