I appreciate everything, Stalin

The socialist bloc’s efforts to reduce inequality in capitalist nations have been the subject of historical research for quite some time.

Whether it’s ironic or not, communism had a significant impact on the world in the twentieth century, and not just in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Romania, or any of the other countries in the Soviet orbit. One of communism’s most significant legacies, according to some historians who have long maintained the theory, was accomplished in countries far from Moscow, outside the influence of the Soviet Politburo. Just how? Through reducing levels of inequality in countries that operate on a market economy.

Consequently, it appeared that the western side of the Iron Curtain was particularly affected by whatever spectre Karl Marx said was afflicting Europe.

“Disciplining” disparities. Some scholars are certain that communism had a beneficial influence outside of the Soviet Union and its satellite republics, despite the fact that the ideology’s brutal repression and the century-long shadow it left behind cast serious doubt on the planned economy’s merits and its capacity to compete with capitalist nations.

And the way? By enforcing inequality as a “disciplining” factor. Researchers like Andre Albuquerque Sant’Ann, Leonardo Weller, Vladimir Popov, and Kwame Sundaram have investigated how the “ghost” of communism helped to rectify inequities on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain, and this idea has been tossed around in recent years, with different degrees of seriousness.

In a recent recollection, Serbian-American economist Branko Milanović emphasised that the basic idea is straightforward: capitalist nations exhibited “cautious” behaviour due to the influence of communism, represented by the USSR and other communist states. “They knew that if they tried to put too much pressure on workers, the latter could retaliate and they would end up losing everything,” according to him.

“He was saved from himself by it.” Another writer who has delved into this concept is Aditya Chakraborty, a well-known columnist for The Guardian. In 2019, Chakraborty put out an article that argued for the same hypothesis: that Western states with market economies were more lenient with their workers during the 20th century due to the overwhelming threat from the Soviet bloc.

Socialism was a “miserable failure, brutally repressive of its people and incapable of competing with capitalist economies,” according to Chakraborty. However, there is no denying that communism had one redeeming quality—”one of the greatest paradoxes of our era”—despite the Politburo’s apparent lack of interest in it. “It rescued it from itself,” it said.

That being said, how did it manage to do it? With a simple system of checks and balances. Also, worries. Capitalist economies, according to Chakraborty, fought for their very existence because the Soviet Union existed, with its strong and competing ideology. Being adaptable and addressing potential disparities were crucial to this. Alternatively put, more money going into social welfare and higher wages.

Using a number of examples, Chakraborty proves that the socialist “ghost” had an impact. The first is the eight-hour work day, which workers have been demanding for over a century and which was a central demand of the May Day marches in the late nineteenth century. “However, it took the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and the discontent of employees throughout Europe for it to become law within a few months in France, Germany and Portugal,” according to him.

Inequality in the West decreased in response to “the threat of the spread of communism” after rising throughout the nineteenth century, according to a study published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). “It inspired redistributive welfare reforms, giving capitalism a more human face.”

I appreciate everything, Stalin

The socialist bloc’s efforts to reduce inequality in capitalist nations have been the subject of historical research for quite some time.

By knl9j

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