Although I was born after the collapse of the USSR, even I see the terrible consequences of socialism.

I don't know the entire political situation in the US, but I wanted to write this post because I saw a lot of socialists on Reddit lately, and Bernie is like "wow ussr so cool", it all scares me. So I want to tell people a little about life in the USSR and after its collapse.

It all started the same way: people were annoyed by poverty, corruption, and unjust rule. The communists' speeches inspired the crowd: equality, no big terrible evil corporations, no owners, and people will get things for free, etc etc (just like now). We allowed the bolsheviks, led by Lenin, to rule the country.

Everything started to collapse almost immediately. Socialist reforms destroyed our economy. It was a disaster: people were starving, productivity fell, and many Russians died. Some bolsheviks admitted their failure, the others (like Stalin) didn't. If you are interested in details, google "war communism".

Then we created the NEP: a "new economic policy" by Lenin. This policy represented capitalism, private property, and the free market. The NEP period (about 10 years) was the brightest period in our economy: the country became incredibly rich, we prospered and were happy. It's very ironic, I believe that Lenin realized his mistakes before his death.

Unfortunately, this period didn't last long. Immediately after Lenin's death, Stalin took his place. He thought that Lenin was a betrayer and wanted to continue "building communism". So the terror began.

The massive famine of the 30s is a black page in our history. When Stalin abolished the NEP and reintroduced socialism, there was a shortage of food, people weren't able to work for a "bright future" - they were forced to. 1/3 of the population of the USSR suffered from hunger, which is 40 million people. Many died.

Then Stalin died, new officials took his place. Attempts to do something good turned out to be a failure. "Everyone gets a free apartment!"- our cities are now filled with same-type-gray-houses, where pipes leaked and electricity didn't work. "Each according to his needs!"- shortage of food. Failures in agriculture, executions of "traitors" and "those who disagree with the government"... and many other things that the communists won't tell you about.

In the 80s, there was a total shortage of food in the USSR. Empty counters, huge queues for food (it was given out on coupons! no coupon - starve), the lack of technological progress. My friend's mother was paid with furniture and bread. My grandma worked three jobs to feed the family, and my mom was one of the hungry soviet children. One time she said, "I still get excited when I walk into a store and there's meat! A lot of different meat! I still can't believe it's true".

In 90s, it collapsed, because people got tired from socialist bs (they were like "wait a bit longer, it we'll build communism soon, next time we'll do it right", blah blah). Our economy hasn't yet fully recovered from this 70-year disaster.

In Russian schools there is a subject "social knowledge", where we are now taught economics and what is wrong with socialism. (Don't Americans discuss it in schools?..)

What I'm saying is: capitalism is not just "big evil corporations", it's also a free market, a variety of products, small businesses, and the comfort you live in. In the same way, "socialism" is not only about "equality and everyone according to their needs", but also about crises, food shortages, inflation, poor quality of goods, and much more.

I apologize for grammatical errors.

I remember that my family always hated Castro and the way that he stole our true independence and how he lied to the cuban people that were looking to be free and to get rid of the dictator Batista.

Grandpa because his political ideology was sent out to a forced labor workcamp called the UMAPs were he had to work for a year on sugar cane plantations with inhumane living conditions and the entire " salary" that was making during that time was appropriated by the Communists to " pay" for his ticket to flee Cuba.

A traitor! He was called. A human worm! A scourge! Enemy of the Revolution and the worst of his kind.

Today grandpa is no longer with us anymore. He died of cancer and I'm strongly confident that the inhumane conditions and overworking hours he was put under severely developed his decease.

My grandma couldn't get a job in Socialist/Communist Cuba. In order to work there you had to have a letter from the CDR - Comites de Defenza de la Revolucion or Committee of Defense of the Recolution saying that you were with " the Process" with the Revolution with the Socialists/Communists. She used to make a living by selling candies she used to make at her house, homemade by herself.

Mom was a kid. Her only sin tho against the Socialist Communists at the time was that she was Catholic and " to believe in God was wrong" ... you only could believe and pray in Fidel, Che, Camilo, the Revolutionaries.

Families took away their pictures of Jesus Christ from their living room and swapped them with one of Castro.

Mom also couldn't go to the University... you see in Cuba to go to the Havana University - the equivalent of Harvard in the US you not only need to have good grades. Oh no that's is just %40 of the score. You see the score is divided by 2 measurements. The academic one and then there was the %60 of it... the IDEOLOGICAL score.

You went to a Fidel Castro speech? That bumps your ideological score. You spitted some Capitalist family or charge them for some " anti revolutionary" activity such as listening to The Beatles? Thats another score bump. As you can see Mom bless her heart even tho her academic score was %98.5 she was daughter of a man that was sent to the UMAPs, a catholic, non revolutionary/socialist girl... you get the idea.

Did I mentioned that listening to The Beatles was prohibited? Ah yes it was, you could go to jail if they would catch you doing so. Same as chewing gum or having a U.S flag in your house or having a single dollar bill in your possession.

After lots of pain, hunger - yes, hunger, some people in Cuba in the 90s had to eat street animals to survive because there was nothing to eat, I was able to come here with my family legally and God bless America and God bless Capitalism.

I'm now a US citizen and In love with this great Nation.

Here are a few atrocities Socialist Communism is capable of:

UMAP Cuban work capms

Castro massacres 37 people trying to scape the regime including childrens

The TRUTH about the real Cuba people don't know

No scandinavian country has a minimum wage, denmark,sweden and norway don't have one. There are more billionaires every 100,000 inhabitants in these countries than in the US. Private schools are really common. Denmark doesn't have a wealth tax. Billionaires pay less in taxes in most european countries than in San Francisco (Highest tax rates) italy 47%, iceland 46% (you know that iceland is in your loved Scandinavia right?) Germany 47%, in denmark 55%, around the same in San Francisco 37% fedeal +13% state +1% local.

But if you go comment on a socialist sub, you will get banned in 2 seconds flat..