ConclusionTHE collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 puts in serious doubt the universally accepted Marxist-Leninist view that the dictatorship of the proletariat is a political question. US President John F. Kennedy had sent an ultimatum to the Soviet Union to dismantle its missile sites in Cuba or face the horrors of a war to end all wars: a nuclear confrontation with the United States. The Soviet Union’s backing away from that Kennedy threat already betrayed an inherent weakness in the Soviet Union, a weakness that was prone to capitulate once confronted by a superior adversary. In the guise of carrying out reforms within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Gorbachev struck at the very roots of the socialist framework of the Soviet Union, sending it totally crashing. And when the bourgeoisie came charging back—as they did against the Paris Commune in 1848—the Soviet proletariat just had to succumb, as did the Paris communards, no matter that they died fighting to the last man.

Source: Manila Times November 24, 2017 16:18 UTC