The Red New Deal Soviet Union book
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The Red New Deal Soviet Union book
The Red New Deal gives a first-hand look at how everyday life and institutions worked in the late Soviet Union, especially in schools and universities. The author describes a system that valued loyalty, conformity, and party membership more than merit, service, or individual achievement.
Through vivid stories, such as anti-alcohol campaigns that destroyed centuries-old vineyards and put party loyalists in charge on campus, the book contrasts Soviet practices with what many Americans take for granted today. It invites readers to consider how ideology can shape power, incentives, and basic fairness in any society.
In brief
- Explains how Soviet institutions rewarded loyalty to the system instead of performance, using concrete examples from university life and public service culture.
- Shows how official campaigns, like Gorbachev’s fight against alcoholism, led to heavy-handed policies that disrupted daily life and exposed deeper systemic flaws.
- Connects Soviet-era patterns of control, propaganda, and support for leftist regimes abroad to current debates about media, elections, and political violence.
What to do
In The Red New Deal, the Soviet Union is not treated as an abstract theory but as a lived reality. The author recalls how advancement and access to better food, amenities, and influence depended less on competence and more on being a “card-carrying Communist.” Even student life was shaped by party loyalists, including a classmate known as the biggest drunk who was still put in charge of enforcing anti-alcohol rules at the university.
The narrative shows how official priorities distorted both policy and everyday behavior. Gorbachev’s focus on alcoholism as a chronic cause of Soviet decay led to sweeping measures, including the destruction of 200‑year‑old vineyards under rigid “set policies.” Within schools and universities, cheating was widely tolerated, and refusing to share one’s work with less diligent classmates was condemned as selfish, revealing a culture that blurred the line between solidarity and enforced mediocrity.
Alongside these personal stories, the book places the Soviet experience in a broader critique of socialist and leftist power structures. It notes how the Soviet Union backed various leftist dictators abroad and draws parallels to modern dynamics, from media narratives and election disputes to the reluctance of some on the Left to criticize violence by allied movements. Readers interested in how ideology, bureaucracy, and propaganda interact will find an experience-based perspective rather than a purely theoretical treatment.
What to keep in mind
The Red New Deal is grounded in specific episodes that show how Soviet-style governance worked in practice. One example is the anti-alcohol campaign, where centuries-old vineyards were destroyed and campus officials were empowered to police student behavior, often based on party loyalty rather than moral authority or competence. These stories show how sweeping policies could upend traditions and concentrate power in unexpected hands.
The book also describes the international reach of Soviet influence, including how the USSR supported and financed leftist dictators in Africa as long as they followed its ideological line. It contrasts this with later developments, such as how American energy independence reduced the financial leverage of a “Soviet-style tyrant” in Russia and coincided with a period when no new land annexations were attempted during the Trump administration.
Another recurring theme is information control and the policing of “truth.” The author notes that in Belarus, a leader steeped in the Soviet past kept the KGB name and used it to suppress dissent in schools, universities, and social life. This is compared to modern “thought police,” such as social media fact-checkers who ban certain views as misinformation and report conservative groups to authorities. These parallels are presented to help readers see how old patterns of control can reappear in new forms.