Denton County, TX - Tuesday evening was one of memorable proportions for local patriots at the Flower Mound Police Department. The full spectrum of citizens ranging from the youth of Marcus High to those of working age and retirees gathered at the FMPD's community center, quickly filling the seats, to what eventually turned into a standing room only event. No, the attention wasn’t over some high profile incarceration! Residence of Flower Mound and Lewisville tea parties, as well as surrounding areas, welcomed renowned speaker Dr. Yuri Nicholas Maltsev.
Dr. Maltsev is currently a Professor of Economics at the University of Dallas in Texas and at Carthage College in Wisconsin, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. As a Russian defector and a former economic advisor to Gorbachev, Dr. Maltsev is an Austrian school economist and historian who has become well-known and sought-after for his extraordinary speeches regarding his experiences in Soviet Russia, the influences of socialism, and cautionary advice for American policymakers with stark comparisons between the failed Soviet system and what some current governmental bureaucrats pursue in our own nation.
At Tuesday’s tea party sponsored event, Dr. Maltsev discussed how too many are ready and willing to trade security for freedom, or as Benjamin Franklin said, “people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” From a Russian perspective, he strongly dissuades any government from venturing towards this route, for the outcome, as Russia’s history has proven, is one of tyranny.
Dr. Maltsev continued, “we’re at a crossroads of history” in America. With the growth of Big Government, and the potentiality of any government to become a socialist entity, there are lessons to learn from a Russian system that destroyed itself through the abuse of such governmental power.
Socialism has been experienced throughout at least 35 countries around the world, all of which have produced nothing positive for their people. So why through the annals of history, including contemporary times, have so many nations submitted to the call of socialism? Dr. Maltsev explains that in terms of Russia, it was a formula used to change the fabric of society. It’s true that Russia has a deep experience with Communism, which he describes as a utopian “secular religion”, but Yuri makes clear distinction between this and the socialist system. When lived through and experienced first hand, socialism is not simply a system of economics, but a system of methodical calculations, and furthermore, a system of fear.
“When out of control, government tends to be deadly.” Dr. Maltsev recalls the Soviet means of disarming the people, destroying religion, and the eventual dismantlement of the family, where children report their parents to the authorities, never to be seen again. The mentality of “social above personal” becomes ingrained. Divorces were deemed unnecessary, because the KGB could simply make one disappear. Everyone becomes “naked before an omnipotent government.” But in all instances of socialized nations, government gobbles up more and more, until the ‘too big to fail’ mentality becomes the norm, only to eventually burst, as the Soviet Union proved too big NOT to fail. This phenomenon has spread its misery from nation to nation.
The atrocities of Lenin and Stalin are infamously known to all, as well as the record of misguided praise of socialist dictators by liberal media types, even to this day with figures like Castro and Chavez. However, Dr. Maltsev weaves a contemporary tale of Soviet Russia under Gorbachev, his policy of perestroika, the continued ruthlessness of the KGB, and the eventual fall of the Soviet Union. Multitudes were murdered within the KGB’s existence, usually blaming most deaths on ‘natural causes’; and Yuri confides that these practices remained under Gorbachev, who was a staunch communist. The destitution was one of “equal opportunity killing.” First, the KGB began killing targeted groups, but in time progressed to random individuals, basically anyone who challenged or questioned the power of the Soviet government. In the end, there were no incentives to do anything in the socialist system, so when the ruthless Soviet government could no longer control the masses, it inevitably collapsed.
With Gorbachev, though Russia was one step closer to open government, the Soviet socialist system was still repressive in such a manner that even he didn’t really know what was going on. Gorbachev, a staunch communist, brought great change from previous leaders; yet he was still too much like those before him, who Yuri describes as those who “couldn’t quit”, meaning they had that same sort of survivalist mindset shared by many criminal entities. But observing the positive aspects, he credits Gorbachev with accelerating the end of the Soviet Union, ushered along by the great presence of figures like Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.
Now obviously, Dr. Maltsev is not expressing that our own government has become a Soviet-style gulag, but rather, his purpose is to caution and make us aware of our slide into socialistic conformity with governmental systems and agencies that threaten our constitutional rule of law and our democratic republic. Perhaps we can finally deviate from the Russian phrase, “the only lesson of history is that it doesn’t teach us anything," and understand that venturing down "the Road to Serfdom", as Hayek described, is one that would affect us all and is not the solution for a prosperous people.
Dr. Maltsev moved on to cover other related topics of socialism: comparing the Russian experience with much of what we know of Cuba and Castro, including how people, like Michael Moore, grossly exaggerate the Cuban health system as somehow better than our own; how socialism is government ownership, from what’s become of the euphemized ‘Government Motors’ to broadcasts of NPR, PBS, etc.; and how foreign aid often works as social welfare. Following his extensive discussion, he gladly answered a wide range of questions from the audience, including further elaborations on his defection, his opinion of the current Russian leadership of Putin and Medvedev (‘bad cop’, ‘good cop’, respectively) slipping into the ‘old ways’, and his view of North Korea as one of those extreme example of socialism. “As an economist, when socialism is full-blown, it is a system of public slavery.”
Dr. Maltsev concluded the discussion by reminding us that something good did come from the collapse of the Soviet Union: economic experimentation, moving from socialism to a market economy. He reiterated that despite America’s lapse in judgment throughout the early years of the 21st century, when much of our economic instability began to show signs of boiling over, the People now have rediscovered the vigilance to take the country back and demand responsible governance. As Adam Smith stated, “the source of economic prosperity is freedom.” Therefore, our lesson should be to never take that prosperity for granted.
