Bitter Waters

Gennady Andreev-Khomiakovs Bitter Waters provides a unique insight into the thrifty realities under the yoke of Stalins meanned thriftiness. Andreev-Khomiakov presents a r ar compute of the Soviet litigate sire wind that illuminates the pass in the center of the dictates of communistic economic planning and its actual results. To the authorities we are anonymous several(prenominal)s merging into a mass, an indistinguishable crowd. (90) This statement is a verbalise indictment of the actuality of life under a government that subordinated the interests of the individual to the interests of building Communism. The Soviet stage demanded that individuals abandon their hold interests, deferring them to the sheath of building a socialist utopia. This in allege insisted that the Soviet thespian was merely a cog in a wheel, a undeniable but easily replaceable zombie that has no choice but to surrender those fiercely benignant qualities, viz. creative thinking and originality, and comply with the faceless and often fuddled dictates of the Soviet plan. Andreev-Khomiakovs experience illustrates the failures and shortcomings of the Soviet clay; it evinces the ironically higgledy-piggledy constitution of blindly adhering to an arbitrary plan that virtually ensured a opening night between what is plotted and what was actually achieved.         The reputation of the gap between Communist economic planning and the reality exposit by Andreev-Khomiakov was caused by no single force, but kind of by a combination of factors that ensured that the goals of the plan would not be realized. The Soviet system was an exceedingly complex bureaucracy with hard-and-fast protocols and influences with no allowance for deviation. Strict adherence to complex bureaucratic procedure act outed a growing environment where in that location was often teeny to do but wait for the close order from above.          both of the links in this twine are tightly intert! wined, forming an essential, care wide-eyedy structured ornament of the socialist façade. If slightly information or some other is not available, then it has to be invented somehow come on of thin air; deity help you if it is omitted. The entire chain can be unconnected because of a single brusque piece of information, and the thunder and lightning of orders, reproofs, and cut across arrests for disruption of the accounting subroutine might shower shoot down from on high. To avoid this, we had to admit three full-time employees who were bore to death from lack of work during the rest of the month. (83) In order for anything to be accomplished the system required native subjection to the working of the bureaucracy. Needless to say, the preponderance of down-time has obvious implications on productivity. The outrageousness of the bureaucratic machine engendered a situation where supplies were scarce and the factories were neer operating at total capacity.         Insufficient supplies and raw materials was a constant reality of Andreev-Khomiakovs experience at the lumber hero sandwich but such scarcity meant little to the powers that be. The authorities expect total fulfillment of employment quotas regardless of scarcity. All Soviet industry operated by wee-wee what was acquired ?by the book with what was obtained by intoxicate or crook. It could not have been done any other way: Without ad hominem initiative, it seems that even a socialist economy cannot exist if it wants to function and not merely to vegetate. (71) This passage highlights the undreamt backwardness and mutually exclusive nature characteristic of the Soviet system.

The same system that had no tolerance for individuation and creativity demanded personal initiative in order to ensure that production goals were attained. Andreev-Khomiakov illustrates the negative consequences of the necessity of scheming quite an succinctly. In reality, it was out of the question to get used to this situation. No subject how many multiplication we were forced to resort to scheming, we could not get used to it. honourable the opposite: We began inwardly to rebel. Why were we compelled to contract ourselves in forgeries and in unscrupulous business deals? What kind of sinful need necessitated all this abominable trouble? Why werent we effrontery the chance to work like human beings, honestly, without demeaning slip? We felt confused and insulted by this scheming, and at times it became unbearably loathsome. (97)         The realities of the Soviet planned economy were altogether differen t from what the plan stipulated. The complex workings of the bureaucracy intended to minimize individuality and originality but the shortcomings of the bureaucracy ensured that personal initiative was patently necessary if the goals of the plan were to be attained. Bitter Waters emphasizes the backward and contradictory nature of the Soviet system; it is a unique and personal insight that highlights the contrary nature of the Soviet way of life. Andreev-Khomiakovs panorama emphasizes how a plan, by definition orderly and precise, can enact chaos because it does not consider the fallible nature of human beings. The Soviet regime demanded total conformity and obedience to a system that in the end (and ironically) needed nonconformity if the goals of Communist economic planning were to be realized. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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