Are Socialist Promises Realistic?

When we talk about socialism, the first thing that comes to mind in practice is the Soviet Union of its time.

What were the socialist practices back then? Most of us do not know. What we know is quite limited.

In our country, the communist mayor of Tunceli, Mr Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu, sometimes appears on the screens and tells how he manages the municipality in the communist order. I think he is a very successful mayor. I think it is an admirable behaviour that he at least publishes the budget and expenditure details open to the public. Although he has been having difficulties in some issues since he became the mayor of Tunceli, I can say that he was really successful at least in Ovacık. I think Ovacık was a small place, and its problems were accordingly small; it did not have so many problems that could not be overcome. Maybe this was the reason for success. Of course, Tunceli is a bit bigger than Ovacık. Also, what can be done in the current order and with the influence of the government is quite limited.

Communism! Once upon a time in this country, you would have been labelled an anarchist even if you mentioned it. 

Communism was feared in this country. 

This fear was partly due to the communist Soviets' coveting our straits and threats to our cities in the north-east with the effect of their geographical compression. The dream of the Russians for centuries was to open to the warm seas.

As a result, young Turkey had to take shelter under another umbrella in order to protect itself from the threat, and approached NATO and western civilisation. 

In the conditions of those days, perhaps there was no better move that could have been made. Therefore, I am not criticising this choice of those days. 

Let me just stop my criticism of those days here by saying that I wish we had started to develop our national defence technologies earlier, and that we could have continued the national moves initiated by Atatürk, instead of completely surrendering in the panic of fear. 

Of course, since Atatürk's vision was not present in those who took over the administration after him, great mistakes were made in those days. 

Although we seem to have come to our senses nowadays, I think it is necessary to say that we still have a long way to go.

Let's come to what I really want to talk about. 

I have been living in Russia for many years and I can say that I have almost witnessed the transformation of communist Russia into today's capitalist Russia.

In the first days when I started working in this country, there were not even shops with glass showcases. 

Even to buy a kilo of apples, you had to find places whose doors were no different from the entrance doors of wooden apartment buildings, but which you could distinguish by the store sign written in small letters on the side of the door. 

When you went inside, instead of the usual cash register, there would be female clerks, usually chubby, calculating with an abacus on the counter. 

You would hand over the money, she would calculate in her mind how much it cost, and sometimes, if you asked for more than one thing, she would calculate the price of what you bought by shifting the coloured beads of the beaded abacus from right to left, calculate the total of your debt in her mind, and give you the change, down to the kapik (penny). At that time, coins were used a lot in Russia.

Today Russia has changed a lot, now there are modern office buildings, shopping centres with glass windows and comfortable residential buildings, and perhaps a much better city order has been established here and in many other cities of Russia. 

I think we have also made a great contribution to this change. Many constructions were built by Turkish contractors.

Today, I can say that we are still an important construction group for Russians, even though we no longer have our old reputation due to the great mistakes made in the intervening period. The only difference is that now big Russian construction companies are in charge of the works and they only give subcontracting works to small Turkish companies. 

Of course, our relationship with Russians is not only about construction; many Turkish products are sold in the market. Many Turkish brands such as Beko, Paşabahçe, Şişecam, Vitra, Merinos carpet have opened factories. Although Efes and Ramstor, which had a big share in the market until yesterday, have now withdrawn from the market, many Turkish companies that I cannot count still continue their activities in Russia. 

Moreover, I can say that we are a touristic country that Russians attach importance to, especially Antalya.

I hope that good relations will rise to much higher levels. We have very similar sides with Russians.

Yes, although this change is quite brutal, I think the socialist perspective still continues in Russia. 

I can say that the social infrastructures and social perspectives from the Soviet period are still valid. Russia has a very cosmopolitan society. There are all kinds of people here. Turkic societies are also quite numerous.

Russians are a very educated society. I should say that they are very sociable with their theatres, musicals, ballets, concerts, museums and art galleries.

Of course, the infrastructures established during the Soviet era are also working like clockwork since the necessary modernisations are made from time to time.

The most important of these infrastructures is perhaps the enormous metro systems. I have already mentioned the Moscow metro.

But not only this, of course. Their energy infrastructure is also very good, there are huge power plants in every city, I don't know how many atomic power plants, but there are quite a lot of them. 

Moreover, their urbanisation system is not bad at all. 

Universities, schools, education systems, hospitals, railways, airports, aeroplanes... all of them are in good condition in their old order.

I can't say anything about the highways, the distances between the cities here are quite long, and if you take into account the heavy winter conditions, unfortunately they don't have wide roads like we do, maybe there are motorways only around Moscow or up to nearby cities, that's all. And maybe between Moscow and San Petersburg. 

Transport to distant cities by railway and plane is a more common practice. 

Many other systems that I cannot think of at the moment were established during the time of socialism and continue to be modernised and operated very well, albeit slowly.

This should not be understood physically only as systems. 

For example, until yesterday, even the post offices were working like clockwork. Today, though, the postal administration centres that I see on some corners only work for official letters. Since they have been privatised recently, they have started to deal more with cargo works. 

Nevertheless, you still receive letters in your mailbox for an important official document through the postal administration, or you are given a commitment slip to collect the document from the post office and you go and collect the letter sent to you from the post office yourself. 

If you want to send a registered letter with return receipt, for example if you need to write a petition and send it, the post office is still the cheapest organisation for this.

For health care, all citizens can apply free of charge to a health centre with their health insurance policy. 

If there is a situation that requires the use of an ambulance, the ambulance arrives in a short time, and in case of hospitalisation, the hospital settles the account with the health institution to which the patient is affiliated. 

Yes, they are really bad in terms of health services and if you want to get a good service, it is useful to go to private hospitals by paying for it. 

Medicines are also paid in pharmacies, I don't know, maybe some of them may be covered by insurance, I don't know that much detail, but especially Russian medicines are already quite cheap. 

In other words, if you are old enough, they will definitely take care of you one way or another in state hospitals. 

Although the doctors are not specialised enough, I can say that health services still continue in the old socialist order, as this is considered as a social service for the citizens of this country.

Transport in the city is probably also in the category of social service, because it is very cheap. Both the fact that you can go to the other end of the city with a single ticket for the metro system with the same low-priced ticket and the fact that you can easily reach your destination without a huge expense by tram, trolleybus, municipal buses and low-priced minibuses for some routes, all of them are in a sense the continuation of the old socialist order.

Although the prices have increased a little in recent years, the heating with hot water from the central system and the low fees you have to pay for water, sewerage, electricity and natural gas also bear traces of socialism. In other words, there is also state support in these matters. In any case, the prices for these services are increased at most twice a year in capitals, and sometimes they are left unchanged.

Even though they are all private companies, I can say that even for telephone and internet services, prices are much more favourable than in Turkey. I have to state that at least the internet is technically more reliable here. At least the unlimited internet at home and on mobile phones is a good advantage. The speed is also very good if you are not too far from the city. Outside the city, the coverage of mobile phones is naturally very poor, because Russia has a very large territory.

So how do you think all this is happening? How is it that these and similar services can be quite cheap?

You will immediately say that Russia is an energy-rich country, of course you can think that energy will be cheap. You may also be right. 

However, I think this is not a situation that can be explained only by the abundance of energy resources here. 

After all, food resources are not as abundant here as they are in our country. Or many other things are probably much more difficult to obtain here. 

Each country has its own resources, some of which may be more than others, and some of which are much more limited.

I think it's a matter of mentality. 

Even though the Russians are now quite free from the strict socialist rules of their time, that is, even though they are now a capitalist country, the deep traces of that time of socialism are still deeply ingrained in them. The state realises that it has to provide services for its people.

This is not a bad thing, of course.

From tax systems to every kind of state organisation is citizen-oriented. 

Even the land registry and cadastre systems are sufficiently socialist, sufficiently social state orientated. 

For example, all land within the borders of Moscow still belongs to the state. You can only own a condominium. In other words, when the building you live in is demolished somehow, you cannot say that my house was here and claim for the land. 

So, are there no traces of wild capitalism in Russia? Of course there are, of course there are, and the wildest ones at that.

For example, in projects to renovate old buildings in the city, the owners of the old buildings are given new flats in distant parts of the city, and new, much more expensive buildings are built on valuable land in the city centre. There are many local investors and companies that can become very rich in this way. 

Of course, I do not need to remind you that in order to make such an investment, those who intend to do so have to be on good terms with the authoritarian administration.

But the result is beneficial for everyone. 

For the state, old buildings are being renovated, while those who have enough power and relations with the state to pull this off are getting rich. 

And thanks to the habits inherited from the socialist system, the people are not even heard!

But the people also win, because instead of their old shabby house in the city centre, they get a brand new, brand new house for free. 

Yes, you don't have to pay an extra fee for a house in the same square metre as your old house in the location indicated by the state. 

If someone says, "No, I don't want that one, I want that one," then they have to pay the difference, or if they say that the square metre should be so much more, then they have to pay the difference again. But there is no compulsion like we are doing urban transformation, but there is no compulsion to pay this much for a new flat. 

The newly established neighbourhoods are also places with very good urban planning, except that they are a little far away. 

I have built natural gas conversion power plants for two new settlements, so I know the urban layout of the new settlements very well. All kinds of social facilities such as supermarkets, shopping centres, schools, kindergartens, parks, playgrounds are established.

So when I say wild capitalism, I think it would be more accurate to say capitalism with socialist sauce.

However, I think a better example of wild capitalism is the seizure of factories.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, most of the huge factories, which were once state institutions, became idle and today most of the old factory areas in the city have fallen victim to rent-seeking. 

For some factories, when the Soviet Union collapsed, instead of wages to the employees, they distributed the stocks of the factories. The stock was supposedly given as a guarantee for the profit distribution of the factory. Of course, the turmoil of those days, loss-making factories and workers who could not earn wages... The wise factory managers, on the other hand, collected these stocks from the employees for a small fee and became the main owners of the huge factories today. 

Today, we call these rich people aligarh (oligarchs). There are some among them who have become dollar billionaires today. The factories I am talking about are not such small factories, but factories with thirty or forty thousand employees. 

Workers, on the other hand, were forced to continue working for a very low wage with the logic of "you are a worker, you stay a worker", or many employees lost their jobs and became disgraced as most factories were closed down. Therefore, many of them ended up on the streets.

Especially in Moscow there are many people who are homeless, addicted to drink and drugs. 

Although Moscow is a city like Istanbul for many people, it is not a city where you are allowed to turn a place at night and build a shanty there. 

Therefore, if you do not have a job or a place to stay, you will be disgraced in Moscow. 

Those who come to Moscow to work from their small towns usually stay outside the city and every morning people from all over the world come to work on electric trains to the nine train stations in the city centre. 

In the evening they go back to their homes in the neighbouring cities. Those who come from other cities and can find work in Moscow mostly live in the neighbouring towns or villages. Those who cannot find a job and cannot find a roof over their heads either have to return to their own cities or, as I said, end up on the streets. 

At this stage, it would be useful for me to tell you about another issue.

Russia has a system that we do not have. A system that I can describe as a residence permit. Or a system similar to civil registration. But it is a little different from both. 

In Russia, you have to be registered at the address where you normally live. In the Soviet times, even staying as a guest in another country was not so easy. 

Nowadays, police officers on the roads or in the metro do facechecks, i.e. they check the type of residence, but they are not as strict as they used to be.

However, the system works like this. The address you have registered is now a place where you can claim your rights. It is like our residence, but your residence address is an address where you have rights.

This is not valid for us foreigners, of course, for us, the addresses we live at are only the addresses written on the residence permit. They are not addresses where we can claim rights. For example, when you check into a hotel, Russian citizens are given temporary residence. Or when they go to a relative, they have to get a temporary residence permit. But the addresses of their permanent residence, which I can say like the population register in our country, are registered in the passport of every Russian citizen. 

In order for Russian citizens to change their addresses, they must register at another address. However, in this case, their rights on the old address expire and they can only claim rights on the new address.

For a better understanding, let me give you an example: naturally, when you are born, you are registered in your parents' house and you naturally become an owner of that house. At least you are seen as the owner of one room of the house. Even if your parents want to sell that house, they cannot sell it without registering themselves and you at another address. 

Of course, this is not much of a problem for a single family, but when there is more than one family living in a flat, which we call communal life, if one family does not want to, the other family has no chance to sell the whole flat. 

Those who are in this situation can only sell their own share, and in this case, the new owner of that room comes and settles in the next room. Can you imagine, someone you have never met comes to live with you? This means that you have to share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet with the new owner.

Even if you are a single family, for example, if one of your distant relatives is registered in your house, let's say that your grandfather registered one of his children's children in that house at the time, and the house was then left to you, but the registration of that registered person was not moved to another address. For example, the registrations of those who are imprisoned are temporarily frozen. After they are released from prison, they are re-registered. Even if the person registered in your house does not live with you, you have no chance to sell your own house without his/her consent. If you have bought an apartment, someone who comes out of prison years later can come and say that half of it is mine and become a public figure before the law. You cannot do anything.

Why have I explained this in such detail? Because this is one of the rules of a socialist state. In socialist states, no one is left homeless. They have established such a system so that no one is left homeless.

Even if they have lost their jobs, everyone has a roof over their heads, and it doesn't cost much. 

Of course, this does not apply to those who go to Moscow or another city to find a job and end up on the streets or alcoholics. However, due to the system, even they must have records at a dilapidated address in who knows which corner of Russia. Only now that address may have been demolished, or the state may have demolished the building due to obsolescence, in which case the state will give a new place when he applies, or if he is in a remote abandoned village, his house may have really collapsed due to lack of maintenance.

Of course, there may also be elderly people who are deceived, which is the most serious situation. There are many elderly people in this country who are left on the street with a fake purchase and sale document from a notary public. An address is written on the document, but since there is no such address, the deceived person is left on the street. This is a problem for the new owner of the house, as those who deceive them immediately take the house out of their hands. An old woman on the street with a house you paid for and an old woman on the street says they tricked me. On the face of it, the paperwork was done properly. It can take quite a long time for the courts to draw this situation. Although nowadays the state has woken up to this issue and has taken additional measures, but I have still seen many old people begging on the subway sides. Most of them are homeless and miserable.

Most of them are also deceived by their own grandchildren, which is a much more serious situation.

Yes, I can say that this is the bitter socialist sauce of capitalist Russia.

In short, this is what it means to be a social state. Although when I say this, I am talking about being a socialist state, the logic is almost the same. 

Instead of distributing the resources of the state under the name of aid to those in need, as a system, we call it a socialist state. I think the principle of a welfare state means that resources are given as aid to those in need. 

I don't know which one you prefer, but since the Soviet Union collapsed, it seems that they also made mistakes in practice. Because actually being a socialist state does not sound so bad.

I don't want to comment on how much the current practices in Russia match the socialist promises in our country. 

I tried to explain a socialist order as clearly as possible as far as I could. The rest of it is good, but the sauces of wild capitalism really contain a lot of pain.

I don't know how well our society fits into this system. Nevertheless, on some issues, I wish that those who make promises could fulfil their promises. 

I wish that at least the management mentality in our country could be a little more in favour of human beings. I wish we could at least make the distribution of income more balanced.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow