Changes in the Soviet Union

Regarding your editorial “Perestroika: Pouring It On” (Oct. 4), you state that so far, Marxism has “failed dismally.” I think it is important to note that the transformation of the Soviet Union from the poor, backward country of the early 1900s into one of the two most powerful nations on earth in the late 1900s has been a miraculous achievement in the history of humankind.

The Soviet Union has been the pioneer in attempting to develop a society based upon the needs of people, instead of the profits of a small oligarchy. The great debate of our age is not communism vs. democracy, it is socialism vs. capitalism.

BEN MILES

Huntington Beach