Americans often ask me whether Russians are not naturally more altruistic than Americans, more fit for communism, they imply. No, it is something quite different. Russians at the time of Revolution were more medieval than Americans, which means “naturally” more petty, unreliable, inefficient, given to bargaining and cheating. Traits of the Asiatic market-place were widespread and occasionally still annoy the visitor. But these traits are disappearing under the fact of joint ownership, which brings identity of individual with community good.

– This Soviet World, by Anna Louise Strong (1936)

When I think of how bad the United States is, I think of how bad Tsarist Russia was, or Hungary. Nations, even at their most evil, are still not static, and upon Socialist revolution will change for the better.