New insights on the Soviet Union's collapse

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

A former Russian official blames the threat of famine, not Gorbachev's reform policies.
By David R. Francis | Columnist

Crude oil prices last week were flirting with a record high. It's great news – for the Russians.

Low oil prices contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In Russia today, high oil and natural gas prices are, to a large degree, the reason for an economic boom.

In the first quarter of this year, Russia's economy steamed along at a level 7.9 percent above the same three months of 2006. Last year, Russia's gross domestic product was up 7.8 percent, notes Charles Movit, an economist at PlanEcon, part of Global Insight, a consulting firm in Waltham, Mass.

Russia's growth rate is not quite up to that of China. But, as Mr. Movit puts it, the rate is "pretty enviable from a Western standpoint."


Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0723/p15s01-wmgn.html

[Kolesar]

1. How could killing off an inflationary leech on the economy be a bad thing?

Goldman figures that Gorbachev's dismantling of the Soviet military-industrial complex was the main cause of the collapse. The aluminum industry, for example, supplied raw material for military aircraft, the steel industry for the 60,000 tanks facing the West. Afterwards, "there was no longer anything there," he says. At its peak, the military absorbed 30 percent of total Soviet output. Today, Russia spends about 5 percent on its military.

[Zorra]

2. But..but..didn't superhero Ronnie Raygun singlehandedly destroy

the evil empire? That's what it said on the news.
:sarcasm:

[Igel]

5. The problem is that many think simplisticly.

"One must make it as simple as possible for the students."
"Yes, but one must not make it simpler than possible."

Reagan helped; he forced military production to increase, he made the USSR's overseas adventures harder to sustain and more expensive, he helped make Afghanistan a hell-hole, and he forced a fair amount of openness. The USSR would have collapsed, whatever the CIA maintained, but he pushed it. He didn't make it fall. He helped.

Just as Carter helped bring it down. And Nixon (we'll skip Ford). And the Helsinki Committee. And even Russian dissident writers.

Now, Gaidar was pro-Gorbachev. And he's written a lot about Soviet and Russian economic history. It's good that he's written his book (kniga.com doesn't have it, and Panorama of Russia has it out of stock, but I'll find a copy).

A student recently asked me about Izvestiya and Pravda when we were going over glasnost' in class (a literature class, no less). I had said that the papers no longer beamed with joy at the production figures for tractors and grain, and had started to report airplane crashes and suicide rates. "But didn't people know that things weren't all that great?" one student asked. "Look, you have 10 million farms and they're feeling triumphant at producing 50k tractors, and overjoyed when a farm with 5000 acres gets its first tractor. Do the math. Russians did."

[cobalt1999]

3. The Soviet Union was doomed anyway.

It was just a matter of time.

[Doctor_J]

4. Yes the oil was just the last nail in the coffin

They were on death's doorstep in the late 70's. Their ill-advised occupation of Afghanistan sealed their fate, and what happened in the 80's were just a few more straws.

A shrewd student/politician like Putin must be watching our trillion-dollar war, astronomical bankruptcy rate, collapsing dollar, and unbridled WH corruption and have a big belly laugh at our expense

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Yes, if we don't have a major course correction SOON

(not the little baby steps proposed by the MSM-approved candidates), we'll follow in the Soviet Union's footsteps.

As it is, we're following the advice of the people who made the Soviet Union's collapse WORSE, the "privatize everything" crowd.