Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My books about arriving in America is available on www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC Please contact me at sergeisputnikoff@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” Fan Mail: Ushanka Show P.O. Box 96 Berrien Springs MI 49103, USA You can support this project with tips by clicking a "heart" under this video, or: Via Patreon here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff Viia PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/user/Sputnikoff
@AlexGreat87
2 жыл бұрын
Not a direct factor, but I imagine it didn't help: I remember during the time I was living in Kazakhstan, some people that did live during the time of the USSR told me how it was somehow "shameful" to speak any other language other than Russian, not necessarily illegal, but kinda "shaming" to speak more "brutish" languages and that they should speak Russian. I imagine that had the effect of certain national resentments in certain Soviet republics in respect to Moscow and Russia itself (language just as an example).
@diegoyanesholtz212
2 жыл бұрын
Reason number 9 the USSR had to subside alied communists countries, Cuba and the eastern block.
@apg8396
2 жыл бұрын
Sergei, respectfully, socialism wasn't the problem, but central planning was. You said there was never true socialism, and I agree. Marxist principles did, initially, help get the Russian people get out of the miserable poverty under czarist Russia. Then came Stalin and he crapped all over the system.
@mattysav4627
2 жыл бұрын
@@apg8396 acctually that’s incorrect
@mattysav4627
2 жыл бұрын
@@apg8396 Stalin used Marxist Leninism to develop the country even more the kruschev done a coup
@romanschafer2101
2 жыл бұрын
I was born in Vorkuta in the far north of Russia. Even there the apartment was poorly insulated and in winter the heating ran like crazy. It was remote controlled, we couldn't customize it. When the outside temperature "rose" from minus 35 degrees Celsius or so to minus 20 or 15, it got unbearably hot in the apartment and we had to open the windows. So much for the subject of energy efficiency in Russia.
@mrvn000
2 жыл бұрын
Insane...
@xaderp
2 жыл бұрын
Were you aware of the Gulag camps, and how was it discussed when you lived there?
@romanschafer2101
2 жыл бұрын
@@xaderp I was a child when we lived there, but I remember every time when we took the train to get in and out the city people were talking that the railway was built by prisoners and that there was a corpse buried under every tie. There was also a small memorial to the Gulag victims (built during the Perestroika era, I believe) close to our home, however I was too young to understand the political background. My family came to Vorkuta after the camp was closed, but as ethnic Germans they were deported to Siberia as forced laborers (or "labor armists" as they were called) in 1941 and had to stay in exile for years.
@fristytron
5 ай бұрын
There is still people living up there? I read somewhere that not even rail roads get up there
@mr.stratholm4999
2 жыл бұрын
One of the major factors you didn't mention is that President Reagan made strategic agreements with the Saudi government to produce more oil which made oil cheaper. They did this to the point that when the Soviet Union went to sell it's crude oil to buy grains to feed their people it was such little income that they couldn't afford to feed their population.
@224dot0dot0dot10
2 жыл бұрын
I think you are correct. I remember learning something in economics class about how low oil prices hurt the Soviet economy which inevitably lead to the breakup of the Soviet Union. And something similar is happening with low oil prices being used to effect "regime change" in Venezuela maybe?
@murrayterry834
2 жыл бұрын
thats what i witnessed. hard times for domestic oil and lots of crazy failures that did effect us economy for years.
@mr.stratholm4999
2 жыл бұрын
@@224dot0dot0dot10 Ya, cheap oil hurts many economies of OPEC. It's going to be very interesting for them once renewable energy technologies mature as no one will be buysing their oil but the flip side of the coin is that the more we cement renewable energy tech the more we rely on natural gas do I guess we can see where things are heading next.
@americameinyourmouth9964
2 жыл бұрын
The main cause of failing oil prices in the 1980’s was failing consumption not increased production. The high prices of oil in the 1970s forced businesses and consumers to be more fuel efficient (for example buying Toyotas instead of muscle cars and trucks).
@KaraCarsafliGelin
2 жыл бұрын
and Gorbie brought foreign death squads in, than created ethnic clashes in Central Asia and Caucasus which turned the nations against each other and to the Soviet System(when massacres of Armenian minority in Azerbaijan or Meskhetians in Kyrgyzistan etc etc . took place Gorbie and cronies sat back and watched,than ordinary Azerbaijanis protested in Baqu,Gorbie immediately sended troops for bloodshed.Gorbie created artificial shortages from food to cigarettes (closing 26 of 28 tobacco factories in the same day is explains a lot). Gorbie crushed with slanders and fake trials anyone who might stop him from destroying USSR (like Uzbek cotton scandal which he smeared Brejnev`s name who was one of the most loved Soviet liders). There was no electronic banking back then,the corruptions were rare or very small scale.Gorbie was the biggest corrupt when he transferred Siberian gold diamonds to the western banks via Raisa Gorbacheva`s fund.
@snubbedpeer
Жыл бұрын
By the time Gorbachev was allowed to take over there wasn't much to save, so blaming him is a bit unfair.
@ronaldgarrison5528
2 жыл бұрын
I can think of three other reasons. 1. Oil price collapse in the Eighties. This may have been a conscious strategy by Ronald Reagan, to persuade Saudi Arabia to increase production, pulling the rug from under the USSR's big source of currency. It also caused a lot of hardship in parts of the US, but overall grew the economy here faster. More broadly, the USSR (now Russia, mainly) seems to be too dependent on resource extraction. That is, they suffer from the "resource curse." This probably also relates to the already-mentioned drive to develop Siberia, because of its mineral resources. 2. Alcoholism. Obviously, not a new thing, but when Gorbachev started trying to reduce it, in the short term that caused its own problems. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. 3. Culture of the decadent West. Soviet citizens gradually learning about Western consumer culture and consumer goods. Now we call it FOMO, and refer to "soft power."
@michaelsamuel9917
2 жыл бұрын
Saudis also was trying to help Iraq with its war with Iran same thing happened again in 2011.
@murrayterry834
2 жыл бұрын
houston texas was rivaling new york city in size in 1985. in 1986 when reagan and or bush made the deal with saudi arabia houston lost 75% of their production. prior to this catterpillar nearly went broke when reagan sanctioned machinery bought by russia. the 80s werent so great.
@americameinyourmouth9964
2 жыл бұрын
The main cause of failing oil prices in the 1980s was failing consumption not increased production. The high prices of oil in the 1970s forced businesses and consumers to be more fuel efficient (for example buying Toyotas instead of muscle cars and trucks).
@sztypettto
2 жыл бұрын
This! Especially #1. The oil glut of the 80s doctored by Reagan, and administered by the Saudis affected USSR, Venezuela, Indonesia, Iraq. But you'll never hear or read this from any Western outlet or any outlet for that matter.
@sztypettto
2 жыл бұрын
@@americameinyourmouth9964 , nope. Consumption was gaining. The airline industry benefited greatly from tourism. Pre-80s, the airline industry was very regional, with few international flights compared to the 2000s and 2010s. Most international flights connected US with Europe, South America, and Japan/Hong Kong. You're right about the fuel efficiency part and choice of cars in the wake of the 70s oil crises. But that didn't offset oil consumption. Consumer oil consumption is different from industrial and commercial oil consumption.
@seanledden4397
2 жыл бұрын
As always, these videos are great. Am reading Martin Malia's history book The Soviet Tragedy, and he discusses just how bad the Soviet economy was in the 80's. Gorbachev & Co. HAD to do something. It's a fascinating read, though it covers a lot of really grim stuff.
@joojoojeejee6058
2 жыл бұрын
Arguably one of the biggest (final) nails in the USSR's coffin was obviously the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the communist bloc in general. Here in Finland we have a joke that "Väiski from K-Market" made the Soviet Union collapse. ;) He was a famous TV chef in Finnish K-market commercials in the 1970s and 1980s. Soviet Estonians had access to Finnish television and they were greatly influenced by what they saw... The Estonian KGB even tried to explain that it is all just CIA propaganda! (Sounds familiar, doesn't it. Russian trolls use that same line all the time even today regarding anything...)
@chouseification
Жыл бұрын
Was this the guy you're talking about? It seems to be. That makes perfect sense though, similar to how the East Germans were seeing TV from the West... after a while the people realized it simply couldn't all be lies... we clearly had so much more access to food than they did; alone enough given enough time. kzitem.info/news/bejne/sW5m2X6eqIV-Zag
@joojoojeejee6058
Жыл бұрын
@@chouseification Yes, that's him. There's also some other commercials featuring him on KZitem. (Estonians just like East Germans had had prior exposure to market economy before the World War 2, so I don't think they were particularly susceptible to communist lies and quite receptive to information from abroad.)
@teevee2145
Жыл бұрын
Wall coming down was not cause but effect
@patnolen8072
Жыл бұрын
Interesting, I hadn't known that Finnish TV broadcasts could be received in Soviet Estonia.
@joojoojeejee6058
Жыл бұрын
@@patnolen8072 Mainly in Tallinn. Radio waves travelled unobstructed over the sea.
@mesquitoful
Жыл бұрын
Back in the mid 80s I was an undergrad. I took a course a course on on the Soviet System and it seemed both decrepit and eternal. The lecturer was British and walked us through concepts like GOSPLAN and Nonomenklatura. He was kind of sympathetic to socialism himself., but didn’t sugarcoat Soviet reality. A few years later it all came crashing down.
@ekesandras1481
6 ай бұрын
most academics are more on the left, especially in the humanities. If the professor was not a refugee from the Eastern Block himself (Hungarian, Polish, Russian, etc.), than it was very likely that he was some kind of socialism symathizer.
@actioncom2748
2 жыл бұрын
Your comment over on the Cold War Channel really resonated with me. You said that the Soviet system had just "run its course." I've also repeated that statement to other people when talking about the Soviet Union.
@stephenkevindoss1474
2 жыл бұрын
I’ve always considered a thing as art if it made me fell something, good or bad, and your pictures always evoke an emotion, thanks for sharing.
@jeffreyfwagner
2 жыл бұрын
They had a disfunctional economy that relied on corruption to work at all. Gorby and Yeltsin both recognized this and had different ideas on how to reform the system. Neither worked all that well. Back when Gorby came on the scene I had a Russian (Jew who left in the 1970's) co-worker who was totally puzzled and fascinated by the rise of Gorby. He could not believe that anyone in the USSR would dare to try to change anything.
@aminelatreche1288
2 жыл бұрын
Heelo Sergei, Cuba cost the USSR a lot of money 1.The USSR bought Cuban sugar at an inflated price and provided oil to Cuba for free 2.The cost of providing arms to Cuba. 3.The proxy war that Cuban military was waging in Africa : Angola, Guinea , and that the USSR was paying for
@224dot0dot0dot10
2 жыл бұрын
I think that you are correct because I watch the official Russian language government television and Moscow is still complaining in the 21st century about how supporting Cuba cost the Soviet government and the Russian government too much money. Russian television says that the Cuban government wants everything for free and never wants to pay for anything!
@louismartinez7040
2 жыл бұрын
Wasn't just Cuba. North Korea, East Germany, Poland, etc, all former communist countries received some form of financial aid at some point.
@224dot0dot0dot10
2 жыл бұрын
@@louismartinez7040 Actually you are slightly wrong about East Germany because East Germany had to pay "war reparations" to the USSR and the East German Stasi MfS secret police had a top secret money making operation that was called "Stasi KoKo" and KoKo was an abbreviation for Kommerzielle Koordinierung which was a top secret project where East German military and Stasi MfS secret agents would rob banks or manipulate stock market prices or trade commodities, oil, etc or take over banking or manipulate financial markets in other ways and some of the profits would be given to the Soviet Union. So the GDR or DDR actually gave money to the Soviet Union whereas Cuba always took money from the Soviet Union and this is why in the year 2021 the people on Russian TV have a very high opinion of the East Germans Russians think that Cuba doesn't want to pay money for anything (Russia thinks that they aren't going to make a lot of money by doing business with Cuba compared to how much money Russia was making by doing business with China, Germany and Finland).
@aminelatreche1288
2 жыл бұрын
@@louismartinez7040 East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia were industrial countries and agricultural ones that produced somethings that were useful , whereas Cuba did not produce anything beside sugar
@Briggie
2 жыл бұрын
I honestly don’t think Gorbachev could have done very much to stop the collapse. All the stagnation from Brezhnev era didn’t help at all. Edit: Oh yeah what was the saying for that time, “If you aren’t stealing from the State, you are stealing from your family.”
@philliptyschuk3237
Жыл бұрын
Honorable Mention, The Buran Space Shuttle program cost also added to the collapse of the USSR...
@kristenburnout1
2 жыл бұрын
Ok, I did as you say, my top reasons that (i think) the USSR collapsed, before watching your video. - Economic stagnation - Glasnost making people realise that that the government had lied to them for decades - The war in Afghanistan - The Chernobyl disaster - Widespread corruption and a geriatric Soviet leadership
@bidenwearstrumpscrappypamp1829
2 жыл бұрын
Sounds alot like what the US has. All the lies about the war on terror.
@1seckelman
2 жыл бұрын
Sergei, you are forgetting the most important reason. In the late 1980s the Soviet Union obtained 2/3 of its income from the sale of petroleum products (Economist magazine). The Soviet Union experienced a decline in the output of oil and gas due to little investment in new oil wells and maintenance, in the late 1980s the price of oil collapsed. (Interestingly, today Russia gets 60% of its income from oil and gas).
@americameinyourmouth9964
2 жыл бұрын
The reduction in repression with the implementation of glasnost is the immediate cause of collapse (as you said letting pressure off the dam). Its why North Korea and Cuba still exist, they maintained the repression and prevented organized oppositional forces from forming. Regimes collapse when the security forces defect or fracture. Its why Maduro, with a completely decimated Venezuelan economy remains in power but the August 1991 coup failed because the soldiers and officers were not willing to kill and capture pro-Yeltsin protesters.
@gatorpika
2 жыл бұрын
I would say it was a long decline mainly due to Brezhnev. Khrushchev had implemented some reforms and was tossed out, then Brezhnev recentralized the economy and grew the bureaucracy. This inevitably lead to a misalignment with demand in the Soviet economy as the government couldn't figure out what to produce in what numbers and more apathy in the workforce that reduced production. The party members in the bureaucracy grew fat and happy with their privileges while the average person didn't have what they needed nor even a few consumer goods to distract them. China and Vietnam took a different route by opening markets and survived while it was too late for the USSR to reform by the time Gorbachev came around. All this mirrors what you said, but the problem I think was specifically Brezhnev and his policies.
@bidenwearstrumpscrappypamp1829
2 жыл бұрын
And there was Stalin's murderous purge.
@christinasieber5433
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for the thoughtful commentary. Perhaps behind many of these points was a lack of useful feedback loops...both political and economic. When social systems don't have clear signals of a need for course correction, they crash.
@donabaypro6782
Жыл бұрын
I have a belief of there is never 1 reason for anything. There are several reasons; trying to find the 1 will cause you to miss other important ones. You touched on several reasons for the collapse I knew. You gave me several more reasons I never thought about. Thanks.
@icascone
2 жыл бұрын
I paused the video and recently there was an interview with former leader Gorbachev, I reliased that although Gorbachev knew that the Soviet Union was unreveling I also realised he failed to get "the old" guard on side with him and not do so much at once like he did, so what happened the "old guard" got anxious and publicly said he was "unwell" whilst he was on holidays... So old guard didn't like what he was doing because the "business as usuaI" ways were going to change drasticaIIy....
@adamwatson6916
Жыл бұрын
The people who seem to miss the soviet union the most are people who newer lived there many of whom were not even alive when the soviet union collapsed.
@rjames3981
2 жыл бұрын
Ultimately massive military spending would have been a drain on the USSR. USA became the world’s superpower following the destruction in Europe of WW1 and WW2, which left the USA relatively unscathed, and left Europe indebted to the USA. USSR by contrast was effectively at war (or near to war) for a large part of its 74 year existence. Often this war was on, or close to its territory.
@HeathenDance
Жыл бұрын
Indeed. The arms' race during the cold war was very damaging. Specially if the State is supposed to provide for everything.
@robertharris6092
Жыл бұрын
The spacerace was also expensive.
@gen_xecutioner
Жыл бұрын
I think under the category socialism it seemed to me that being successful, especially in Soviet terms, eventually made you a target of the state. The example I remember was Sergei Kirov. He rose far and fast in the system, too fast for the liking of some, and for that he was killed by Stalin on the down low. In the West we use the press to knock upstarts down a peg, and when someone becomes too rich, they might have to appear before Congress, but normally we don’t liquidate. Not from a sense of mercy, but because humiliation is probably more entertaining.
@fristytron
5 ай бұрын
Thanks for your video. It really helps to understand 😊
@UshankaShow
5 ай бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
@Sander-zj3wi
2 жыл бұрын
Every society where you (largely) can't reap the benefits of your own work is doomed.
@paulbalogh4582
Жыл бұрын
Spot on observations. Thank you for living Michigan…
@MrBillmcminn
2 жыл бұрын
One thing that was a factor in the collapse of the USSR in 1991 was the collapse of communism in other Eastern European countries in 1989 and 1990, many products that couldn’t be produced within the Soviet Union that could be easily and cheaply obtained from another communist country wasn’t available any more.
@kurzeful
6 ай бұрын
And that's where Gorbachev was stupid. Deal with your country first, then turn your attention outside. I am pretty sure if Stalin or Putin were around, the government would still be around. Damn incompetent, soft and stupid.
@erikprank4611
2 жыл бұрын
I am not sure that the northern location itself is a problem, the problem was inefficient management. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Canada are similarly located in the taiga and tundra zones and are among the most developed countries in the world. The Siberian region is also rich in many mineral resources.
@UshankaShow
2 жыл бұрын
Gulfstream, my friend.
@masaukochitsamba7808
Жыл бұрын
I believe what he was trying to say is that the obsession the authorities of the Soviet Union had in attempting to develop Siberia led to the Soviet Union wasting resources for little returns. Resources were spent supporting humans trying to live in a very difficult place thus leading to the collapse. Without the many Government subsidies directed to Siberia, many of the ventures there are not viable, economically.
@azmodanpc
2 жыл бұрын
Fascinating. Did not know about the "unlimited metering" and massive subsidizing.
@colinlove5062
Жыл бұрын
Stephen Kotkin is writing a sweeping Trilogy about Stalin and it’s one of the greatest works on the man as well as a sweeping geopolitical narrative. I agree with his take that the Soviet Union was born with a fatal flaw. The communist party was the real power in the USSR and. The problem was when Gorbachev went to reform the system to bring out the best in the Soviet Constitution with democratic reforms it was set to collapse. Lenin believed in the victory of the world revolution so built in on paper massive autonomy to the republics. It was one of the few times Stalin disagreed with Lenin because he wanted a strong unified central state. Lenin hoped and expected to add other European states into the USSR as the socialist revolution swept Europe. So he built on paper a very lose confederation which guaranteed all kinds of powers to republic governments. To him it didn’t matter because the party was the supreme authority and after a time nationalism would would die aways as the classless utopia came about. But coming back to the 80’s without the power of the party behind the scenes to keep things together by force people the central authority in the constitution wasn’t enough to hold everything together. The August coup was the culminating moment of all these events Gorbachev realized what was happening and there was no putting the genie back into the bottle. So he came up with his plan for a new constitution and a Union of Sovereign Republics that was to be ratified by referendum. The hardline communists took one look at it and said this is the end of our total power. So they launched the coup that was the moment of no return for the USSR. Boris Yeltsin was the hero for stopping the coup and events moved so fast as Gorbachev was under house arrest he didn’t understand the massive shift in power. During his attempt at a unity speech or whatever he was humiliated on purpose by Yeltsin in a purposeful power play to show where things stood. The Soviet Union was doomed because communism cannot be reformed as Kotkin put it “reform is autoliquidation”. Communism was never broadly popular in a democratic sense. In The Russian Empire of 1917 where the majority of the population was rural any broad support vanished once implementation started. The power base was narrow urban workers who had suffered under the breakneck speed of the Tsarist regime’s late but rapidly expanding industrialization. Even the most ardent supporters in the Navy mutinied when they saw the anti democratic and brutal truth of the implementation of system. It was designed to be led by a dedicated vanguard until such a time that true communism is achieved and everyone will be happy. So once again flashing forward to August of 1991 the mistakes Gorbachev made in his attempts to hold the country together by giving the levers of power to hard lines that vanguard in its modern who stood to lose the most and were true believers took their chance. Gorbachev was warned by his old liberal friends and didn’t believe that these dinosaurs had it in them to pull off such a move. He was naive but so were Reagan and George HW Bush because they thought that Gorbachev would succeed in holding the union together but it would become capitalist and democratic so they supported him from 88 onwards. Gorbachev was under tremendous pressure to not be seen as a weak leader as the Baltic Republics were declaring de facto independence and war was breaking out in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is why he brought the military hardliners in against the advice of his long time friends in the “Euro-communist” circle. His friends who saw for that a liberal parliamentary communist parties came to power as part of coalition governments or in cabinet post briefly in Italy and France. The national situations were different but it showed a way forward for socialism with a human face they thought. With a popular mandate from the people they could end the Cold War and focus on modernizing the decrepit and corrupt Soviet economy which was the long term threat looming over state survival. Thus the scene was set for the hardliners to take control but Gorbachev was a intelligent man and a savvy politician he took one look at that bunch and correctly determined they wouldn’t last a day in power under the current open system especially if they tried to seize control. I don’t know the terms of the Union of Sovereign Republics but I assume it was something more like what EU federalists want a confederation with a few key national institutions controlled by the federal government in the capital like a national army and a federal reserve bank. It’s possible that without the coup and the mistakes that led to the coup leaders having access to the means to pull it off temporarily a capitalist democratic USR without the Baltic States may be around today. There would be a independent Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan ext but under the auspices of a stronger EU like confederation if I understand this part correctly and it was never brought to its final form as the coup swept the hardliners away and brought nationalists into power. Ukraine and Belarus wanted nothing to do with being bound to a Russia led by nationalists despite all the interpersonal and family connections formed over 74 years. The Soviet Union was weighed down by its own internal contradictions and in a military and economic competition with the West that it could never hope to win peacefully while nuclear war was unthinkable for both sides leaders thankfully (not that there weren’t elements on both sides that thought if we need to strike first as horrifying as that is SAC’s LeMay & Andropov’s KGB when he thought Able Archer cover for a US led first strike).
@stevenbarden8466
Жыл бұрын
I subscribe top-level, like, share to text and posted this! Keep it up!
@Kannot2023
2 жыл бұрын
Also west Europe had subsidized apartments, in Austria in Viena, there are very nice buildings, so done properly subsidized building don't crash economy. Also in Romania we didn't have meters to water and gas, but the costs were passed on consumers. Anyway a main cause of ruin was discouragement of private enterprise, whiteout protection you could end up in jail for selling a pair of blue jeans
@antepavelicustase2445
2 жыл бұрын
This channel need more views
@johndoeyedoe
Жыл бұрын
Awesome show. I like how honest your history is.
@satanicpanicattheddtable2604
Жыл бұрын
Thank you my friend a lot of these things you mentioned I watched as a child and felt for my relatives in Russia
@paulbergen6574
Жыл бұрын
I read all of your comments and can offer something unlike the rest. This is because I was in the US Army in 1974 and helped build the listening post where recordings proved the USSR shot down KAL flight 007 were gathered. So I've looked into this matter. Previous to that over flight S Korea had been warned and standing orders issued. Gorbichov (please forgive spelling) was then aide to Chernenko when desperate communications arrived begging for these orders to be cancelled... Apparently Chernenko couldn't be revived enough to save the airliner so they took down a 747 w/crew and passengers. It made the inept leadership look bad in the eyes of the world. I imagine even the CP leaders conceded change was needed. This part I can't confirm because Gorbichov instead blames the USSR fall on his crusade against alcoholism. I believe he was seen as a hope but thrown into a hopeless situation. I imagine that he was but the last of a line of Russian leaders who did everything possible to make socialism succeed. It can't and we all should heed the warning from this experience.
@Postmortumaz
Жыл бұрын
Additionally were independence movements brewing in East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.
@hannufrojd
Жыл бұрын
I think the main reason was holding on to collective farming. This is also the main difference in Chinese and Soviet economic development. The Chinese got rid of collective farming in the 70's and never had problems feeding their much larger population. If the Soviets would have followed the same path, there would have been proper(and cheaper)food available and also export income from agricultural products(like in modern Russia). Importing foodstuffs was a major drain of hard currency. The effect of this well highlighted in books by the former Russian minister of finance Jegor Gaidar. Even totally dysfunctional economies(Belarus, modern Russia, Romania, Albania, Nazi Germany etc.)can survive if people are provided with adequate housing and food.
@fpscanada3862
11 ай бұрын
As for housing, its incredible that even in canada you never really "own" a house. It's like your borrowing the rights to the land from the king and if you don't pay property tax they will come and take your home. Even if everything is paid for, the year you stop paying property tax, they will take it back, which i think is really messed up. edit: Theres SOME stuff happening in mid-north canada
@patricklewis2745
2 жыл бұрын
@5:15-5:35 I respect that.
@lexfacitregem
2 жыл бұрын
Okay. Here’s my very short and abridged opinion as to why the USSR fell: in one sentence, it was Gorbachev’s introduction of perestroika and glasnost. He did it as an honest attempt to reform the country and rescue it from stagnation. Problem is, once the population was given just the tiniest bit of freedom and open access to information that hadn’t been perverted by propaganda, they realized how corrupt the system was. And they said “enough is enough”. The inevitable conclusion was the dismantling of the Soviet Union. And then, they lived happily ever after, and the country definitely wasn’t ruined by corruption, the creation of the oligarchs, and an autocratic madman.
@kurzeful
6 ай бұрын
As a person from the English-speaking Caribbean and an admirer of the Mighty USSR, his reforms caused the collapse. He should tried fixing the economy and nothing else. He opened up too much, and that caused awareness among the people.
@johngorentz6409
2 жыл бұрын
How about the role of vodka--the dependence of the government budget on vodka sales and the effect on society? (I'm not much of a believer in single causes of anything, but we sometimes have to simplify in order to think.)
@samuesoeilyoriy6581
2 жыл бұрын
growing up in an island on the west of europe there was 2 dreams the sovit dream or american dream , sovit union was not all that bad
@HardChuck365
2 жыл бұрын
You should do some Vodka reviews. Also we're there any mixed drinks that were distinctively Soviet?
@forrestgump1379
2 жыл бұрын
Multiple reasons but I think the totalitarian dictatorship government caused most damage - average workers had no incentive to work harder. In Greenbow Alabama after the Civil War (we lost) the Southern money was of no value but people were mad and did not want to use U.S. money so people traded and bartered, helped each other build houses and in general live. This time in history was probably closest to what I think of as communal living and no one had anything! Lots of poverty - lots of corruption!
@Waterflux
2 жыл бұрын
A pretty interesting video. My takes: 1. Gorbachev as the scapegoat. This knee-jerk reaction is no different from Americans blaming their sitting president every time there is a spike in the gas prices. The Soviet Union was not in a great shape by the time Gorbachev took over. Not that he had much policy tools available to do anything substantial to avert the Soviet collapse. 2. State capitalism is actually a much more accurate description of the Soviet economic system than socialism. Not to mention, for an average worker, he could care less about the ideology: Whether it be in the US or in the USSR, whenever he shows up for work, he punch in, then do whatever he is ordered to, then clock out once his shift is over. Furthermore, if he is caught stealing from work, he will face troubles in both countries--i.e., he is just a cog and has no say in business operations and what to do with the profits in either countries. The bottom line: For a wage worker, he could care less about whether it is a state or a private capitalism. 3. I tend to view the war in Afghanistan and the Chernobyl as a pair of sledge hammers upon a vessel known as the Soviet Union that already showed cracks. That is, these two disasters themselves did not break the Soviet Union. Rather, these two accelerated the process of crumbling. Bear in mind, the Soviet Union had endured something much much worse like the Stalinist collectivization of the Soviet agriculture and the Soviet-German War (1941-45) in which the Soviet Union more than survived, despite the sheer scale of devastation.
@UshankaShow
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you for your comment!
@ukrytykrytyk8477
2 жыл бұрын
It's interesting that you have listed soviet union house subsidies as part of why it collapsed. If you look at post war USA it also had big housing subsidy programme for soldiers returning. But the major subsidy that the budget of USA is spending money on is the road infrastructure to make the urban sprawl possible. That and farming subsidies. I'm excluding military spending as that is another subject.
@skuula
Жыл бұрын
My input: Ronald Reagan was not happy with that stupid both-are-equally-right world balance that we all preached in Europe. He wanted an end to it but not by fighting. He among other things had intelligence services find the cost of producing one barrel of Soviet oil, and then persuaded the other oil exporting countries to lower their price a bit below that...
@youtubesketches110
2 жыл бұрын
Wonderful documentary. Very high quality.
@Ice_Karma
Жыл бұрын
0:27 The figure on the left is clearly Михаил Горбачёв, and I'm pretty sure the one on the right is Борис Ельцин, but who are the two in the middle?
@UshankaShow
Жыл бұрын
Leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich. All were Communist apparatchiks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Shushkevich en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Kravchuk
@vicckiss5655
Жыл бұрын
Overspending on military bulking up .....biggest reason
@ismayonnaiseanfruit2377
7 ай бұрын
I would guess, in no particular order: 1. Shadow inflation under Brezhnev 2. War in Afghanistan 3. Chernobyl disaster 4. Gorbachev’s reforms 5. Article 72 of the 1977 constitution
@robertgoss4842
Жыл бұрын
Another one of your fine videos. You answer many questions here. As for you, how are you doing here in the U.S? Where did you learn to speak English so well? Wife? Kids? Are you living in an apartment, or have you bought a house? Home ownership is very important for your future. I greatly enjoy your programs!
@joanhuffman2166
Жыл бұрын
Before the revolution, Russia was an exporter of wheat. I have read that the German colonies from Catherine the Great were key.
@gagamba9198
2 жыл бұрын
The USSR failed because there were no checks and balances. These are accomplished in a few ways. People think of elections in a multi-party system. That's one. Happens every few years. People tend to be dissatisfied with this. The other important ones (ones I think are more important) is how people vote with their wallets and their feet - people are quite content with these. With their wallets, which happens several times a day, when the choose to buy goods and services offered in a competitive marketplace to meet their subjective wants. With their feet when they choose to come and go, settling in governed areas and selling their labour to employers that best align with their subjective needs and goals. Poorly governed by the incompetent, the oppressive, or the corrupt? They leave. Few work opportunities or very poor ones? They leave. The land of opportunity? They come. The USSR was a totalitarian monopoly - one Party without popular elections that controlled the press, the industry, the military and police, the judiciary, entertainment and art, etc. The left fabricate the bogeyman of corporate monopolies yet, ironically, see the solution to that is total monopoly. The other reason the USSR failed is because of a foundational flaw of the far left; they obsess and stew in the fantasy of total equality and go about ever more distorted and perverse ways to accomplish it. It's the never ending game of whack a mole where new inequalities are perceived and declared, requiring the system to be rejiggered to provide equal outcomes.
@philtyschuk
Жыл бұрын
The cost of developing the Soviet Buran space shuttle was another factor in the collapse as well...
@johnclawed
Жыл бұрын
The dialog at the very end screams for subtitles.
@michaelcallegher9605
2 жыл бұрын
another reason for the collapse was the reemergence of national identity.......for example rising independence movements within the various soviet republics in the late 1980 put enormous strain on the central government. after the failed putsch by the hardliners these national movements only grew stronger and the central government grew weaker. It is important to remember that the soviet union was an artificial country that relied on force to keep it united.
@kurzeful
6 ай бұрын
Gorbachev was weak and stupid. Stalin would never have allowed. His reforms caused the collapse.
@colinlove5062
Жыл бұрын
Good video I agree with all your points. George Kennan is often famous for advocating containment which is misunderstood. He took a look at communism or rightly so the stateist centrally planned economy and said it will fail on its own. Specifically it will fall so far behind if we don’t trade advanced technology that the USSR will forced to reform and communism will collapse from its internal contradictions. I whole heartedly agree with your assessment. I would like to add to the run of bad luck the factors you mentioned were self created during the crisis came to a head in the 80’s. Afghanistan destroyed the prestige and myth of invincibility of the Soviet Army causing a military crisis in a country dominated by its military sector. Chernobyl caused a domestic crisis that exposed the lies of the communist party and its failures in just about the worst way possible. The oil shock of the 80’s was underlying all this. High oil prices in the west driven by OPEC made new sources viable such as deep sea drilling in Norway, Britain & the U.S. along the North Slope oilfields in Alaska & the Canadian tar sands. Non OPEC members like Indonesia & Brazil also became big exporters. The OPEC response was bungled and disunited to preserve revenue and stabilize prices cuts were called for. But as OPEC cut production and raised prices western and other non-OPEC members grabbed market share causing revenue declines for OPEC. Finally the Saudis in 1985 decided to use their low production costs to flood the market with cheap oil and gain back lost market share and put higher cost producers out of business. The Soviet Union was hurt the most out of all oil producing countries as its economy was dependent on oil to finance its huge army and it was in the midst of the costly Afghan war. I believe that you are right about the USSR not suddenly imploding if it’s economy wasn’t built on the interwar industrial model supporting a military armed to the teeth in a abysmally corrupt and inefficient communist centrally planned system. Gorbachev was forced to rush out economic reforms that may have worked better transitioning to capitalism and democracy under better conditions. The USSR was doomed in its Stalinist form as soon as the overwhelming pressure was released. But I also agree that some kind of slightly more centralized EU type state could have rode the wave and emerged if certain events happened or didn’t most especially the coup of August 1991. Another tragedy added to the war in Ukraine is that great scholarly work was being done on the USSR revisiting Stalin, the WW2 & the beginning of the Cold War with source material coming out of the Russian Archives. The kind of decades long personal relationships that it took between western and Russian scholars have been severed by the war. Though those western scholars being friends with the liberal opposition when Medvedev had the chance to block Putin from running for president again in 2012 started the process of Russia closing down again. Stephen Kotkin hints in an interview that he was close to decision makers in Medvedev’s inner circle during this time but he won’t speak on it presumably because they had tried to block Putin’s rise and failed or backed down. That is a story I am very interested in but he only hints at it in one interview, possibly the Vienna series but perhaps it was in NYC somewhere around that time in his career ~4-5 years ago. It was during a Q & A session pre-Covid.
@shaggybreeks
2 жыл бұрын
This is a great analysis, and although all these problems with geography have always been well-known, I've never seen them as a cause for the fall of communism.
@maryhildreth754
2 жыл бұрын
I think it collapsed for the same reasons any major thing ever happens - money. Sergei, did I post that playlist of Soviet heavy metal music to you? I can't remember if I did or not, but it's got lots of metal from behind the iron curtain. I think you might find it interesting. If I have posted it, disregard this lol.
@TheAsheybabe89
2 жыл бұрын
I would be curious to see this playlist! I only know of Aria
@maryhildreth754
2 жыл бұрын
@@TheAsheybabe89 i tried posting it and for some reason it won't copy the link. It's my phone, it's a moto and I'll never get this brand again. Anyway, the channel is called Heavy Metal of Eastern Bloc and they have created playlists that are great.
@northsideirish312
Жыл бұрын
As an American kid from 1977, I remember watching the Berlin wall dismantled on MTV and later the Soviet Union fail. Us young dumb kiddies were taught in school that USSR was worldwide evil enemy #1 who had huge bloody murder gulags everywhere and multiple nukes aimed at Chicago. No reasons given why they hate us. Basically it was all love and obey the USA, all other countries are less than, and be very thankful you aren't stuck imprisoned in food shortage Russia! Later on it seemed the collapse was mainly economic due to pervasive corruption and massive mismanagement by the communist party. It wasn't explained much, us Americans mainly concluded that the good guys won, the bad guys are knocked out cold, let's party hard.
@ColonelBragg
2 жыл бұрын
The Brezhnev period in my opinion is what doomed the Soviet Union due to him being so resistant to any real economic reform. Had someone brought back the NEP the Soviet Union would have been a lot better off.
@davidkras7160
2 жыл бұрын
I always found it interesting that the US and the USSR both stagnated in the mid to late 1970s.
@Poorexampeofhuman
10 ай бұрын
I wish my housing expense was 10% of my monthly income. It would change my life, id actually be able to afford a fuel efficient vehicle, food that the is more nutritious , it would also enable me to have a smaller carbon footprint.
@UshankaShow
10 ай бұрын
Do some Soviet math. Your salary 150 rubles, your apartment fee - 15. A car - 7500 rubles. A pair of boots - 75 rubles. Color TV - 600 rubles. There is no way you could afford anything but bare necessities. Even butter was crazy expensive - 3.50/ kg (it's around $8/kg in the US right now). Average Soviet engineer could buy 42 kg of butter on his monthly salary. At $8/kg it's like making $343 per month
@HermitagePrepper
9 ай бұрын
I would add, the printing of money without increasing production...in other words inflation....
@LogicalNiko
Жыл бұрын
On #3 and #4 the arms race and military production was also a big bandage to hide problems in production and skill in manufacturing. You convince people the tanks are important and thus they provide a easy job to assign to a lot of the population without having to do the studies to determine what and where people did need other goods. So basically it was a way for the “middle management” to cover production problems with the political leadership.
@UtterSpartan
2 жыл бұрын
I paused at like 0:40. Here's my shot. 1. Economy finally starting to collapse. In a system with minimal innovation, the state unable to provide certain goods on a reasonable time table, and a whole system predicated on corruption at all levels, it was only a matter of time that it would slowly falter. The economic theory of the Soviet Union was remarkably simple for how much it affected. They believed they could just tell manufacturers of goods what to make and when without ever actually listening to what people wanted. It should not have taken a person 10 years to get the opportunity to buy a car. 2. Learning about the outside world. In the late 80's the people of the Soviet Union finally realized en masse what they were missing out on. They quickly learned that they had been technologically left in the dust, and people in western Europe and America were (generally) living much better lives than them. It was undeniable. They could call something like Radio Free Europe "propaganda" but it is much harder to call ALL information coming out of the West as "propaganda". 3. Governmental instability. Countries can reform and still be that country. The final straw for the Soviet Union was not going far enough to respect the wants of the states that made it up. There was too much impetus to change in the republics and too little will in the highest levels of government to give them what they wanted. Gorbachev tried but then he experienced a failed coup. Ultimately because it was easier to leave the Soviet Union and create their own path instead of reforming it, everyone did. Essentially, too little, too late.
@peterhoulihan9766
Жыл бұрын
Not sure I could come up with five reasons, but I suspect the biggest one was an increasing number of people becoming aware that the soviet system was impoverishing them and that their counterparts in the west were much better off.
@erichusayn
2 жыл бұрын
(Paused) The collapse was because on paper, communism sounds great, but what Marx and Engles did not factor into the equation was human greed. Once that is introduced the dictatorship of the proletariat goes down the toilet. (Mind you this is coming from an American, who's great grandparents came to the USA in the early 1900s from Ukraine [dads] and Romania [moms] who read the communist manifesto in the 4th grade, and was an avowed communist up until my early 20s when I finally read and learned enough to see through the scam) Surprised the USSR lasted as long as it did... (unpaused)
@rollercoasterintogiantdomo
2 жыл бұрын
It's insane that people like you unironically think Marx didn't consider something as basic as human greed.
@mattysav4627
2 жыл бұрын
Oh yes ur right they just forgot that people can be greedy sometimes 😂
@mattysav4627
2 жыл бұрын
Greed and dictator off the proletariat are difrent and ur a idiot if u don’t understand what that means it’s not litterally a dictator it’s a class dictatorship like right now we live in A bourgeois dictatorship
@mattysav4627
2 жыл бұрын
Of course ur American 😂 u read enough off CIA spy George Orwell or something 😂
@antoinesilva1527
Ай бұрын
@@rollercoasterintogiantdomo Then why the book at all? If he had such a firm grasp of human greed, how would he ever envisioned something as “utopian” as his theory? How would one explain the collapse of the USSR without the greed, the demand for total control and the outlandish obsession with growth?
@Lightscribe225
8 ай бұрын
I think Gorbachev had a hand in it, but only because he was given a crap situation that didn't really have a good solution, just 'bad' and 'worse'.
@mattanderson6336
2 жыл бұрын
Like most things when they end Gorbachev took the rap because he was the one in office when the Soviet Onion collapsed. The collapse was inevitable.
@kurzeful
6 ай бұрын
If Stalin, Brezhnev or Putin were in power, would it though?
@FlintIronstag23
2 жыл бұрын
Another unmentioned reason could have been the Space Race from 1957 onward. It is estimated that both the US and USSR spent $25 billion each in the first three years of their space programs. This was occurring at the same time as the extremely expensive Arms Race. Although the world gained technological advancements from the Space Race, it had to be another economic burden on the weaker Soviet economy.
@kernowpolski
Жыл бұрын
Really interesting thank you
@UshankaShow
Жыл бұрын
Glad you enjoyed it
@markvoelker6620
Жыл бұрын
The underlying reason is that socialism is an unworkable economic system, as explained by Mises in his book “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth”. The more central planning intrudes upon market price setting, the less productive becomes the economy. By the way this applies to all economies, not merely to ones that openly call themselves socialist.
@grayghost7216
Жыл бұрын
1- Inherent flaws in the economic model of a command/planned economy. Read "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." 2- Soviet demographic trends were such that the dominant demographic, Russians, were not numerous enough to maintain control. 3- Nationalism in the various Soviet Republics. 4- The regime couldn't maintain power without mass bloodshed and levels of repression that may have started a civil war. 5- The Soviet economy couldn't sustain the arms race with the USA/West.
@paulbergen6574
Жыл бұрын
You have the most reasonable list I've seen so far in the comments.
@johannhawk8471
2 жыл бұрын
guesses: -external factors(oil prices and cold war) -the Gorbachev factor and the opposition that came as a byproduct
@johannhawk8471
2 жыл бұрын
i should clarify that i'm not blaming it all on Gorbachev i should mention that the byproducts of his policies resulted in: -allowing Yeltsin to get into a position to dissolve it against the results of the referendum to keep it together. -food production stopped outgrowing the population which obviously causes a lot of unrest to put it lightly.
@Digitaaliklosetti
2 жыл бұрын
0:40 I was born and they knew they could not resist
@billturner6564
2 жыл бұрын
Hello from England My friend i was born in 1970 and could be your brother So sad 2 say I grew up looking at SSSR as my enemy and afraid of the threat it posed 2 my little England 🇬🇧 After the wall collapsed I was relieved and curious about what people were like in this SSSR and in later life I started travelling in Ukraine and eventually married a lovely loving Ukrainian girl I love your country like my own now and have travelled the whole length and breath of it How wrong I was 2 think of this place as my enemy but I never even new Ukraine existed. However I did visit some nuclear missiles in Uman in Central Ukraine and some of the bunkers there are preserved so I know and have seen with my eyes the fate the Soviet Union had planed 4 me and the rest of Britain, and can testify 2 the staggering expenditure on weapons. You can never get away from socialism as the cause of the fall of the SSSR because it is unnatural form of human existence it must be enforced through torture and repression fear and force of arms When Gorbachev tried 2 change this he should not have been surprised when everyone ran away. As for the arms production destroying the system it was just 1 more way 4 the elite party bosses 2 steel from the country Everything all the time was steeling All my friends here in England send our best 2 you and ask you 2 keep up the good work Informing the youth of 2day about the wonders of socialism and how it destroys everything it touches I wish one day we could have a Vodka together Best wishes from Maggie Thatcher Land .
@monkemode8128
Ай бұрын
Money is used to determine the relative value of things if there are free markets. It promotes efficient resource use. As u said in another video, people would buy up bread to feed cows because it was heavily subsidized. But even without misdirection if you're making the decision between say a railroad or a car road, having a good price mechanism on the resources involved will make it very easy to figure out the efficient use of resources, just compare numbers!
@halicarnassus8235
Жыл бұрын
I'm surprised Western influence was not a factor when Soviets saw that they were not the most prosperous as told.
@my4cars528
4 ай бұрын
How about the loss of revenue from alcohol sales after Gorby's near prohibition? I just finished a college course based around the book 'Vodka Politics'. Revenue from alcohol went from 25% to 3%. USHANKAShow book review time? :)
@Heypatchdoggo8745
2 жыл бұрын
Gorbachev tried to save the Soviet Union with glasnost and perestroika but it was ineffective for the economy since it was at it's peak of it's collapse but here's the thing when Gorbachev gave freedom to everyone one man ended everything and that is Boris Yeltsin the man who broke up the Soviet Union by making 2 Soviet Republic's (Ukraine SSR and Belarus SSR) and might have forced Mikhail Gorbachev to order the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 26,1991 But that isn't the only reason why the U.S.S.R collapse but the coup of 1991: the last ditch to save the U.S.S.R (an event that everyone forgot about)
@224dot0dot0dot10
2 жыл бұрын
You are correct in that it was Yeltsin and not Gorbachev who wanted the Soviet Union to break up, because Yeltsin wanted to be leader of his own country and Yeltsin did not want Gorbachev to be his boss!
@Theodorus5
Жыл бұрын
American analysts as early as 1982 said that the CCCP was ‘basically self-sufficient with respect to food.’
@RonSommar
2 жыл бұрын
S&P downgrades Russia to selective DEFAULT ( can’t paste link but you may find it on Reuters)
@jquill6
Жыл бұрын
I think when the USSR didn’t intervene when the E German wall came down Eastern Europe knew that the jig was up and the Warsaw pact was finished.
@GUNROCKS1990
2 жыл бұрын
I was thinking something about stalker in real life surviving nuclear wasteland environment , fighting rival factions group, or mutant monsters.
@nascoca2275
2 жыл бұрын
People who are nostalgic about the USSR and tankies have this delusion that if Glasnost didn't happen the Soviet union would have survived.
@HeathenDance
Жыл бұрын
China is still ruled by the Communist Party, and is stronger than ever. And it recaptured territories like Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan. They were able to adapt.
@shanematthews9220
2 жыл бұрын
Little manufacture of consumer goods. To make the masses satisfied more goods were imported that drained rubles. These goods and movies from the west further exaggerated the discontent. Seeing such extravagant living in these movies when the average citizen had so little, was bound to make the average person want change. When the public saw so many in the west have toilet paper, there was a revolution. I am a loyal watcher of your blog. Thanks Comrade.
@hasashoepugower1691
Жыл бұрын
The nuclear accident is probably a bigger role than was thought at first just thinking if that happened in the USA the cost would probably have been trillions the amount of land lost is also quite steep oil was probably a major reason as the prices rose in the 70s then bottomed out in the late 80s the massive losses of income could have pushed the budgets to breaking point I find it ironic so many Soviet era guns were sold as surplus to the USA they were so cheap in the 90s you could offen get ammo for free I’ve read that all the time spent making them and money probably returned almost nothing in the end
@Yassified3425
2 жыл бұрын
The flood gates of the collapse for the USSR was when the Central government decleared the molotov-ribentrop pact void.
@mattipps
Жыл бұрын
When you spoke about utilities having no meter it seems completely obvious people would overuse them. This is a socialism problem. Prices matter, and manipulating them has real world consequences.
@adamwatson6916
Жыл бұрын
It seems like Saving the USSR was like trying to raise the Titannic at that point .
@LOUNGELIQ
2 жыл бұрын
What does he say in the last clip? 18:30
@ggsay1687
2 жыл бұрын
The ideology which dictated economy.
@larrybuzbee7344
2 жыл бұрын
1. A centrally planned economy will fail when the complexity of the system exceeds the information management and decision making capability of the bureaucracy. That limit was clearly exceeded with Peristroika. 2. Top to bottom corruption diverted vast amounts of capital from productive use, causing rampant inflation. 3. Civil and military infrastructure degraded rapidly due to deferred and diverted maintenance funding. 4. Information flows from the west demolished propaganda about Soviet superiority and demoralized the population as old foundational myths went up in smoke. 5. The most capable and flexible workers began to leave en masse. 6. Regional interests began to trump Imperial ones as central authority and coercive power diminished. 7. The human spirit is like a spring; you can squash it down only so long as you keep the pressure on, but when you get tired and let the pressure off BANG!!! all the energy you put in comes lashing back at you.
@cactusshadow9840
2 жыл бұрын
central committee received credible intel us command would instigate nuclear war because Russia was overtaking west and they would not be able to control world market anymore
@larrybuzbee7344
2 жыл бұрын
@@cactusshadow9840Is that simple speculation, psychic revelation, unsourced rumor, Q drop or verifiably solid information ?
@SIoyvenheaven1T800m101
Жыл бұрын
Reagan won the Cold War and was the main cause of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Reagan doubled defense spending to 6% GDP which caused the Soviets to increase their defense spending from 13% of GDP to almost 30%. There were other factors as well like Reagan getting South Africa to produce more gold and Saudi Arabia to produce more oil: the two main Soviet exports. The price of gold and oil crashed. Then you have factors like Afghanistan. Reagan caused the Soviet Union to implode under its own weight.
@artcamp7
Жыл бұрын
delusional hero worship
@SIoyvenheaven1T800m101
Жыл бұрын
@@artcamp7 Everything I said are irrefutable facts. Don’t get all bent out of shape because you can’t handle them. Until then keep quiet.
@stormspirit9783
2 жыл бұрын
Russia’s control of Siberia is not even beneficial to it. It needs to develop its western core which is actually ok land (still not great) but is drastically underutilized and not well developed. But instead they just go try to start things up in wastelands so far away from anything that inevitably will just fail eventually.
@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311
Жыл бұрын
I have stopped after 43 seconds to write this, but again I just saw it was a year ago! I m not sure if the algorithm is playing jokes on me but it's probably a bit late to be offering my opinion!. Anyway, even these few words help - and happy to do it!🙂
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