A look at last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev's legacy with Lebohang Pheko

The last President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has died, aged 91.
Gorbachev was admired and celebrated in the West for his role in ending the Cold War. We look at his legacy as Senior Research Fellow and Political Economist at Trade Collective, Lebohang Pheko.

[happyclappy]

A really interesting view of the. 'idea' of the Soviet Union versus the reality. And what can we learn about the difference between an idea and a functional state. This woman is quite brilliant

[NoreenHoltzen]

The concept of an “iron curtain” was not their construction but our own and it was a propaganda technique to give it a name so we could blame it on the Soviets. They wanted collaboration but we would not allow as they had to collaborate only on our terms. Sounds familiar? Gorbachev was awful. He ruined Soviet Union and the wonderful Russians would be astronomically more socially, culturally and industrially developed now if they had not taken the western neoliberal path. It is only being discovered now that USSR began being dismantled far earlier than popularly cited - it was gradually from the 1970s and owing to rampant British and US interference. The rate at which Russia developed (health care, science, culture, quality of life, you name it - it improved incredibly from the initial conditions) from 1920 to 1960 was astronomical and this would have continued without the western bribes and incessant political interference, climaxing with Gorbachev completely ruining the entire state. As this involved enormous property being passed to our elites and oligarchs, and creating oligarchs there merely as a byproduct, we cheer the devastation he brought, but having family in Russia I can attest that most Russians have the opposite view than our brainwashed traded stocks and private rental property obsessed narrative.