The Fall of the Soviet Union

Readings:


Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted : the Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000. Oxford, 2008.

Ouimet, Matthew J. “National Interest and the Question of Soviet Intervention in Poland, 1980-1981: Interpreting the Collapse of the ’Brezhnev Doctrine.” The Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 78, no. 4, 2000, pp. 710–34.

[ApostolicMajesty]

If you enjoyed this video, please like and leave a comment. It helps the channel a lot. Many thanks.

[justian]

This was amazing. As a person of Russian background who had been born in the USSR, I'm genuinely impressed with the level of detail and accuracy on display. Thank you!

[wyrdstapa]

Great stream! It's good to have you back

[JustineBrownsBookshelf]

Re films, Instead of watching the new “Napoleon” we got hold of the Dino de Laurentis “Waterloo”— which was brilliant.

[zoidberg]

From what I have read apparently Andropov had desired that Gorbachev replace him and during the period Chernenko was "in office" he was generally in his sick bed but because of internal party wrangling and procedures Gorbachev would often chair meetings of the central committee but could only do so with Chernenko's permission and quite often he was so sick he couldn't even go to the phone to grant this permission, therefore central committee meetings could not formally meet and make decisions. You wonder if it robbed Gorbachev of time to conduct a more modest reform program. Gorbachev always relied on the KGB for his information on the state of the economy and supposedly when he ascended to the leadership he got some incredibly alarming information. His reform program seemed based on desperation more than anything to me.

Its interesting to hear your lecture on the subject based off of work by Kotkin and Adomeit. I have read Serhii Plokhys "The Last Empire" and Vladislav Zuboks "Collapse" and William Taubmans biography of Gorbachev. Plokhy emphasises how Gorbachev's reforms eroded the systems of patronage that held the party and therefore the governing structure of the party together and created regional elites in the republics who in the end gained more legitimacy and were a new elite in the waiting and how particularly events in Ukraine signed the death knell for the continuation of the USSR in any form when the Russians found out they wanted out and Russia would be at the mercy of primarily Muslim populations in central Asia. Zubok also seems to take the line Gorbachev's reforms dissolved his own power base by conducting concurrent reforms of political and economic structures given that these were one in the same in a planned economy. He seems to think Gorbachev was imbued with an overly idealistic neo Leninism that he adopted during the Khrushchev thaw even though Lenin despite his ideology had a firm grasp on how power really worked. Taubman says Gorbachev was in Peking around the time of the slaughter in Tienanmen square and Gorbachev was so disgusted by it he knew if it came to it he would not use force to hold the USSR together. Its death knell was probably signed then and there seen as the existence of this "empire" had always been downstream of naked force much more than some other empires.

I suppose ultimately it depends what view you take of power - is it top down or bottom up. I always got the impression that Kotkin thought the USSR dissolved from the bottom up rather than the top down.

[PvtSchlock]

1:35:17 the ancient Greek concept of hell being futility has fascinated me for quite some time. Contemporary events however have me focused on pandemonium.
Listening to AM do these makes me want to sip a cup of hot water, honey, bourbon and five slices of lemon. Those poor vocal cords...

[calebr]

Excellent stream, thank you for your hard work.. I’m always astounded by your consistent quality and depth.

[MooseheadStudios]

have been binging your channel good stuff keep em coming

[notsomeanmark]

Oh goody! Always pleased to see a new episode.

[Retronus]

Great video AM very informative, I'll have a read of that book once I pick up a copy of it. Many thanks.

[hazchemel]

Around this same time, the RSA was going through it's own dissolution as apartheid state, steered by the National Party government, with F.W. de Klerk as President for the final 5 years.
He would be a fascinating study as there is nothing about him.

[JasonShultz]

Really informative and detailed. Great job on this video!

[hattorihanzo]

Your work continues to impress. I love the long form content.

[misterkefir]

Very glad to have You back, AM! Cheers, God Bless & stay frosty out there.

[Confusion.and.Delay...]

I can’t remember precisely when exactly, but didn’t Gorbachev say during one of the ‘Soviet assemblies’, if that is it’s name, that, paraphrasing, “you may have heard that Soviet socialism is being dismantled, in fact Soviet socialism is simply moving into a new phase world wide”, or words to that effect.

30 odd years on, those words sound rather prophetic, but as I said, going from memory and would be happy for clarification on this.

Edit: Eric Margolis published a written speech by Gorbachev, which is now apparently in the Toronto Sun archives behind a paywall, where he said on saying farewell to the top Soviet leaders. “You will hear that Communism shortly is dead. Don’t believe it. We’re moving off to the next phase across the world.”

[davydacounsellor]

Russias steel mills are still running! Wheres the uk capital industry now?

[martinosvath]

Fantastic analysis! And great narration and delivery, thanks!😊

[FirstMetalHamster]

The quotes of the east german government official were even more sudden and hilarious:



Günter Schabowski: "The responsible passport and registration departments of the People's Police District Offices in the GDR are instructed to issue visas for permanent departure without delay, without the need to fulfill the requirements for permanent departure.
Permanent departures can be made via all GDR border crossing points to West Germany or West Berlin."

Journalist: "When will this (new rule) take effect?"

Günter Schabowski: "To my knowledge, this will... it occurs immediately, without delay." *opening floodgates noise*

[stmartin]

Downloaded and will listen later. Thank you.

[qmnwvds]

What a DEEP DIVE. I listened, captivated to the end. Liked and shared. 👍👍