Re: The Fall of the USSR

["Hugh Whinfrey" <econ@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

William Hummel notes:

>No, the real cause of the Soviet demise was the same as it always
>has been for a corrupt oligarchy trying to hold together by media
>control and  police state methods an empire of such diverse
>peoples.

The escalating corruption of the Brezhnev years was
a major source of their problem, plus the faked
economic data to cover it all up didn't exactly make
their central planning work any better.

The transition to forms of private enterprise was well
underway when Gorbachev was dethroned. The state
that collapsed was certainly not the same state in
ideological terms as much of the American triumphalism
presumes.

I've read accounts of it by the leadership at the time
though where they were clearly viewing the productivity
of their labour force as the key weakness. That was in
part blamed on the lack of intellectual and political
freedom, which they were also busy doing something
about - folks in the West still associate Gorby with that
liberalisation. Never mind that it was a necessity and he
was just playing the hand he had been dealt. And note
that the reasoning was 'economic' in character as per
human rights. Plus,again, the triumphalism ignores the
fact that the fixes were already being applied.

Time will tell whether the US escapes the same fate,
i.e. from the combination of obscene levels of corruption
and the crushing ideological indoctrination of its
population. China, on the other hand, appears to be
avoiding it.

Hugh