New Insights on the Soviet Union’s Collapse
July 25th, 2007Via: Christian Science Monitor:
In November, the Brookings Institution will publish the English translation of “Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia,” now a bestseller in Russia. Written by Yegor Gaidar, an economist who was Russia’s acting prime minister between 1991 and 1994, the book uses information from Soviet archives to tell the story of the last few years of the Soviet Union. It tries to shoot down the “myth” held by most Russians that the Soviet Union was “a dynamically developing world superpower until usurpers initiated disastrous reforms.” It also warns that Russia should avoid the peril of another collapse in oil prices.
What happened, states Mr. Gaidar, is that Soviet grain production stagnated between 1966 and 1990. Meanwhile, 80 million people moved from farms to cities. New Soviet output of oil and gas was not sufficiently expanded to provide the hard currency needed to buy grain abroad. Eventually, the Soviets had to borrow foreign money to buy grain.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, told a meeting of the Communist Party, “We are buying [the grain] because we cannot survive without it,” noted Gaidar in a talk to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington last fall. An associate of Mr. Gorbachev had warned in March 1991 of the risk of famine in June if foreign grain wasn’t obtained.
Related: Orlov: Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’
I expect much of the same will be read/said, of the Collapse of the USA in the future. Current events seem to be following the Soviet footprints.It started the same, a drawn out war. Those that do not learn from history, are destined to repeat it.