Why did Gorbachev and the communist party feel the need to reform the USSR in the late 1980s? Were they disillusioned by the anemic economic growth of the country?Could the same thing happen to China or is the CCP aware of the “mistakes” made by Gorbachev?
>>18410460Short answer: 1. Soviet economy was in the shitter in the 80s and predicted to get even worse. Everybody knew it and everybody wanted reforms. Gorby just fumbled them hard2. China was aware of Gorby's mistakes and already made the reform needed to correct the situation (Reform and opening up)Long answer: Read "Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union" by Vladislav M. Zubok. You can supplement it with "Autopsy for an Empire: The Seven Leaders Who Built the Soviet Regime" by Dmitri Volkogonov if you want to go deeper into the issue
>>18410460People always pin the collapse of the USSR entirely on Gorbachev. The fact of the matter was that the Soviet Union was full of Fifth Columnists as early as the 1950s. Khrushchev famously wanted to visit Disneyland, Zhukov brought Coca-Cola into the country, Yeltsin got completely mind broken by American grocery stores. After the death of Stalin, none of the Soviet Top Brass had confidence in their own economic system, they were just waiting for an excuse to finally pull the plug and have the Military Industrial Complex and KGB seize control of the government, and Gorbachev along with western pressure is what finally gave them this excuse.
70s oil shocks led the soviets to grow reliant on oil revenues to compensate for their garbage collectivized agriculture sector. Then oil prices fell again and they had nothing else anyone wanted to buy. It really is as simple as that.
>>18410790Yes. Before 1970s their economy was diversified, after that it grow to be increasingly and too much reliant on oil exports and vodka sales
>>18410460There's actually a really great I think CCP-sponsored documentary that supposes Gorbachev was an unscrupulous psychopath who sold out the country during a tough time to get him and his buddies rich.https://youtu.be/lOBpmOqxFuA?si=JN0HrFVlR9VCQbNI
>>18410460>Why did Gorbachev and the communist party feel the need to reform the USSR in the late 1980s?It's a mystery
>>18410790>>18410794Soviets were dependent on imported grains from the US since as early as the 60's.
>>18410795Saw this years ago and it's the best take on the fall of the Soviet Union, which of course, China would take VERY seriously.Gorbachev was a hack, the party had become nihilistic especially after the death of Andropov who was the last sort of true believer and the top of the nomenklatura along with those who surrounded Gorbachev, saw the opportunity to sell out, become rich Capitalists and took it.>>18410485I think Stalin gets a lot of shit for the purges for the wrong reason, the reason the Purges were full retard, is that they killed all the Communist true believers, while Nationalists and opportunists knew to keep their mouth shut and play the game.
>>18411126What Gorbachev did sell again?
>>18411136Pizza.
>>18410802Sanction from illegal Afghanistan occupation?
