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Why Did The Soviet Union Fall? — Transcript

by Hakim · 3,775 words · 620 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:02what happened to the USSR there's quite
0:05a bit of Mythology around the
0:06dissolution in the largest nation of the
0:08previous Century every side of the
0:09spectrum has given their reasoning with
0:11some being more believable than others
0:13here I hope to show the common arguments
0:15and hopefully help you reach your own
0:16conclusions
0:17this video is a partial transcript based
0:19on the book socialism trade behind the
0:21collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger
0:22Kieran and Thomas Kenny I strongly
0:24recommend you pick the book up it is by
0:25far the best study of the dissolution of
0:27the SSR that I've ever come across
0:28anyways let's get into it according to
0:30the book these arguments can be broken
0:32down into six categories found in
0:33academic literature supposed laws of
0:36socialism popular opposition external
0:38factors bureaucratic counter-revolution
0:41lack of democracy and over
0:42centralization and the Gorbachev Factor
0:54those that support the first Theory
0:56think all strands of socialism no matter
0:58how unique are equally doomed to fail
1:00usually they bring this down to the
1:02human nature argument as flawed an
1:04argument as it may be it appeals to the
1:06superiority of the free market those
1:08that support this Theory or variations
1:10thereof include Martin Malia Richard
1:12pipes and Dimitri volcanov
1:15despite the many achievements of Soviet
1:18socialism the system did have many flaws
1:20during the 80s issues with consumer
1:22goods slow penetration of computer
1:24technology following productivity
1:26differing levels of corruption and the
1:27notorious second economy
1:29problems extended into the political
1:31sphere as well where overlapping party
1:33and state functions reduced local
1:35overhead and kept political initiative
1:36at the very top of course many of these
1:39problems arise from a myriad of other
1:40issues like the cold war the Relentless
1:42economic and other Warfare waged by the
1:44us against the USSR and the heavy burden
1:46of supporting allies abroad the point
1:48however is that none of these problems
1:50were large enough to cause the fall to
1:52so Union they didn't cause crisis let
1:53alone collapse to quote the book The
1:56Trouble with this theory is that as you
1:57Soviet history as unfolding towards an
1:59inevitable demise because of its
2:00departures from Human Nature private
2:02property and the free market though
2:03these years gained ascendancy in the US
2:05during the Reagan Era a few historians
2:07subscribe to historical determinism
2:08based on human nature in addition the
2:11series utterly incapable explaining how
2:13Soviet socialism survived the
2:14collectivization of Agriculture and the
2:15German invasion World War II only to
2:17fall apart under the seemingly far
2:19lesser challenges of the 1980s
2:21nothing makes this clearer than
2:23sovietological work from the 1980s which
2:25in full confidence considers the USSR to
2:27be a force that's here to stay for a
2:29deeper dive take a look at these two
2:31videos here
2:33foreign
2:35suggests that popular opposition to the
2:37Soviet system brought it down although
2:39known explicitly holds this opinion is
2:42frequently cited as a major reason they
2:44include things like intellectual
2:45dissidents protests the rise of
2:47nationalists and the relative electoral
2:48success of non-communist officials in
2:50the latter ERA this line of thinking
2:52isn't entirely wrong as many Soviet
2:54economists did favor Market forms and
2:56these opinions influenced that of
2:57gorbachevs
2:59other examples include the Georgian and
3:01azerbaijani protests they help evil in
3:03the Baltic Republic's minor strikes and
3:05the unopposed activity of non-communist
3:07officials in high government positions
3:08the problem with this theory is that
3:10popular discontent came up towards the
3:11end of Gorbachev's reforms not before
3:13these upheavals occurred in response to
3:15Gorbachev's policies in clearer terms
3:17those policies caused these issues in
3:20the final analysis popular opposition
3:22acted as a dependent rather than an
3:23independent variable a byproduct of
3:25Gorbachev's policies rather than their
3:27cause this is further strengthened by
3:29the prevalence resistance of the Soviet
3:31people against dissolving the Union as
3:33in chapter 6 of this very book Albert
3:35shamanski's work too here is relevant if
3:37you're interested in further reading
3:40according to the third Theory external
3:42factors rooted in the Cold War and the
3:44global economy caused the Soviet
3:46collapse extreme opinions even go as far
3:48as to say that the Betrayal of Soviet
3:49socialism was due to the cia's
3:51penetration of Soviet leadership now the
3:53extent of this penetration was far worse
3:55than you may realize according to one
3:57later report by 1985 the CIA and FBI had
3:59developed the most impressive inventory
4:01of spies against Russia in American
4:03history and had riddled the KGB and grew
4:06which was the military intelligence with
4:07moles still unless further Revelation
4:10shows that gorbashev or Yakov Lev served
4:12as CIA agents and stretches credibility
4:14to dispose that the CIA brought down
4:16Soviet socialism nonetheless external
4:19factors more powerful than CAA ever
4:21could be or most definitely at work the
4:23intensification of the Cold War in the
4:25early 80s followed by the world
4:26recession in 1979 that made American
4:28Presidents Carter and Reagan increase
4:30military spending caused the Soviet
4:32Union to do the same in return
4:34to quote the book Soviet society never
4:36enjoyed the luxury of internal
4:38development free of the threat of
4:39outside aggression the cost of Defending
4:41itself and aiding its allies escalated
4:43yearly and reigned resources away from
4:45socially useful domestic Investments by
4:471980 Soviet Aid its allies cost 44
4:49billion dollars a year and our spending
4:51consumed 25 to 30 percent of the economy
4:53the strain of the Cold War increased
4:56during the late Carter and early Reagan
4:57years the doubling of military spending
4:59by the US the Strategic Defense
5:01Initiative which is better known as Star
5:02Wars the aiding of anti-communists in
5:04Afghanistan Poland elsewhere driving
5:06down the price of oil and gas on the
5:08World Market which was the soviet's main
5:09source of art currency used for trade as
5:11well as engaging various forms of
5:13Economic and psychological warfare of
5:15course all these played significant role
5:16but Francis Fitzgerald provides the most
5:18persuasive refutation of the supposed
5:20decisiveness of Reagan's policies at
5:22destabilizing the USSR he argues that no
5:25clear cause and effect relationship
5:26existed between the external factors and
5:28internal crisis for example he states
5:30that increased U.S military spending on
5:32the Reagan for Star Wars for example and
5:34other projects didn't increase Soviet
5:36military spending directly many Soviet
5:38insiders likewise rejected the idea that
5:39the arms race caused either Gorbachev's
5:41reforms or the collapse a Soviet
5:43official and Military Intelligence said
5:45the notion that Gorbachev's pedestroika
5:47was started as a result of Reagan Star
5:48Wars was concocted in the west and is
5:50completely absurd I remember the Soviet
5:52Institute for the USA and Canada said I
5:54am deeply convinced that neither the
5:56Strategic Defense Initiative nor the
5:57arms race in general contributed to the
5:59collapse of the Soviet Union
6:01regardless all this misses the point
6:03however great in whatever form the
6:05external pressure coming from the United
6:06States represented less of an external
6:08threat than earlier economic sanctions
6:10sabotage and foreign Invasion more
6:12importantly the external pressure did
6:14not dictate the particular shape and
6:16direction of the Soviet response and the
6:18end Gorbachev and similar forces
6:19particular responses to the external
6:21pressures and internal problems provided
6:23the most decisive cause of the
6:24dissolution
6:26back to the video in just a second let's
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7:46highly appreciated alright back to the
7:48video
7:49a fourth theory is that the cause was a
7:52bureaucratic counter-revolution the idea
7:54being that the bureaucracy itself became
7:55the base for a capitalist restoration or
7:57that transformed itself into a new
7:59possessing class this is more or less
8:01the arguments of cots via Azad amongst
8:03others though some in this group didn't
8:05regard this new group as a class
8:07kotzenwai argued that the reform course
8:09launched by Gorbachev Unleashed
8:10processes that created new coalitions
8:12that favored replacing socialism with
8:14capitalism with Boris Yeltsin becoming
8:15the leader of the anti-socialist block
8:17with the support of the party State
8:19Elite quote unquote he was able to push
8:21aside two rival groups the Gorbachev
8:23social informists and the cpsu Old Guard
8:26essentially the argument goes of the
8:28breakup of the USSR as a multinational
8:29Federation occurred because of the
8:31specifics of the power struggle between
8:33the Elton and Gorbachev forces yeltsin's
8:35anti-socialists held power in Russia
8:37while the Gorbachev social reformists
8:38held most of the Union institutions the
8:40Yeltsin forces concluded that they could
8:42maintain power and pursue capitalist
8:44respiration only by withdrawing Russia
8:46from the Soviet Union hence the USSR
8:48fell apart the bureaucratic Revolution
8:50from above thesis is however not
8:52completely convincing such officials
8:55were according to the book incapable of
8:57collective action to defend the system
8:58and incapable of consciously hastening
9:00its demise the top bureaucracy if you
9:03can even be said to have enough
9:04substance to be judged and an authentic
9:06social group at all was too
9:07heterogeneous and Scattered to act as a
9:09cohesive political force moreover if the
9:12elite was capable of conscious
9:13independent action in its own
9:14self-interest why did it back andropause
9:16Marxism in 1983 Gorbachev's revisionism
9:191987 in yeltsin's free market shock
9:21therapy in 1993. this discussion
9:23continued in the book
9:25also supports the thesis that the
9:27bureaucratic Elite fostered a
9:29counter-revolution in his book he offers
9:31a decent history of the accomplishments
9:32and limits of Soviet socialism but
9:34argues that the real problems began with
9:36Khrushchev the rapid consumption model
9:38and wage leveling adopted by the 20th
9:40Congress in 1956 sap production
9:42sometimes created shortages reduced
9:44economic growth and fostered the black
9:45market and Corruption kusho's ideas the
9:48Soviet Union had begun the full-scale
9:49building of a communist Society adopted
9:52by the 21st Congress in 1959 was overly
9:54optimistic so delusions and led to
9:56further wage leveling and stagnation the
9:58adoption by the 22nd Congress and i-61
10:00of the idea that the Soviet state had
10:01become the state of the entire people
10:03and the cpsu a party of the entire
10:05people signaled a weakening of the party
10:07in regards to the state and a growing
10:08predominance in the party of
10:09intellectuals and bureaucrats in short
10:11Azad argues that the Soviet Union's
10:13problems and Gorbachev's policies were
10:15the aftershocks of the mistaken policies
10:17of the Khrushchev era as our treats the
10:18Gorbachev period as a footnote to
10:19khrusho's mistakes a part of the Hiatus
10:21of 25 years and failing to implement
10:23much needed changes as a direct quote in
10:25the view of the authors who wrote the
10:27book though the real problem was not to
10:28be bureaucracy as such but the second
10:29economy that had corrupted sections of
10:31the party and state fostered a petty
10:33Bourgeois mentality outside as well as
10:34inside the bureaucracy and turned some
10:36bureaucrats along the second economy
10:37entrepreneurs into a base for
10:39Gorbachev's opportunism
10:42the fifth Theory argues that the Soviet
10:44Union collapsed because of a lack of
10:45democracy in an over centralized
10:47administrative system in essence a
10:48similar view to the first explanation
10:50with the difference being that instead
10:51of a critical flaw in socialism
10:53generally it's only soviet-style
10:55socialism which can be faulted these
10:56types usually claim that the so-called
10:58lack of democratic Institutions and over
11:00centralization derived either from
11:01Stalin or Stalin and Lenin depending on
11:03ideological persuasion this view is
11:05widely held by left Social Democrats
11:07Euro Communists the demsa crowd amongst
11:09others historians Stephen F Cohen and
11:10the Soviet writer Roy Medvedev also
11:12reflected to you and so do many
11:14contemporary communist parties this
11:15explanation is superficially attractive
11:17as it doesn't require any defense of
11:19Soviet socialism to quote the book to
11:21blame the Soviet collapse on a lack of
11:22democracy and over centralization thus
11:25serves as a psychological or political
11:26distancing mechanism as a way of
11:28asserting that the Socialist ideal
11:30remains pure and untarnished in spite of
11:31what happened in the Soviet Union it
11:33says history does not matter the actual
11:34experience of a socialist country does
11:36not count the only thing that matters is
11:38what we supposed socialist or Communists
11:40say today what happened the Soviet Union
11:41was there and then this is here and now
11:43though Soviet Communists messed up but
11:45we're different and smarter they were
11:47too bureaucratic undemocratic and over
11:49centralized but we either knew it all
11:50along or have learned it from their
11:51mistakes
11:52as convenient of you as this is for
11:55those who wish to get their time on the
11:56next lecture book promotion or media
11:58interview it leaves a lot to be desired
11:59as an explanation it's unfalsifiable has
12:01essentially zero explanatory value when
12:03applied to real events and like so much
12:05Precision that it cannot be either
12:06sufficiently proven nor categorically
12:08refuted to the taste of those that hold
12:10it as an opinion to say that the Soviet
12:12Union collapsed because of a lack of
12:13democracy in over centralization can
12:15mean only one of two things either the
12:17collapse occurred because the Soviet
12:18Union lacked the political and economic
12:20forms and practices familiar in Western
12:22social democratically governed countries
12:23like Sweden I.E a liberal democracy in a
12:25mixed economy order occurred because the
12:27Soviet Union failed to develop a new
12:29kind of socialist democracy and mixed
12:31economy hitherto unknown anywhere in the
12:32world both ideas fail as historical
12:35explanations because they rest on
12:36idealist constructs that attempt to
12:38explain history by the degree to which
12:39it conforms or fails to conform to an
12:41ideal modern historians Marxist or not
12:43believe that historical explanations
12:44must adhere to the actual details and
12:46contradictions of History this precludes
12:47understanding history by measuring it
12:49against some outside standard
12:50furthermore this train of thinking would
12:52so Union collapse because it failed to
12:54follow European social democracy have
12:55another problem to deal with it's clear
12:57that after a certain point Gorbachev
12:59shared the same ideals as those
13:00theorists and tried to move the Soviet
13:01Union towards a liberal democracy with a
13:03mixed economy yet those exact moves are
13:05what led to a political and economic
13:07meltdown that has still not been
13:08overcome this is an embarrassment that
13:09none of the lack of democracy theorists
13:11have been able to explain away
13:12furthermore these theorists ignore the
13:14actual history of liberal democracy and
13:16socialist democracy democracy for whom
13:18and in what form for example economic
13:20deepens the Nuance but is rarely
13:22discussed refer to the book for this
13:23discussions long to render here but it's
13:25very good regardless there was an active
13:27effort within the USSR from the earliest
13:29period to develop ways to increase the
13:31participation and control by the workers
13:33and including broadening membership in
13:35the Communist party and developing
13:36Soviets trade unions and other Mass
13:38organizations through the process of
13:40developing democracy was far from Over
13:41the Soviet Union had developed a variety
13:43of political institutions and practices
13:45designed to provide popular
13:46participation and Soviet practices
13:47included using newsmen and Ombudsman as
13:49well as new sources best in trade unions
13:52with power over workers rights
13:53production norms and the disposition of
13:54social funds Mick Costello's book is
13:56great on this topic if you're interested
13:59creating Soviets production communities
14:01Community assemblies governing
14:03Committees of living complexes and other
14:04partying government bodies
14:06to quote the book though many of these
14:08populist institutions atrophied during
14:10the difficult years surrounding the
14:11second world war they revived in the
14:131950s and involved greater and greater
14:15numbers of working people even under
14:16President of popular participation in
14:18government showed many signs of Vitality
14:20right in 1978 when the Soviet Union
14:22contained 260 million people a group of
14:25Soviet writers gave the following
14:26figures on Soviet political activity
14:2816.5 million Communists 121 million
14:31Trade union members nearly 38 million
14:33young Communists over 2 million Soviet
14:35deputies 35 million people who work with
14:37the deputies in the Soviet people's
14:38deputies 9.5 million members of people's
14:41control bodies had 5.5 million members
14:43of production conferences of Industrial
14:44Enterprises of course participation and
14:47social Soviets just as participation and
14:48Bourgeois election provides no
14:50conclusive proof of popular control but
14:52nonetheless represented however and
14:53perfectly the striving for a kind of
14:55socialist democracy
14:57many of the traditional Soviet political
14:59forms the newspapers the Soviets and the
15:01Communist Party itself were undermined
15:02by goroshov after 1985. thus while the
15:05majority of Soviet people remained
15:06opposed to privatization property the
15:08elimination of price controls and the
15:10breakup of the Soviet Union the
15:11traditional modes of expressing
15:13political views were evaporating
15:15what this means is that the lack of
15:16democracy theorists could have been
15:18right but definitely not in the way they
15:19wanted to be right relevant reading can
15:21be found in my book recommendations
15:22video on the topic here
15:25the final theory is that the Soviet
15:27collapse was mainly due to gorbashev
15:28unsurprisingly almost all accounts give
15:30great weight to gorosho's role with some
15:32accounts going further than others
15:34according to the British historian
15:35Archie Brown the dissolution of the SSR
15:37was greatly determined by a Gorbachev
15:39Factor as he called it mainly
15:41Gorbachev's departure from communist
15:42Orthodoxy painting him as a heroic
15:44westernizer of sorts Jerry Hughes thinks
15:46that Gorbachev was a free marketeer
15:47evgenie novikov and Patrick bastio
15:50suggest that goroshoff was a Grime chain
15:51you're a communist Anthony D'Agostino
15:53argues that Gorbachev was a
15:55Machiavellian wanting to maintain power
15:56by any means necessary though the
15:58authors of this book agree with the
16:00common elements of these views that
16:01Gorbachev's ideological deviations
16:03played a key role they nonetheless
16:04disagree with several other elements
16:06accounts that overemphasize Gorbachev
16:08obscure the extent to which he was not
16:09alone but operated in a historical and
16:11social context when he first departed
16:12from andropod Gorbachev represented
16:14ideas that nonetheless had precedent in
16:16the communist movement namely the ideas
16:17of bakarin and Khrushchev these ideas
16:20had some appeal in Soviet Society these
16:22include the weakening of the central
16:23power of the party and the government a
16:24legitimate amazing private property and
16:26allowing more freedom for markets which
16:28had potency in the 1980s because they
16:30palpably reflected the interests of a
16:31dynamic if parasitic sector attached to
16:33Illegal private Enterprise thus
16:35Gorbachev was both a successor of a
16:37certain tradition and the product of his
16:38times not just a loan Factor making
16:40history moreover for some writers
16:42stressing overshaw leads to them seeing
16:44his actions as part of a long-signing
16:46preconceived plan the evidence though
16:47seems to point towards a shallow leader
16:49who acted rationally impulsively and
16:51contradictorally though his policies
16:52eventually formed a pattern of
16:53capitulation to the petty Bourgeois
16:55liberal and corrupt interests at home
16:56and imperialist pressure abroad this was
16:58not evident at the start opportunism was
17:00his primary guide in the end the story
17:02of the Soviet collapse was not the
17:04inevitable unfolding of a tragedy wrote
17:06an impossibility of socialism nor was it
17:08a defeat brought about by popular
17:09opposition or foreign enemies nor was it
17:11due to Soviet socialism's failure to
17:13match up to some ideal of socialism that
17:14embodied liberal democracy in a mixed
17:16economy nor was primarily the story of
17:18the conscious betrayal of one man rather
17:20it was the story of a Triumph of a
17:22certain tendency within the revolution
17:23itself it was a tendency first rooted in
17:26The Peasant nature of the country that
17:27later showed up in a second economy a
17:29sector that flourished because of
17:31consumer demands unsatisfied by the
17:32first economy and because of the failure
17:34of authorities to appreciate the danger
17:35it represented and to enforce the law
17:37against it it was a tendency that had
17:39manifested itself in bukhar and
17:40Khrushchev before Gorbachev it was a
17:41tendency that believes that Prosperity
17:43democracy and its vision of socialism
17:45could come quickly and without sacrifice
17:46without struggle and without strong
17:48central Authority it believed in making
17:50concessions to imperialism liberals on
17:52private property and the market some
17:54adherents of this tendency believe that
17:55they were true socialists though they
17:57Allied themselves with others whose true
17:58sympathies were with money making and
18:00private property not until Gorbachev had
18:02this sentencing in the revolution held
18:04false way and been carried to its
18:05logical conclusion only with Gorbachev
18:07was the full mistake of this course
18:09realized when it led not to a new kind
18:11of socialism but to a new kind of
18:12barbarism to quote the authors in the
18:14case of the Soviet Union federal casters
18:16said it best socialism did not die from
18:18natural causes it was a suicide
18:23that's all for this time if you enjoy
18:24what I do then please consider
18:25supporting me on patreon really does
18:26help I'd like to thank my patrons so
18:28thank you to Eli the B srinivas
18:30dhamadhikari Talia Benson wood quarter
18:33unknown 608 Eli Clemens Matthias ml Andy
18:36felt Otis Wings man copy and opium
18:38Mitchell Bodom Caleb Cody crumbo Conrad
18:41Piccolo John Monger matzah 10 gears
18:43Thomas Jackson a more Forest matin
18:45Gorbachev's Pizza
18:54Smith and Zach pit thanks for watching

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