Ukraine´s new waves of reinforcements

[ESay]

When we returned home, I predicted to my then-wife that we might see the end of the Soviet Union within our lifetimes -- despite the fact that most academic 'expert opinion' in the West was that the Soviet Union was rock-solid and would endure indefinitely. This was not because people were starving, which they were not. It was because the system had lost the support of its intelligentsia. Rather like the US today

Your comparison with the US today is quite interesting. Maybe. But there is one drastical distinction. For the Soviet intelligentsia, the West was a model 'state' and they wanted to transform the Soviet Union following this model. The American intelligentsia doesn't have this model now.

 

[Doug1943]

Of course personalities also play very important part in historical processes. And yes, it is possible to speculate what would have been had Andropov lived longer or the GKCHP retained the power. But hardly there is a reason to do so.

Gorbachev is quite unpopular among the Russians, btw. Quite telling, isn't it?

1985 was still a year of relative stability in the USSR. The beginning of Perestroika. After that there was Chernobyl, sweeping deficits, the rise of racketeering and organised crime syndicates, the prohibition, the parade of sovereignties etc.

Oh yes, Gorbachev is unpopular, and Putin is popular, and it's not difficult to understand why.

Gorbachev was a good man, but he was not sophisticated. He should have undertaken a gradual transition to a free market instead of letting the Americans (and some of his own economists) talk him into going along with "shock therapy". Above all, he should have made the Russian people the heirs of the nationalize property there, with every Russian citizen getting shares [ in investment trusts that owned a wide range of enterprises] that could not be sold for ten years. Instead, American banks helped Russian oligarchs seize the country's wealth, while lifespans and living standards plumetted.

It's very important for all Americans, Left and Right, to understand what we did to Russia, and why Putin has the support of 80% of his people now. (Yes, he also assassinates or imprisons those who oppose him. But his popularity is real.) [Libertarians: it's all your fault! Your simplistic economics seduced a generation of young Soviet economists, who jumped from the dogmas of Marxism to the dogmas of Austian Economics.]

This is all explained in this book:

Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism​

Chrystia Freeland​

"In the 1990s, all eyes turned to the momentous changes in Russia, as the world's largest country was transformed into the world's newest democracy. But the heroic images of Boris Yeltsin atop a tank in front of Moscow's White House soon turned to grim new realities: a currency in freefall and a war in Chechnya; on the street, flashy new money and a vicious Russian mafia contrasted with doctors and teachers not receiving salaries for months at a time. If this was what capitalism brought, many Russians wondered if they weren't better off under the communists.

This new society did not just appear ready-made: it was created by a handful of powerful men who came to be known as the oligarchs and the young reformers. The oligarchs were fast-talking businessmen who laid claim to Russia's vast natural resources. The young reformers were an elite group of egghead economists who got to put their wild theories into action, with results that were sometimes inspiring, sometimes devastating. With unparalleled access and acute insight, Chrystia Freeland takes us behind the scenes and shows us how these two groups misused a historic opportunity to build a new Russia. Their achievements were considerable, but their mistakes will deform Russian society for generations to come.

Along with a gripping account of the incredible events in Russia's corridors of power, Freeland gives us a vivid sense of the buzz and hustle of the new Russia, and inside stories of the businesses that have beaten the odds and become successful and profitable. She also exposes the conflicts and compromises that developed when red directors of old Soviet firms and factories yielded to -- or fought -- the radically new ways of doing business. She delves into the loophole economy, where anyone who knows how to manipulate the new rules can make a fast buck. Sale of the Century is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall economic thriller -- an astonishing and essential account of who really controls Russia's new frontier."

 

[Doug1943]

Your comparison with the US today is quite interesting. Maybe. But there is one drastical distinction. For the Soviet intelligentsia, the West was a model 'state' and they wanted to transform the Soviet Union following this model. The American intelligentsia doesn't have this model now.

Yes, you're absolutely right. They have no model at all. Two generations ago, they, or a large fraction of them, saw the Soviet Union as the model. Ironic.

 

[ESay]

Oh yes, Gorbachev is unpopular, and Putin is popular, and it's not difficult to understand why.

Gorbachev was a good man, but he was not sophisticated. He should have undertaken a gradual transition to a free market instead of letting the Americans (and some of his own economists) talk him into going along with "shock therapy". Above all, he should have made the Russian people the heirs of the nationalize property there, with every Russian citizen getting shares [ in investment trusts that owned a wide range of enterprises] that could not be sold for ten years. Instead, American banks helped Russian oligarchs seize the country's wealth, while lifespans and living standards plumetted.

It's very important for all Americans, Left and Right, to understand what we did to Russia, and why Putin has the support of 80% of his people now. (Yes, he also assassinates or imprisons those who oppose him. But his popularity is real.) [Libertarians: it's all your fault! Your simplistic economics seduced a generation of young Soviet economists, who jumped from the dogmas of Marxism to the dogmas of Austian Economics.]

This is all explained in this book:

Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism​

Chrystia Freeland​

"In the 1990s, all eyes turned to the momentous changes in Russia, as the world's largest country was transformed into the world's newest democracy. But the heroic images of Boris Yeltsin atop a tank in front of Moscow's White House soon turned to grim new realities: a currency in freefall and a war in Chechnya; on the street, flashy new money and a vicious Russian mafia contrasted with doctors and teachers not receiving salaries for months at a time. If this was what capitalism brought, many Russians wondered if they weren't better off under the communists.

This new society did not just appear ready-made: it was created by a handful of powerful men who came to be known as the oligarchs and the young reformers. The oligarchs were fast-talking businessmen who laid claim to Russia's vast natural resources. The young reformers were an elite group of egghead economists who got to put their wild theories into action, with results that were sometimes inspiring, sometimes devastating. With unparalleled access and acute insight, Chrystia Freeland takes us behind the scenes and shows us how these two groups misused a historic opportunity to build a new Russia. Their achievements were considerable, but their mistakes will deform Russian society for generations to come.

Along with a gripping account of the incredible events in Russia's corridors of power, Freeland gives us a vivid sense of the buzz and hustle of the new Russia, and inside stories of the businesses that have beaten the odds and become successful and profitable. She also exposes the conflicts and compromises that developed when red directors of old Soviet firms and factories yielded to -- or fought -- the radically new ways of doing business. She delves into the loophole economy, where anyone who knows how to manipulate the new rules can make a fast buck. Sale of the Century is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall economic thriller -- an astonishing and essential account of who really controls Russia's new frontier."

Yes, many people in Russia blame the West in their hardships during the 90s and say it was a deliberate policy of weakening Russia. It is possible to speculate forever whether it is true or not.

Comparisons with China aren't correct in this context. After disastrous policy of Mao, the Communist Party realised it was nowhere to go without transforming of the economy. But they realised that in time, when their grip on power was strong.

The KPSS realised the inevitability of possible fall too late, when they already became 'toxic' for the people. At some point there was literally power vacuum, that was filled by oligarchs among others.

'Shock therapy' is not unique for Russia. All of Eastern Europe applied this policy for their transformation. In some parts it worked quite well.

 

[Bleipriester]

Ukrainian staff wasted Leopard 2A4 on Polish training ground. When the tank traveled down a hill, the gun thrust into the ground and broke the turret away.

 

[whitehall]

Leaked classified documents seem to indicate that Ukraine is lost and the only people who benefit from the billion dollar aid is the military industrial complex tied to the Biden administration. Lefties used to riot in the streets over the military industrial complex until a doddering old fool became president. What's going on?

 

[the other mike]

 

[Bleipriester]

View attachment 778667

Nice truck, though.