Soviet Collapse Article

[Hae-Yu]

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25991,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

Interesting article on the collapse of the soviet empire with grain and oil as the culprits and reasonable arguments to back it up. Not a long read at all, presented to the AEI from the former Russian Prime Minister/ minister of the economy, Yegor Gaidar.

[LaRoacha2]

Just out of curiosity, do you wonder if that's why Pol Pot took a 180 degree stance and made everyone outside of the political leadership in Cambodia a peasant farmer? Neither tack worked out well, but in the absence of Pol Pot unnecessarily making a enemy of Vietnam, which ideology would have been more successful?

[Hae-Yu]

repost

[Hae-Yu]

I don't think Pol Pot took it 180 degrees. Same plan, different circumstances. He basically believed the same thing as all the others who believe in central planning: I have an idea of how society should best be organized and I am going to do so regardless of how many people it kills.

His policy of targeting intellectuals was normal. Under ANY country that has fallen to Communist rule, the first people eliminated are intellectuals. Allied revolutionary parties become state enemies the day after the revolution. Pol Pot and his cronies were educated in French schools - the only schools available. Therefore their primary threats to power were others who had been educated.

Next, all ethnic differences were crushed. All those outside the "norm" are made to conform.

Finally, in each society certain elements represented intrinsic barriers to The Plan. In Russia, peasants desired to own their own plot. But that's a no-no so the peasants were relocated and starved in Russia. In Cambodia, cities are seats of commerce which naturally leads to capitalism. In pacified areas, the CPK found that exterminating capitalism from the cities was impossible due to the underground economy and the natural ways of conducting affairs (business). Therefore, they decided that cities weren't conducive to socialism. So in all cases, those who didn't neatly fit into the socialist model were relocated around and starved.

[thegreaterbad]

Excellent post Hae, I love european history and I dont think I was ever taught in school exactly why the Soviet Union did collapse...It was pretty much Cold War...then Soviet Union collapses, I really dont even know if my history teacher even knew. :lol: