The Last Empire - how it survived so long

Hoover Digest ^ | 2000 | Richard Pipes

[FerdieMurphy]

BTTT.

Good article!

[Fiji Hill]

I recommend Vixi, Pipes' autobiography.

[A. Pole]

Russia is bad?

[Darkwolf377]

But Gorbachev turned out to be a weak, vacillating politician, unable to decide between progress and stability. In the end, against his own wishes, he eviscerated the system that still had some life left in it.

DOn't you love how the left instantly went into high spin when the Soviet Union came apart, denying Reagan had ANYthing to do with it, and pointing to Gorbachev's complete failure to reinvigorate the USSR and saying "He MEANT to do that!" And Gorby of course went along with it--"Yeah, yeah, this was my plan all along!" I don't recall if he ever said this explicitly, but he certainly didn't stop people from praising him for his "master plan"--didn't he win the Nobel Preace Prize? What a joke.

[BenLurkin]

They are trying for a comeback -- and they will be back in black.

[GSlob]

"delay ...brought discredit on the government."
From Pipes one would expect better. That government never enjoyed much credit to begin with. For a while, there was a sort of "social expansion" - industrialization, expansion of education etc. - and this created millions of opportunities for personal advancement, and a modicum of optimism [tempered by the purges, when the herd of those who had advanced too far had to be thinned]. Once that "expansion phase" petered out, whatever "credit" the government could have had, petered with it.

[ChocChipCookie]

Actually, I have wondered for a long time what will eventually cause the end of the American empire. One of these days, hundreds of years from now, archaeologists will dig up ruins and will piece together what caused our decline. I wonder what conclusions they'll come to? :o)

[Nowhere Man]

Bump. Interesting article.

[mjp]

Actually, I have wondered for a long time what will eventually cause the end of the American empire. One of these days, hundreds of years from now, archaeologists will dig up ruins and will piece together what caused our decline. I wonder what conclusions they'll come to? :o)

liberals

[norraad]

Liberals & sissy a$$ed, whimppy new age girlie men, or am I being redundant again?

[rjp2005]

They forgot Fatima.

[Buffettfan]

If it is not stopped by us conservatives, the trojan horse known as "illegal immigration" will allow terrorists to carry WMD's across our southern border to write the final chapter on our great nation. God bless America and 230 years of prosperity and freedom.

Semper Fi'
Jarhead

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Before proceeding to discuss the various explanations of the Soviet collapse, a few words need to be said about the problem of historical "causes." Probably no issue is harder for the historian to deal with because causes are disparate: they may be incidental, they may be substantive, or they may be long term; in any case, in each humans play a progressively diminishing role.

Interesting article.

However I don't agree with the last asscertion: "humans play a progressively diminishing role."

Communism and socialism are stupid ideas. Anyone with two brain cells can figure that out. "Humans" that advance these ideas are either stupid or evil or both.

Stupid and evil people deserve stupid and evil governments. QED

[GarySpFc]

DOn't you love how the left instantly went into high spin when the Soviet Union came apart, denying Reagan had ANYthing to do with it, and pointing to Gorbachev's complete failure to reinvigorate the USSR and saying "He MEANT to do that!"

How very, very true. Ronald Reagan stated, "The march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history." The PPC (Phony Patriot Club)joins with the Left in denying Ronald Reagan was right and won the Cold War, with their "The fall of the Soviet Union was a KGB ruse." Only an imbecile can fail to see Reagan was correct on all counts in challenging the underlying philosophy and predicting the downfall of the Soviet Union. He clearly recognized the moral evil and weaknesses of the system and her masters knew it. PPC members exhibit the same spiritual poverty and weaknesses in having faith in the strength of the Soviets, and at the same time lacking faith in the strengths of America and her virtues.

[Malesherbes]

Without quarreling with the main thrust of this excellent article, I would make a small quibble about the introduction. It has become accepted (starting maybe with Gibbon) that Rome did not fall but slowly declined (a whimper not a bang.) But recent scholarship indicates that there was in fact a precipitate fall with a radical drop in the standard of living - from a high civilization to subsistence living. High civilizations, including our own, are fragile and cannot withstand the loss of the strenghts that made them high.

[Tailgunner Joe]

But Putinistas insist that it was Russians that overthrew the non-Russian controlled Soviet Union and that Gorbachev dimantled the Soviet Union because he was the first Russian to be its leader.

[x5452]

The Third Rome is rising from the ashes, and the evil athiest socialist EU will be its enemy.

[investigateworld]

Ping

[Romanov]

Good article. Of course it's Pipes, so I expect nothing less.

"In their pursuit of utopia, the Communists violated everything we know from anthropology that human beings, even in the most primitive circumstances, desire and practice. They virtually outlawed religion, property, and free speech, which are common to all societies, regardless of their level of civilization. Any regime that deliberately sets out to repress these institutions is inherently unstable and therefore prone to be fatally affected by adverse developments, whether of an incidental or substantive nature, developments that normal societies readily absorb."

One correction I would make is that while they "outlawed religion" they attempted to replace it with their own brand of religion - the worship of Lenin as a good like figure, and then Stalin.