Posted on 06/28/2004 5:27:09 PM PDT by qam1
The Economist put it most succinctly. After Ronald Reagan died, the magazine placed a photo of him on its cover with the words: "The man who beat communism." Others said much the same.
Now in Sunday's Outlook section, James Hershberg, a Russia expert at George Washington University, says: Wait a minute. It's a lot more complicated than that. If you were to pick one person who ended Soviet communism, it would be Mikhail Gorbachev. If you were to pick a few more, you'd add the Beatles and the counter-culture they represented to a generation of Russians. And then you'd have to mix in all the other factors that led to the stagnation, and ultimately to the unraveling, of the Soviet empire from within. Moreover, while Reagan uttered some stirring lines about the Soviet bloc, he fundamentally did not break with the policy of containment followed by every previous president since Harry Truman.
Hershberg says the exaggeration of Reagan's role reflects a dangerous American habit of neglecting the world's complexity in favor of a sentimental, simplistic and self-centered portrait of a vast, important phenomenon.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
For me "enjoy" works. I always enjoy seeing stupidity on ostentatious display, as here.
Actually, in the early 20th century Russia was well on its way to industrialization. It is a western myth that this was an "undeveloped peasant society", although I'm quite sure it had it's share of uneducated ignoramuses, just as we so obviously do today.
Russia had a very well developed system of railroads, and was hugely agriculturally productive. Russia didn't manage to recover pre-revolution agricultural production until 1953. That's a far more accurate view of the wonders of Communism than any mythic Stalinist romanticism about the soviet worker's paradise.
To this typical denizen of the deep thinhker outpost in Ithaca, New York, I'd recomment "Utopia in Power", by Mikhail Heller and Aleksandr M. Nekrich.
Sad to say, I do not know whay bc2 was banned. He is still banned although he does read posts here. I wish I could still grab the "R&R PING list".
I would always credit Lech Walesa more than Gorby for the downfall of Soviet communism.
We did have an "industrial" revolution but I doubt that it was widespread across the regions.
Consider too that eastern Europe had civilization 1,000 years old.
America was barely 300 years "settled" (and much less for the western regions).
It wasn't the Beatles that did ended the Russian Empire, it was Louis "Sachmo" Armstrong who made many trips to Russia playing that American Music called Jazz.
(Sorry if it's already been said - I'm too anxious to read all replies!)
Back when, liberals did the all-hail Mikhail. This is no different.
The funny thing about this statement by this genius is that Mikhail Gorbachev was STILL a communist. He basically wanted to SAVE the USSR, not destroy it!
So how can Gorbachev possibly be the #1 man responsible for the downfall of something he wanted to preserve?
Ah, I get it - his INCOMPETENCY?
"It's a lot more complicated than that. If you were to pick one person who ended Soviet communism, it would be Mikhail Gorbachev."
Actually, I agree that ANYTHING is more complex than just 1 factor in changing anything. That's just the way life is.
However, he equivicates by naming a "1 person" - i.e., a primary reason.
Just that he should put "Ronald Reagan" as a primary reason, as well as being the nail in the coffin.
Disagree. By this past century we were on top as far as development was concerned. (I'm not counting world-POWER status.) We were far advanced compared to almost all - by that period we owned most of the great inventions and monopolized on innovation. It was just our unlimited system that put it to that point.
The industrial rev in the US was already some 70 years old. The railroads were 2nd to none - on a HUGE country. That's plenty of time before 1900 to have great influence.
BTW, the SF earthquake was 1906. Not that I understand what natural disasters have to do w/status!
It's true that our railroads were second to none (by a factor of ten times in terms of trackage), but it might surprise you to know that in 1910 Russia was number two and had more track than Canada, Britain, France, or Germany.
Communism stopped Russian development in its tracks and set them back by decades.
The myth that the Communists took a backward pesant society and industrailzed it through sheer dint of will is pure crap.
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