Full podcast episode: ruclips.net/video/qa-wl8_wpZA/видео.html Lex Fridman podcast channel: ruclips.net/user/lexfridman Guest bio: Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian historian at Harvard University, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, and an author of many books on history of Eastern Europe, including his latest book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.
The Soviet Union collapsed because Rocky went over there to fight Drago and won the hearts of the people there. "If I can change, then you can change, everybody can change!" The Soviets all stood up and clapped.
Oligarchs said to this fake historian , if you spread a propaganda we will give you position in Harvard University as a professor. They gave Gorbachev Nobel prize and job in prestige university too. For what did oligarchs gave him a job ? For destroying the country. I think Reagan’s propaganda was a better propaganda than Ricky ‘s stupid propaganda which was designed for American people.
As someone born in the USSR, I completely agree with the historian. The USSR would have collapsed in more or less the same time. There are publicly accessible records of the meetings of the Supreme Soviet at the start of Gorbachev's term as a head of the party and the state. From the economics point of view, the arguments and decisions in these meetings are idiotic, these people would have driven any successful enterprise into a ground.
@@DanielOrtaMhe became a multimillionaire, if that's even true, by getting paid by whoever owns KFC. He probably wrote a few books. Lots of money in Bestsellers. Speaking engagements pay very well. "The USA" simply provided a place for him to earn.
@@DanielOrtaMIt does not stop the USSR mathematical planning tools to be absolutely and remarquably shitty and miles behind basic stuff in the west. And their implementation at a local/industrial level way, waaaayyy less widespread. Add to this 15 years of Brezhnev "stability of cadres' policy, meaning you can't oust anybody for bad practices/corruption and 20 years of dutch disease by selling oil for cheap to eastern Europe against pillaging their products, and you end up with the 80's USSR.
Nailed it. Adding: US pressure imploded the superstructure of the Soviet Bloc, and in that way really sped up this continuing trend of the historic collapse of the Russian Empire that he's talking about. The USSR froze a whole lot of things, conflicts, trends, in a lot of countries, but this collapse of the superstructure is part of this much longer trend.
Superstructure is called Communism......AMERICA IS THE NEW WORLD...ALL OF THE REST IS THE OLD WORLD.....NOW CHINA IS THE EVIL THREATENING DARKNESS AGAIN....AMERICA WILL PREVAIL AND EVEN THE SCOURGE OF HOMOSEXUALITY WILL BE DESTROYED
2:53- He is missing lots of key factors when he talks about Russia or then USSR size…they didn’t have much livable land…they did have a lot of useless land..where the United States is almost 92% livable with the ability to expand that almost to 100% other then some areas in the Arctic of Alaska (more Islands way off Alaska). That matters, you can say you have a piece of land, but if it means nothing..what is it actually doing for you? Now you could say maybe under that land is natural resources, but with out a major build up or a population willing to live in that area…the land still means nothing. Just like in China and India..who have more livable land than Russia…but do not build it up. Instead they stack the people higher up in the cities. Or just stuff more people into one room.
The Soviet Union was the last of a particular kind of empire, but I wouldn't call it the last empire. The US is very clearly an empire now and China seems to be laying the groundwork to become an empire in the future.
The US is a very powerful country but not an empire. In the days of the British Empire, London dictated everything. From culture to prices to dress code to religion and taxation. The US doesn't have this power over Mexico neither Canada despite being neighbours and far weaker.
No one can really understand or answer why Soviet Union fell. I've watched numerous content and read many books about 20th century. My mom says that leadership just got old. There were too many old people who didn't really control shiet, soviet people (among others) saw western life through TV, some were able to travel and they were done. Soviet life was miserable. Nobody wanted it anymore. So once the leadership weakened, people of different nations tried to take back control
@@NoobaLV no, I've educated my self but couldn't come to one conclusion. Because many authors and researchers claim different things and everything all at once. So I just listened to my mom who lived it.
@@NoobaLV I'm Georgian so I've read georgian authors: Guram Odisharia, David Turashvili, as well as georgian professor's work who were teaching me at the Uni. I've also read Henry Kissinger's book, read many articles about this subject and something new still pops up in my feed every now and again. But you can't really get a decisive answer. Maybe there isn't one.
@@AldoApachi-no point to talk to western marxists or russian bots my friend, I'm from Moldova, a post soviet republic as well . We here are not even close to russians, we have our language and culture , romanian one . We also chose and celebrated our independence from soviet union. I remember the stories of my grandparents and grand grandparents when i was very young , life indeed was miserable,not even compared to western Europe ,but as it, miserable. Russians were the first class citizens here , we spoke russian in gov buildings and capital city and major cities . Church was closed , our traditional orthodox hollidays and traditions were banned as well, everyone was snitching on each over , it was pretty bad ,not even speaking about the 30s 40s when my grandparents almost died of famine (they lived in a moldavian village, today's Ukraine) . Soviets literally confiscated all the food from homes and farms ....letting us die . It was in the winter of 1946-47 , if you don't believe me google "Basarabia famine 1946-1947 " It's not much info in English on yt ,but a lot in romanian, with interviews and photos from the people who survived this . Literally lived tragedy stories , everyone is talking about holodomor which was on a larger scale but just as such tragic and deadly . Communism is evil ...
Ignoring the people's demands creates change; GIVING it to them creates it even more quickly. The Soviets were *always* doomed.. because in the modern (instant global communication) age, citizens could easily compare the inferior quality of their lives to those of their Western counterparts.
@@jackncoke171North Korea starves its people to death. 101 communist playbook. Gorbachev and post Stalinist communists were all actually good people who wanted communism to work not out of spite for capitalism but for the love of their countrymen. The Soviet Union refused to starve its people to death that's why they collapsed while Venezuela and North Korea still kept their stranglehold.
@ybma6950 Democracy doesn't work. Constitutional republics and free markets do. Africa is seeing the fastest increase in its standards of living. That's down to free markets.
Communism turned the USSR from a backwards agrarian country to an industrial powerhouse capable of winning the largest land war in human civilization. But sure, it doesn't work lol
Yes. It does. China is doing amazing with it. Soviet Union didn't work cos the leaders were corrupt and was taking bribes from USA and they weren't really communist in their belief. And things got much much worse after it's collapse when it turned capitalist
@@brentsrx7Setting aside ideology and looking at everything as objectively as possible, it appears as though BOTH central planning statist socialism AND free market capitalism (which also uses central planning, but within large business corporations) have been huge failures. We need to evolve past this black and white binary way of thinking from the Cold War era to focus on building more just and efficient economic systems.
A nice review of the history of dissolution, but it misses the point. The proximate cause of collapse is the failure of communist economics. Communism lacks price signals to match supply to demand in modern economy. The underground black market, practice of "blat" managed by "tolkach," offered barely enough to limp along for two generations, 1948 -1988. Contributing - vainglorious military taking half of GDP. But it was lack of free market signals, and devastating waste of resources, that killed the beast.
The single best thing that happened to socialism everywhere. And you think otherwise you are not paying attention. The collapse of the Soviet Union was not the collapse of socialism.
One of the interesting problems related to the fall of the Soviet Union is exactly that 10s of Millions of Russians ended up in these other countries that were longer part of the Union. And it appears that they face discrimination in most of those countries... Which is interesting / unfortunate. Makes you wonder why Russia didn't just give them an option to come back home... Which would be an alternate option to the Russia-Ukraine War... The ethnic Russians and Russian speakers move to Russia, and Russia gives them homes and money to try and rebuild their lives. Fighting over ownership of land... Is primitive stuff... It only really matters if there's some critical resource connected to that land.
Problem with very nationalistic people is that they often don’t integrate into the societies of their host countries and how can you expect to be treated normall if you see yourself as something better.
Except that's not even why the war is happening. It's because NATO expanded after agreeing not to and it was until they expanded all the way to Ukraine that It forced Russia's hand to do something. Remember Russia has been invaded through Ukraine like 7 times in its history and I doubt the USA would be sitting on the sidelines if Russia or China was chilling in Mexico... *cough* Cuba....
@@stephanswanepoel2448"centuries" not even one you mean. Also, russians in Ukraine predominantly want Ukraine, not russia, telling you otherwise was a nice propaganda achievement from russia
9:10- I disagree, although the United States is a different type of power, it is still to this day on Empire that reformed the British model for Empire building. You don’t need to own a whole country, just control the major trade routes, then indirectly…you own that country. The US uses military bases, military agreements, and control of 96% of oceans to make this happen. We are an Empire that has won the world. That when countries act out of line or out of our interest…we can directly affect them.
@@konkyolife Well I'm a qualified historian and I will confirm his statement. Now why don't YOU go and study some actual history and fix your own ignorance first.
@@chickenlover657 then please stop talking about what you know and/or show it. "I know he's wrong" So we ask, "How is he wrong?" and you say "Not my job to tell you" = you everyone else: LTAsO
"mobilization from below, collapse of the centre" I'm not sure what he is referring to but my theory is that it collapsed because it was way too politicized... Too many people had their polical school diploma and acted like little caesars scuppering many chances for meaningful change... Thats why it fragmented along republican lines because that's where the actual power was and the little assrs from inside Russia couldn't become independent because practically they had no power that was all in Moscow
after listeining the first 10 minutes: to simple a thinker, to conservative, not understanding historical forces stemming from economic forces enough and world (market) systems ... but a good author of entertaining books he and his team are ... however my impression may be to much a gut-feeling ...
KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union in his book New Lies For Old. Under Khrushchev the communists adopted a new long range strategy to overcome the west and bring about the communist revolution. Part of this strategy was to take away the image of the enemy, and collapsing the USSR, was, he believed, part of this plan, a grand deception that will bring about a false sense of security in the west then ultimately disarmament of the enemy. Considering how things have played out since then, one would have to assume Golitsyn was not only credible but also extremely accurate.
Key word "defector". His theory is a useful lie for the west. I know this as a fact, because to the actual russian mind such plan would be beyond insane.
In my personal opinion. Western Civilisation was always going to collapse. You can't have an infinite growth paradigm on a finite planet - Communism or socialism being involved or not. Karl Marx's critiques are still valid. Under capitalism, everything is tainted, morals laws and policies don't mean shit under the endless power of greed if that's the only goal of capitalism, which it is currently defined as thanks to neoliberalism. The sign of a real civilisation is a society that doesn't encourage human base wants over everyone's needs.
This guy is not correct. I was in America in 1991. NO ONE wanted the rotten Soviet Union to continue. Maybe a tiny few elites but 99% of the American population wanted the USSR to fall. Only then could we consider the Cold War over. No one wanted the USSR as a "junior partner" - that is fantasy, although we did like Gorbachev. But we had high hopes for Yeltsin as well.
💥 Factors contributing to the Soviet Union collapse: interconnected processes, including ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration. 00:03 Interconnected processes of ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. 00:03 Disagreement with the sole explanation of ideology for the collapse, emphasizing factors like mobilization from below, economic collapse, and ideological implosion. 01:20 🔍 US did not intentionally cause Soviet Union collapse, as they wanted to maintain it during the Cold War. 04:22 US did not aim for Soviet Union collapse and disintegration. 04:22 Strategic documents from 1948 show US concern about Soviet collapse. 04:30 Even in 1991, US did not desire Soviet Union's collapse. 04:36 🌍 Global processes led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, inevitable due to historical and geopolitical factors. 06:39 History is full of 'what if' scenarios, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was bound to happen due to global processes. 06:39 The 20th century saw the disintegration of empires, highlighting the inevitability of the Soviet collapse in a different form. 07:26 The comparison of world maps in 1914 and 1991/1992 shows the significant changes due to empire disintegration. 07:43 🕰 Significance of Ukraine in the Soviet Union collapse and post-Soviet Russia's policies. 09:56 Post-1991 Russia shifted to a more centralized structure and increased russification. 09:56 Ukraine played a critical role in the collapse of the Soviet Union through a referendum and subsequent dissolution. 10:44 Chronology of events, including the Ukrainian referendum and dissolution of the Soviet Union, was crucial in understanding the collapse. 11:01 🔍 Analysis of Vladimir Putin's perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its significance in Russian history. 13:38 Ukraine's independence marked the end of the Soviet Union and remains crucial in current geopolitics. 13:38 Vladimir Putin's statement on the collapse of the Soviet Union was strategically timed around Victory Day celebrations.
Yeltsin withdrew Russia from the USSR to get rid of Gorbachev and to promote his own position as president of Russia to the highest political position.
Don't worry, Russia had a Military Coup a few months ago, and a lot of separatist groups came forward... it's going to be a matter of time before Russia collapses. China seems very interested in Russian territory too.
Even if that's is all true, which it isn't, why would that make him not worry about the collapse of the US? Our collapse isn't going to happen because of Russia or the russo-ukrainian war
The only two books I would recommend on this topic are from Vladislav Zubok, which as a russian-american, was highly critic but accurate of USSR's policies, and Armageddon Averted. This Ukrainian historian, of course, cannot be relied on.
His illogic makes me doubt everything he says. At 3:44, he is asked if the collapse could be attributed to pressure applied by the US, which had an interest in weakening the USSR. His answer is “no, because the US did not want the USSR to disintegrate.” If a boxer is killed during a bout, did his opponent-who had an interest in beating him up-contribute to his death? “No, because his opponent had no intention of killing him, which would create all kinds of problems.” Uh…
Just ask yourself who Sergey Plokhy is and what the political sympathies of the majority of the audience he is speaking to here are. And there is your answer. Don’t preach vegetarianism to a pack of wolves.
What's "sad" about it? A lot of independent countries gained their freedom from communism thanks to the collapse of the Soviet union. And what "American empire" are you even talking about? 🤨
it's the most aggressive tone historian i've heard which right away makes feeling he view history subjectively, not neutral. And why making such angry face with brows?
The soviet union occupied multiple countries and committed more war crimes than the Nazis. Former countrymen and historian's who know about the crimes of the state have strong feelings.
@@kallanr360 i'm not asked history memo here by the way. Subjective opinion makes you not historian but just witness of many others, you need to understand science rules. This is just shame to present emotions as any analysis. You could collect such emotions from japanese, vietnamese and arabic historians about USA crimes, which don't recognise Court in Hague by special George Bush bill, which made for a future crimes?
@@Obiamajoyisrmd since when blaming the people for opinion become a norm? Ah, yeah, cancel culture, intolerance to any critique. Shame for you, shamer from non-democracy.
@@kallanr360War crimes? Sure in WW2 maybe when they were advancing into to Nazi Germany after their whole country literally almost got wiped… but after WW2? What “War” crimes? What Wars were the soviets in, boots on the ground fighting? Sure, Afghanistan in the 80’s killing taliban, who were America’s buddies? I would tell you to research what the western counter-parts where doing during that time…
For more balanced view let's interview russian historian next, many of which independent and living in the west like Tamara Eidelman. This interview is kinda asking japanese on Hiroshima and american history, which pretending to be neutral.
I totally disagree with Serhii. Many national republics in Russia have a wide cultural autonomy, wider than in the ussr. They strongly hold and support their traditions, language, religion (especially in Chechnya). Unfortunately people who don’t live here just can’t see it in real life. Greetings from Russia.
It's interesting to consider... That the real reason that the US Civil War happened was not slavery so much as that the Confederate states wanted independence. And Lincoln decided that that was just not going to happen... That the union was critical to maintain. So, Putin's view of Soviet collapse, or the Chinese' view of Taiwan... Seems to speak to a rather common instinct. The Germans reunited West and East Germany. And even the Koreans half want North and South Korea reunited... If likely, on healthy terms, where the North Korean governmental system vanishes.
This is a common mistake people make. Sure the civil war was about states rights. But, it was about states rights to base their economies on slave labor. Saying the civil war wasn’t fought over slavery is just missing the whole point. They knew it was wrong and we fought a war over it
@@jimreplicant It was fought over the succession of the southern states. Lincoln didn't make the abolition of slaver a goal of the war from the very start, because he was afraid half of his army would drop their weapons and leave.
@@beefchampion2792 Yes, it was a smart move in his part he waited til the 3rd year of the war to free the slaves. The war was fought over slavery. The south wouldnt have wanted to succeed if it wasn’t threatened financially.
@@jimreplicant It wasn't. Here are Lincoln's own words: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
@@chickenlover657 what Lincoln wanted or said is kind of irrelevant really. The reason why the south seceded was because it felt threatened financially. Their whole way of life was dependent on the institution of slavery. In the declaration of causes given by 4 states that seceded, they clearly defend slavery, even going so far as to say that slavery was “mutually beneficial” for both parties 🤣
Do you seriously not see why George W Bush wouldnt want this. I dont think its as far fetched as you people think. Only someone with a very simplistic understanding of how the world works, would think that wasnt a possibility. If you solely think about the interest of the US I would think the continuity would have been the best of the two options for various reasons. One of the reasons would be political stability within the US. The existence of a rival like the Soviet Union provided a clear enemy, which helped rally domestic support for military spending and foreign policy initiatives. The collapse would also destabilize this balance and leave the US without a clear adversary. Look how well its gone trying to fill that void, the military complex has too much power for it not push a conflict if one doesnt exist. He also could understand that this would create geopolitical uncertainties, think about it, all the power vacuums and regional instability of former states, all this would then raise concerns about the safety and control of its vast nuclear arsenal. Clearly there was a big risk that nuclear weapons and materials could fall into the wrong hands, increasing the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. The seperation of this power could have also led to conflicts and humanitarian crisis, which would have required US intervention and resources to address, and it has. If we look at the economic end of the Cold War and collapse would mean the loss of a significant market for American goods and services, the restructuring and privatization of these new states would also affect the global economy and would lead to increased competition for US companies in global markets specially in the natural resource sectors. We could go on and on as to why a weak Soviet Union was of interest to the US and GW Bush knew the alternative was a big risk. Keeping the cold war cold had become very atainable and simple. A change would create a clusterfuck, of unknown outcomes.
@@TheKronicspiderwe have a huge problem with the inability to think critically nowadays, it makes perfect sense why wtf wouldn't want the Soviet Union to collapse, I mean we had to create a whole barrier to justify the GWOT so we had a enemy to focus on. I'm more interested in US actions within the Russian federation from 1991 to Putin becoming president
СССР не был империей. Он не подходит под это определение даже при всем желании натянуть сову на глобус После 3 минуты очень сложно стало слушать эти измышления. Если делить на периоды жизни Союза, то падение началось после смерти Сталина, когда выплыло все гнилье наружу, которое мимикрировало по коммунистов с 18 года. Если обратить внимание на экономичкскую составляющую, то саботаж начался с реформ Хрущева, которые и были направлены на подрыв экономики. В итоге на излете Союза эти псевдо-коммунисты и распяли страну на 28 сьезде проголосовав против спасения 2/3 голосов. А сами коммунисты за Родину погибли в ВОВ. А тут про дичь затирают с умным лицом для западной аудитории
NATOs continued existence beyond the Cold War is because of the possibility that Russia would one day embark on the exact kind of enterprise that they are currently attempting; reconquest of its former territories. If any country wants to join NATO, Russia is of no authority to tell them they can't. That's how sovereignty works.
NATO expansion is natural process of european entegration and effirt to end political international tenstions in the EU. But Baltic states are different. They were occopied by USSR for more than 40 years and Russia tried to colonize them.
Easy to explain. The Russian threat, which we see “frozen conflicts” (Russian physical intervention in another nation’s sovereignty) in Georgia (Ossetia, Abkhazia), Ukraine, Moldova (Transnistria) and tensions everywhere they have a border with another nation. Russian militarism. Russian strategic culture. NATO would fall apart without a Russian threat. Name a country bordering Russia, and I’ll show you their well-founded, deeply felt fear of Russian imperialism, aggression, internal meddling, cultural disruption, and outright violence. It’s why Finland and Sweden joined NATO. It’s why all those former Warsaw Pact nations joined NATO. They knew the end of the Cold War was not the end of centuries-long Russian imperial revanchism.
Also, your knowledge of history is troubling. First, Russia has nuclear weapons fielded right next to NATO and always has. For example, they have placed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, which borders on Lithuania and Poland, but which allows those weapons to range the whole of European NATO. Secondly, NATO nuclear weapons have not changed their location AT ALL since the end of the Cold War. They are all air-delivered (B61 gravity bombs) located in longstanding, well-known storage locations NOT bordering Russia (i.e., Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey). If you want to count British and French strategic nuclear arsenals, they, too are not based in areas bordering Russia.
What was a country that left Warsaw pact first after " Solidarity" movement and made others in Central and Eastern Europe to fallow? Hint: the same country that send Bolsheviks back home when they were trying to spred communism to the rest of Europe
The two biggest figures in the establishment of the U.S.S.R , Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were not Jewish so already your bullshit is just that. The Germans supported the Bolsheviks in order to destabilize Russia during WWI. No Jews required. If you're gonna go after the Jews because Karl Marx and other communists were Jewish , you'll have to also go after German Protestants like Friedrich Engels, whose parents were Calvinists. Alternatively you could also give the Jews credit for modern physics because of the work of people like Albert Enistein, Richard Feynman, Otto Stern, Gabriel Lippmann, J. Robert Oppenhimer, Hans Bethe and many others,
Full podcast episode: ruclips.net/video/qa-wl8_wpZA/видео.html
Lex Fridman podcast channel: ruclips.net/user/lexfridman
Guest bio: Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian historian at Harvard University, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, and an author of many books on history of Eastern Europe, including his latest book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.
The Soviet Union collapsed because Rocky went over there to fight Drago and won the hearts of the people there. "If I can change, then you can change, everybody can change!" The Soviets all stood up and clapped.
Oligarchs said to this fake historian , if you spread a propaganda we will give you position in Harvard University as a professor. They gave Gorbachev Nobel prize and job in prestige university too. For what did oligarchs gave him a job ? For destroying the country. I think Reagan’s propaganda was a better propaganda than Ricky ‘s stupid propaganda which was designed for American people.
“In here, there were 2 guys killing each other. But I guess that’s better than 20 million” - Rocky Balboa
Finally someone told the fucking truth
“If he dies, he dies” - Drago probably talking about the URRSS.
Dragon didn't, in fact "break" Rocky
The Soviet union collapsed, waiting for this guy to get to the point
As someone born in the USSR, I completely agree with the historian. The USSR would have collapsed in more or less the same time. There are publicly accessible records of the meetings of the Supreme Soviet at the start of Gorbachev's term as a head of the party and the state. From the economics point of view, the arguments and decisions in these meetings are idiotic, these people would have driven any successful enterprise into a ground.
Funny you say this, because Gorbachev did walk away a multimillionaire, supported by the US. He even did that KFC commercial, remember?
@@DanielOrtaMhe became a multimillionaire, if that's even true, by getting paid by whoever owns KFC. He probably wrote a few books. Lots of money in Bestsellers. Speaking engagements pay very well. "The USA" simply provided a place for him to earn.
@@DanielOrtaMIt does not stop the USSR mathematical planning tools to be absolutely and remarquably shitty and miles behind basic stuff in the west. And their implementation at a local/industrial level way, waaaayyy less widespread.
Add to this 15 years of Brezhnev "stability of cadres' policy, meaning you can't oust anybody for bad practices/corruption and 20 years of dutch disease by selling oil for cheap to eastern Europe against pillaging their products, and you end up with the 80's USSR.
"there isn't a world anymore to take over, it's just corporations"- number 2 from Austin Powers movie
Name of the movie?
Nailed it. Adding: US pressure imploded the superstructure of the Soviet Bloc, and in that way really sped up this continuing trend of the historic collapse of the Russian Empire that he's talking about. The USSR froze a whole lot of things, conflicts, trends, in a lot of countries, but this collapse of the superstructure is part of this much longer trend.
Superstructure is called Communism......AMERICA IS THE NEW WORLD...ALL OF THE REST IS THE OLD WORLD.....NOW CHINA IS THE EVIL THREATENING DARKNESS AGAIN....AMERICA WILL PREVAIL AND EVEN THE SCOURGE OF HOMOSEXUALITY WILL BE DESTROYED
The Soviet Bloc isolated itself. Its policies didn’t work. Glasnost failed.
@@Indigobolo All true.
Sounds like you don't know what your talking about
@@jimmicrackhead12 😆and you are...?
Actually, Lithuania was first to gain indepemdence from soviet unio. It is much smaller country than Ukraine, but Ukraine followed us after 😊
Very interesting. Makes me wanna do an even deeper research on this.
ooooh, be careful brother. if you learn soviet history, wait till you get to bolsheviks
didn't know Serhii Plokhy worked at U of A, a local university. Small world
That's my school!
Why don't you just ask Putin, he knows the whole 400 year history of Russia
Bro, the Tsardom of Russia alone is older than 400 years
Be nice if American leaders knew 200 years of American history
He also knows who the liars are...😂😂😂
More like 1200
I‘d rather listen to a tenured professor of history rather than a former kgb agent turned bad amateur historian.
Keep up the great work Lex!!
Gorbochov said the turning point for the USSR was Chernobyl.
It was always going to fail, and Chernobyl was a huge accelerant. They could no longer maintain the facade.
Чернобыль стал катализатором. И вскрыл множество накопившихся проблем. Главной причиной стало резкое падение качества жизни.
@@greenlantern7959 It was an accident by the working staff not due to technical problems
The biggest misconception about the Soviet Union is that it collapsed. It didnt collapse. It was discontinued.
2:53- He is missing lots of key factors when he talks about Russia or then USSR size…they didn’t have much livable land…they did have a lot of useless land..where the United States is almost 92% livable with the ability to expand that almost to 100% other then some areas in the Arctic of Alaska (more Islands way off Alaska). That matters, you can say you have a piece of land, but if it means nothing..what is it actually doing for you? Now you could say maybe under that land is natural resources, but with out a major build up or a population willing to live in that area…the land still means nothing. Just like in China and India..who have more livable land than Russia…but do not build it up. Instead they stack the people higher up in the cities. Or just stuff more people into one room.
The Soviet Union was the last of a particular kind of empire, but I wouldn't call it the last empire. The US is very clearly an empire now and China seems to be laying the groundwork to become an empire in the future.
I don't think you understand what an empire is.
The US is a very powerful country but not an empire. In the days of the British Empire, London dictated everything. From culture to prices to dress code to religion and taxation. The US doesn't have this power over Mexico neither Canada despite being neighbours and far weaker.
I don't think you realize how weak China is.
@@chickenlover657 Yeah, you're right that it could be a stretch to consider China an empire.
@@clintmeyer Maybe not.
I would like to hear more of this guy
No one can really understand or answer why Soviet Union fell. I've watched numerous content and read many books about 20th century.
My mom says that leadership just got old. There were too many old people who didn't really control shiet, soviet people (among others) saw western life through TV, some were able to travel and they were done. Soviet life was miserable. Nobody wanted it anymore. So once the leadership weakened, people of different nations tried to take back control
Interesting how you say you’ve educated yourself and the first source you name is your mother. You sure you earned read these books?
@@NoobaLV no, I've educated my self but couldn't come to one conclusion. Because many authors and researchers claim different things and everything all at once.
So I just listened to my mom who lived it.
@@AldoApachi- name the people whose work you’ve read
@@NoobaLV I'm Georgian so I've read georgian authors: Guram Odisharia, David Turashvili, as well as georgian professor's work who were teaching me at the Uni. I've also read Henry Kissinger's book, read many articles about this subject and something new still pops up in my feed every now and again. But you can't really get a decisive answer. Maybe there isn't one.
@@AldoApachi-no point to talk to western marxists or russian bots my friend, I'm from Moldova, a post soviet republic as well . We here are not even close to russians, we have our language and culture , romanian one . We also chose and celebrated our independence from soviet union. I remember the stories of my grandparents and grand grandparents when i was very young , life indeed was miserable,not even compared to western Europe ,but as it, miserable. Russians were the first class citizens here , we spoke russian in gov buildings and capital city and major cities . Church was closed , our traditional orthodox hollidays and traditions were banned as well, everyone was snitching on each over , it was pretty bad ,not even speaking about the 30s 40s when my grandparents almost died of famine (they lived in a moldavian village, today's Ukraine) . Soviets literally confiscated all the food from homes and farms ....letting us die . It was in the winter of 1946-47 , if you don't believe me google "Basarabia famine 1946-1947 " It's not much info in English on yt ,but a lot in romanian, with interviews and photos from the people who survived this . Literally lived tragedy stories , everyone is talking about holodomor which was on a larger scale but just as such tragic and deadly . Communism is evil ...
Ignoring the people's demands creates change; GIVING it to them creates it even more quickly.
The Soviets were *always* doomed.. because in the modern (instant global communication) age, citizens could easily compare the inferior quality of their lives to those of their Western counterparts.
Ask any modern liberal they'll tell you about how russia was on track to be the most advanced well fed country in the world until the us ruined them
How's that working out for people in North Korea?
@@jackncoke171 ahh right because no one ever defects from north korea
@@jackncoke171North Korea starves its people to death. 101 communist playbook. Gorbachev and post Stalinist communists were all actually good people who wanted communism to work not out of spite for capitalism but for the love of their countrymen. The Soviet Union refused to starve its people to death that's why they collapsed while Venezuela and North Korea still kept their stranglehold.
Central planning and state control of industry doesnt work.
Go to African demogracy doesn't work
@ybma6950 Democracy doesn't work. Constitutional republics and free markets do. Africa is seeing the fastest increase in its standards of living. That's down to free markets.
Communism turned the USSR from a backwards agrarian country to an industrial powerhouse capable of winning the largest land war in human civilization. But sure, it doesn't work lol
Yes. It does. China is doing amazing with it. Soviet Union didn't work cos the leaders were corrupt and was taking bribes from USA and they weren't really communist in their belief. And things got much much worse after it's collapse when it turned capitalist
@@brentsrx7Setting aside ideology and looking at everything as objectively as possible, it appears as though BOTH central planning statist socialism AND free market capitalism (which also uses central planning, but within large business corporations) have been huge failures. We need to evolve past this black and white binary way of thinking from the Cold War era to focus on building more just and efficient economic systems.
A nice review of the history of dissolution, but it misses the point.
The proximate cause of collapse is the failure of communist economics. Communism lacks price signals to match supply to demand in modern economy.
The underground black market, practice of "blat" managed by "tolkach," offered barely enough to limp along for two generations, 1948 -1988.
Contributing - vainglorious military taking half of GDP. But it was lack of free market signals, and devastating waste of resources, that killed the beast.
Oh yes, this clip will get the russian bots seething 😂
Well, as a Russian bot I can say I agree with the most part of the things said in this particular vid.
Barely scratched the surface
The single best thing that happened to socialism everywhere. And you think otherwise you are not paying attention. The collapse of the Soviet Union was not the collapse of socialism.
The reason the soviet union collapsed is because they failed to imprison everyone. 😆
One of the interesting problems related to the fall of the Soviet Union is exactly that 10s of Millions of Russians ended up in these other countries that were longer part of the Union.
And it appears that they face discrimination in most of those countries... Which is interesting / unfortunate.
Makes you wonder why Russia didn't just give them an option to come back home... Which would be an alternate option to the Russia-Ukraine War... The ethnic Russians and Russian speakers move to Russia, and Russia gives them homes and money to try and rebuild their lives.
Fighting over ownership of land... Is primitive stuff... It only really matters if there's some critical resource connected to that land.
More interesting to Russian to keep them as minorities in several of the countries for diplomatic pressure.
Problem with very nationalistic people is that they often don’t integrate into the societies of their host countries and how can you expect to be treated normall if you see yourself as something better.
Except that's not even why the war is happening. It's because NATO expanded after agreeing not to and it was until they expanded all the way to Ukraine that It forced Russia's hand to do something. Remember Russia has been invaded through Ukraine like 7 times in its history and I doubt the USA would be sitting on the sidelines if Russia or China was chilling in Mexico... *cough* Cuba....
@@stephanswanepoel2448"centuries" not even one you mean. Also, russians in Ukraine predominantly want Ukraine, not russia, telling you otherwise was a nice propaganda achievement from russia
@@stephanswanepoel2448 Crimea had autonomy, South Ossetia had autonomy, Abkhazia had autonomy..do you see any pattern?
When money drains power drains.
It is that simple.
9:10- I disagree, although the United States is a different type of power, it is still to this day on Empire that reformed the British model for Empire building. You don’t need to own a whole country, just control the major trade routes, then indirectly…you own that country. The US uses military bases, military agreements, and control of 96% of oceans to make this happen. We are an Empire that has won the world. That when countries act out of line or out of our interest…we can directly affect them.
He said the US was doing everything it could to keep the Soviet Union in tact. I'm glad that Lex has started having comedians on his podcast.
Post your Russian historical credentials/degrees and fluency level in Russian. Thanks.
@@konkyolife Well I'm a qualified historian and I will confirm his statement. Now why don't YOU go and study some actual history and fix your own ignorance first.
@@chickenlover657 chicken lover lol please post your rebuttal with specific facts and not ChatGPT responses let’s see how you do
@@konkyolife Do you believe education is free and I owe you something? Pray tell.
@@chickenlover657 then please stop talking about what you know and/or show it. "I know he's wrong" So we ask, "How is he wrong?" and you say "Not my job to tell you" = you everyone else: LTAsO
Stopped watching after this charlatan started calling the USSR an "Empire" 🤡🤡🤡
As expected, Lex did not ask about the Crimean referendum back then in 1991 and 1994.
54% of inhabitants of Crimea voted for independence in 1991. Independence from USSR
"mobilization from below, collapse of the centre" I'm not sure what he is referring to but my theory is that it collapsed because it was way too politicized... Too many people had their polical school diploma and acted like little caesars scuppering many chances for meaningful change... Thats why it fragmented along republican lines because that's where the actual power was and the little assrs from inside Russia couldn't become independent because practically they had no power that was all in Moscow
We need the competition again! They made us and we made the world. They sent firsts to space, we won. They fell, we transitioned 🏳️⚧️
after listeining the first 10 minutes: to simple a thinker, to conservative, not understanding historical forces stemming from economic forces enough and world (market) systems ... but a good author of entertaining books he and his team are ... however my impression may be to much a gut-feeling ...
KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union in his book New Lies For Old. Under Khrushchev the communists adopted a new long range strategy to overcome the west and bring about the communist revolution. Part of this strategy was to take away the image of the enemy, and collapsing the USSR, was, he believed, part of this plan, a grand deception that will bring about a false sense of security in the west then ultimately disarmament of the enemy. Considering how things have played out since then, one would have to assume Golitsyn was not only credible but also extremely accurate.
Fake collapse of the USSR and then what ??
Fake collapse of the USSR and then what ??
Key word "defector". His theory is a useful lie for the west. I know this as a fact, because to the actual russian mind such plan would be beyond insane.
In my personal opinion. Western Civilisation was always going to collapse. You can't have an infinite growth paradigm on a finite planet - Communism or socialism being involved or not.
Karl Marx's critiques are still valid. Under capitalism, everything is tainted, morals laws and policies don't mean shit under the endless power of greed if that's the only goal of capitalism, which it is currently defined as thanks to neoliberalism.
The sign of a real civilisation is a society that doesn't encourage human base wants over everyone's needs.
Capitalism is stronger than ever what are yall talking about?
This guy is not correct. I was in America in 1991. NO ONE wanted the rotten Soviet Union to continue. Maybe a tiny few elites but 99% of the American population wanted the USSR to fall. Only then could we consider the Cold War over. No one wanted the USSR as a "junior partner" - that is fantasy, although we did like Gorbachev. But we had high hopes for Yeltsin as well.
Why do you think your opinion mattered?
@@_ncko LOL - it ALWAYS matters, son.
@@TheLoyalOfficer well kid I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. You can have opinions left right and center, doesn’t mean anybody is listening.
@@_ncko You're listening, so there you go.
@@_ncko Severe mental illness reacting to a interesting comment relevant to the topic at hand.
Maybe have a historian on who can talk about how Communism in Russia was a British psyop
4:56 no he said that they shouldn't devolve into their racial hatred, speaking of Russians and Ukrainians as one people, or not...
@Aktoto1 what are you trying to say??
If you question his qualifications, check his credentials! Are public.
British Empire ended after the hand over of Hong Kong
💥 Factors contributing to the Soviet Union collapse: interconnected processes, including ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration.
00:03
Interconnected processes of ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
00:03
Disagreement with the sole explanation of ideology for the collapse, emphasizing factors like mobilization from below, economic collapse, and ideological implosion.
01:20
🔍 US did not intentionally cause Soviet Union collapse, as they wanted to maintain it during the Cold War.
04:22
US did not aim for Soviet Union collapse and disintegration.
04:22
Strategic documents from 1948 show US concern about Soviet collapse.
04:30
Even in 1991, US did not desire Soviet Union's collapse.
04:36
🌍 Global processes led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, inevitable due to historical and geopolitical factors.
06:39
History is full of 'what if' scenarios, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was bound to happen due to global processes.
06:39
The 20th century saw the disintegration of empires, highlighting the inevitability of the Soviet collapse in a different form.
07:26
The comparison of world maps in 1914 and 1991/1992 shows the significant changes due to empire disintegration.
07:43
🕰 Significance of Ukraine in the Soviet Union collapse and post-Soviet Russia's policies.
09:56
Post-1991 Russia shifted to a more centralized structure and increased russification.
09:56
Ukraine played a critical role in the collapse of the Soviet Union through a referendum and subsequent dissolution.
10:44
Chronology of events, including the Ukrainian referendum and dissolution of the Soviet Union, was crucial in understanding the collapse.
11:01
🔍 Analysis of Vladimir Putin's perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its significance in Russian history.
13:38
Ukraine's independence marked the end of the Soviet Union and remains crucial in current geopolitics.
13:38
Vladimir Putin's statement on the collapse of the Soviet Union was strategically timed around Victory Day celebrations.
What a wonderful perspective.
Time for Vlad to understand it’s done. No redo’s.
yeah keep believing the propaganda u have been told. ur country is the real empire with its tentacles in every corner of the globe
Logical perspective.
Being thick! I'm glad he explained it to me. "What was the Man-U score, again?"
Lex should explain what it’s like to sell his soul
By taking to anybody that wants to come on and have an genuine conversation?
@@andrewscott8892 Where's the conversation part?
@@chickenlover657 the whole thing is a conversation wtf are you talking about...
@@andrewscott8892 Do yourself a favor and look up that word.
Yeltsin withdrew Russia from the USSR to get rid of Gorbachev and to promote his own position as president of Russia to the highest political position.
WE ❤❤ABSOLUTELY ❤❤LOVE ❤❤Y0UR ❤❤CHANNEL 😊😊
I am more worried about thr collapse of the US
Don't worry, Russia had a Military Coup a few months ago, and a lot of separatist groups came forward... it's going to be a matter of time before Russia collapses. China seems very interested in Russian territory too.
Even if that's is all true, which it isn't, why would that make him not worry about the collapse of the US? Our collapse isn't going to happen because of Russia or the russo-ukrainian war
@@ChauvinistTroll LOL wut? Don't do LSD, kid, it's bad for you.
@@ChauvinistTroll Totally unrelated to the comment you replying to.
Sounds like the US now.
The only two books I would recommend on this topic are from Vladislav Zubok, which as a russian-american, was highly critic but accurate of USSR's policies, and Armageddon Averted. This Ukrainian historian, of course, cannot be relied on.
Vladislav Zubok should be on this pod
@LexClips will never bring him. He doesn't care to show a more balanced view
His illogic makes me doubt everything he says.
At 3:44, he is asked if the collapse could be attributed to pressure applied by the US, which had an interest in weakening the USSR.
His answer is “no, because the US did not want the USSR to disintegrate.”
If a boxer is killed during a bout, did his opponent-who had an interest in beating him up-contribute to his death? “No, because his opponent had no intention of killing him, which would create all kinds of problems.” Uh…
Just ask yourself who Sergey Plokhy is and what the political sympathies of the majority of the audience he is speaking to here are. And there is your answer. Don’t preach vegetarianism to a pack of wolves.
It's sad. In a few years you'll be asking "WHY AND HOW DID THE AMERICAN EMPIRE FALL?".
The US isn’t an empire
What's "sad" about it? A lot of independent countries gained their freedom from communism thanks to the collapse of the Soviet union. And what "American empire" are you even talking about? 🤨
There is no such thing as an American empire.. america is a free country..
@@marlonmungcal5047😂😂😂😂
it's the most aggressive tone historian i've heard which right away makes feeling he view history subjectively, not neutral. And why making such angry face with brows?
The soviet union occupied multiple countries and committed more war crimes than the Nazis.
Former countrymen and historian's who know about the crimes of the state have strong feelings.
@@kallanr360 i'm not asked history memo here by the way. Subjective opinion makes you not historian but just witness of many others, you need to understand science rules. This is just shame to present emotions as any analysis. You could collect such emotions from japanese, vietnamese and arabic historians about USA crimes, which don't recognise Court in Hague by special George Bush bill, which made for a future crimes?
@@fontenbleauyet here you are….you are literally presenting your emotions as analysis…and you don’t even recognize it! That’s the real shame
@@Obiamajoyisrmd since when blaming the people for opinion become a norm? Ah, yeah, cancel culture, intolerance to any critique. Shame for you, shamer from non-democracy.
@@kallanr360War crimes? Sure in WW2 maybe when they were advancing into to Nazi Germany after their whole country literally almost got wiped… but after WW2? What “War” crimes? What Wars were the soviets in, boots on the ground fighting? Sure, Afghanistan in the 80’s killing taliban, who were America’s buddies? I would tell you to research what the western counter-parts where doing during that time…
For more balanced view let's interview russian historian next, many of which independent and living in the west like Tamara Eidelman. This interview is kinda asking japanese on Hiroshima and american history, which pretending to be neutral.
How many of these have a chance for me and you and me in a relationship or something and then we
The Soviet union was a colonial empire. Corruption killed it
Never happened. Russia is Soviet Union 2.0 ;-(
Spoke for 16 minutes on the topic and said nothing.
China still has an empire for now.
why does he sound like hannibal actor
Lex should interview Putin.
Cause the Tucker interview went well for him? Lol
Me too
He didn't explain anything
Putin sees things in tribal terms.
I totally disagree with Serhii. Many national republics in Russia have a wide cultural autonomy, wider than in the ussr. They strongly hold and support their traditions, language, religion (especially in Chechnya). Unfortunately people who don’t live here just can’t see it in real life. Greetings from Russia.
Except that's not actually true
This dude is a dope
Russia is the last empire
China is the last empire.
Chernobyl
Not first!
lol
It's interesting to consider... That the real reason that the US Civil War happened was not slavery so much as that the Confederate states wanted independence. And Lincoln decided that that was just not going to happen... That the union was critical to maintain.
So, Putin's view of Soviet collapse, or the Chinese' view of Taiwan... Seems to speak to a rather common instinct.
The Germans reunited West and East Germany. And even the Koreans half want North and South Korea reunited... If likely, on healthy terms, where the North Korean governmental system vanishes.
This is a common mistake people make. Sure the civil war was about states rights. But, it was about states rights to base their economies on slave labor. Saying the civil war wasn’t fought over slavery is just missing the whole point. They knew it was wrong and we fought a war over it
@@jimreplicant It was fought over the succession of the southern states. Lincoln didn't make the abolition of slaver a goal of the war from the very start, because he was afraid half of his army would drop their weapons and leave.
@@beefchampion2792 Yes, it was a smart move in his part he waited til the 3rd year of the war to free the slaves. The war was fought over slavery. The south wouldnt have wanted to succeed if it wasn’t threatened financially.
@@jimreplicant It wasn't. Here are Lincoln's own words: "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."
@@chickenlover657 what Lincoln wanted or said is kind of irrelevant really. The reason why the south seceded was because it felt threatened financially. Their whole way of life was dependent on the institution of slavery. In the declaration of causes given by 4 states that seceded, they clearly defend slavery, even going so far as to say that slavery was “mutually beneficial” for both parties 🤣
Yo lex !!! Ur mum
These are some sorry viewers... 90,000 views and only 900 likes... Come on guys. It just takes a second.
"historian"
Nah, Putin is the only historian in your book right? Putin is a senile ignorant man who cherry picks what he likes from children history books 😂
Why?
He is revisionist, ukrainian liar.
...he is literally a historian. Whether you agree with him or not is beside the point.
He is a liar
Lex. Hello sir. This Dude is nonsense 😂😂 Bush wants Soviet 😂😂
The Russian bots cognitive dissonance is going through the roof 😂😂😂
Bush? Get a grip man😀
Do you seriously not see why George W Bush wouldnt want this.
I dont think its as far fetched as you people think.
Only someone with a very simplistic understanding of how the world works, would think that wasnt a possibility.
If you solely think about the interest of the US I would think the continuity would have been the best of the two options for various reasons.
One of the reasons would be political stability within the US. The existence of a rival like the Soviet Union provided a clear enemy, which helped rally domestic support for military spending and foreign policy initiatives.
The collapse would also destabilize this balance and leave the US without a clear adversary.
Look how well its gone trying to fill that void, the military complex has too much power for it not push a conflict if one doesnt exist.
He also could understand that this would create geopolitical uncertainties, think about it, all the power vacuums and regional instability of former states, all this would then raise concerns about the safety and control of its vast nuclear arsenal.
Clearly there was a big risk that nuclear weapons and materials could fall into the wrong hands, increasing the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
The seperation of this power could have also led to conflicts and humanitarian crisis, which would have required US intervention and resources to address, and it has.
If we look at the economic end of the Cold War and collapse would mean the loss of a significant market for American goods and services, the restructuring and privatization of these new states would also affect the global economy and would lead to increased competition for US companies in global markets specially in the natural resource sectors.
We could go on and on as to why a weak Soviet Union was of interest to the US and GW Bush knew the alternative was a big risk.
Keeping the cold war cold had become very atainable and simple. A change would create a clusterfuck, of unknown outcomes.
@@TheKronicspiderwe have a huge problem with the inability to think critically nowadays, it makes perfect sense why wtf wouldn't want the Soviet Union to collapse, I mean we had to create a whole barrier to justify the GWOT so we had a enemy to focus on. I'm more interested in US actions within the Russian federation from 1991 to Putin becoming president
319th view! Yayy
Putin bitches and moans, plays the victim card ad nauseum. Quite the poor excuse for a Czar.
СССР не был империей. Он не подходит под это определение даже при всем желании натянуть сову на глобус
После 3 минуты очень сложно стало слушать эти измышления.
Если делить на периоды жизни Союза, то падение началось после смерти Сталина, когда выплыло все гнилье наружу, которое мимикрировало по коммунистов с 18 года.
Если обратить внимание на экономичкскую составляющую, то саботаж начался с реформ Хрущева, которые и были направлены на подрыв экономики. В итоге на излете Союза эти псевдо-коммунисты и распяли страну на 28 сьезде проголосовав против спасения 2/3 голосов.
А сами коммунисты за Родину погибли в ВОВ. А тут про дичь затирают с умным лицом для западной аудитории
So we can blame all these problems on Jewish thought.
Explain Nato expansion and effort to mount nuclear weapons at Russian border, please...
NATOs continued existence beyond the Cold War is because of the possibility that Russia would one day embark on the exact kind of enterprise that they are currently attempting; reconquest of its former territories. If any country wants to join NATO, Russia is of no authority to tell them they can't. That's how sovereignty works.
NATO expansion is natural process of european entegration and effirt to end political international tenstions in the EU. But Baltic states are different. They were occopied by USSR for more than 40 years and Russia tried to colonize them.
Easy to explain. The Russian threat, which we see “frozen conflicts” (Russian physical intervention in another nation’s sovereignty) in Georgia (Ossetia, Abkhazia), Ukraine, Moldova (Transnistria) and tensions everywhere they have a border with another nation. Russian militarism. Russian strategic culture. NATO would fall apart without a Russian threat. Name a country bordering Russia, and I’ll show you their well-founded, deeply felt fear of Russian imperialism, aggression, internal meddling, cultural disruption, and outright violence. It’s why Finland and Sweden joined NATO. It’s why all those former Warsaw Pact nations joined NATO. They knew the end of the Cold War was not the end of centuries-long Russian imperial revanchism.
Also, your knowledge of history is troubling. First, Russia has nuclear weapons fielded right next to NATO and always has. For example, they have placed nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, which borders on Lithuania and Poland, but which allows those weapons to range the whole of European NATO. Secondly, NATO nuclear weapons have not changed their location AT ALL since the end of the Cold War. They are all air-delivered (B61 gravity bombs) located in longstanding, well-known storage locations NOT bordering Russia (i.e., Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey). If you want to count British and French strategic nuclear arsenals, they, too are not based in areas bordering Russia.
What was a country that left Warsaw pact first after " Solidarity" movement and made others in Central and Eastern Europe to fallow?
Hint: the same country that send Bolsheviks back home when they were trying to spred communism to the rest of Europe
NINETY NINETY NINETY ONE
Funny that Jewish Friedman doesn’t explain the Soviet Union’s rise.
Why would a Jew leave that part out, I wonder?
Not really. You're antisemitic. You decided it's "the jews" first and then tried to justify that conclusion afterward.
The two biggest figures in the establishment of the U.S.S.R , Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were not Jewish so already your bullshit is just that. The Germans supported the Bolsheviks in order to destabilize Russia during WWI. No Jews required. If you're gonna go after the Jews because Karl Marx and other communists were Jewish , you'll have to also go after German Protestants like Friedrich Engels, whose parents were Calvinists. Alternatively you could also give the Jews credit for modern physics because of the work of people like Albert Enistein, Richard Feynman, Otto Stern, Gabriel Lippmann, J. Robert Oppenhimer, Hans Bethe and many others,
1991, birth of gulf war and the super Nintendo! What an amazing year, i was 4 years oldeÿù ft 5⁵in cave ⁸in 6⁶⁶😊was ⁷⁶⁶