The passing of the Soviet Union 25 years ago this week.

Tidewater · Dec 25, 2016

How three men signed the USSR's death warrant
The tone of this BBC story is that the demise of the USSR was a sad event. The USSR was a lying, thieving, murderous regime, the demise of which every decent human would cheer.
But not apparently, the BBC, which seems quite sad that the USSR is gone.
I say good riddance. One of America's greatest achievements was throwing that horrible philosophy on the dustbin of history.

81usaf92 · Dec 25, 2016

Tidewater said:
How three men signed the USSR's death warrant
The tone of this BBC story is that the demise of the USSR was a sad event. The USSR was a lying, thieving, murderous regime, the demise of which every decent human would cheer.
But not apparently, the BBC, which seems quite sad that the USSR is gone.
I say good riddance. One of America's greatest achievements was throwing that horrible philosophy on the dustbin of history.

I will say this, Stalin's first 5 year plan is probably one of the greatest contributions to the Western World in the 20th century. With fading powers in the old western world (France and Britain), and an isolationist USA, Hitler's reign probably is much longer and the US is probably in the millions in terms of war deaths without it. I doubt Stalin had a crystal ball to forsee the good consequence of the 5 year plan, but its hard to ignore the effects of it. Does that excuse him for the purges during this time??? hell no, he is still one of the most deplorable, evil, and beyond redemption human beings to ever walk this earth.

But it is the single most important contribution that the Soviet Union produced in its reign from 1922 to 1991, and probably the only one of them that has any real significance.

FWIW Stalin probably added more deaths to Hitler's body count by purging his own officer corps before the German attack. So Stalin clearly didn't have a crystal ball or any long term strategic plans. smart move Joe

selmaborntidefan · Dec 25, 2016

Tidewater said:
How three men signed the USSR's death warrant
The tone of this BBC story is that the demise of the USSR was a sad event. The USSR was a lying, thieving, murderous regime, the demise of which every decent human would cheer.
But not apparently, the BBC, which seems quite sad that the USSR is gone.
I say good riddance. One of America's greatest achievements was throwing that horrible philosophy on the dustbin of history.

"Freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history."
President Reagan
June 8, 1982

(He was ridiculed at that time and also five years later at the Brandenburg gate - but the man was correct here).

LA4Bama · Dec 25, 2016

Thank you for posting the article.

I must say the article seemed very matter of fact to me. Hard to detect a value judgment at all, much less sadness. I found the information about the spying, manipulative secret service intriguing.

TIDE-HSV · Dec 25, 2016

I've always thought this quote by Putin was very insightful:

People in Russia say that those who do not regret the collapse of the Soviet Union have no heart, and those that do regret it have no brain.

Tidewater · Dec 25, 2016

Any reference that does not mention what a bunch of lying, thieving murderers the Soviets were is missing the big picture. Clearly, the "bad guys" in the story were the three heads of state that finally buried the Evil Empire.

TIDE-HSV · Dec 25, 2016

Tidewater said:
Any reference that does not mention what a bunch of lying, thieving murderers the Soviets were is missing the big picture. Clearly, the "bad guys" in the story were the three heads of state that finally buried the Evil Empire.

I'd say that it's more that they were portrayed more as blunderers who weren't cognizant of the consequences of what they'd done - that, rather than having malice. I'd have a hard time disagreeing with that. In fact, I'm not sure Gorbachev himself or any other leader had even a semi-clear idea of where things were heading...

Tidewater · Dec 25, 2016

If I was a Ukrainian, in light of the Holodomor, I'd consider killing the USSR one of the greatest of national achievements.

Tidewater · Dec 27, 2016

Shushkevich responds to Gorbie's criticism.

Shushkevich said:
“I did not think about it when I was signing, but when I studied the 'Yugoslavia variant,' I am pretty convinced that we prevented civil war on the territory of the Soviet Union,” says Stanislav Shushkevich to VOA in his home office.

As for Gorbie's critique:

The Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, told Russia’s Interfax news agency this month the men wanted to get rid of him and were power hungry. “Complete rubbish! I was never obsessed to hold power,” says Shushkevich. “And believe me, I could have maintained power, but I would have acted against my conscience.”

As for Putin's ambitions:

“It is not the Soviet Empire that he wants to restore, but the Russian one,” argues Shushkevich. “He wants to make Russia dominate those lands and those countries that it used to dominate.”

So here's a toast to the demise of the Soviet Union. Long may it stay dead.

CullmanTide · Dec 27, 2016

Tidewater said:
Any reference that does not mention what a bunch of lying, thieving murderers the Soviets were is missing the big picture. Clearly, the "bad guys" in the story were the three heads of state that finally buried the Evil Empire.

But has anything changed really?

Tidewater · Dec 31, 2016

I would say ideology. 50 years ago there were folks in Latin America and Africa buying that Communist crap the Soviets were selling. Nowadays no one in Latin America or Africa is buying Panslavism.
And Communism has largely been consigned to American college campuses.

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