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Underfunded mandates + constant military competition + PR-driven secrecy It's worth remembering these were the other side of the "beat the Soviet Union by maki

by ethbro 9y ago

Underfunded mandates + constant military competition + PR-driven secrecy It's worth remembering these were the other side of the "beat the Soviet Union by making it economically unsustainable to maintain military parity" course charted in the late 70s & 80s. Ultimately a successful strategy, but cases like this (less so Chernobyl) can't be ignored as a consequence.

Yetanfou 9y ago
Rest assured, the Soviet government did not need any pressure from the outside to create its own version of hell on earth. If you doubt this, just read the Gulag Archipel (amongst others). The problems seen here do not relate to any western policies, they stem from the ineptitude of the Soviet government and pre-date any western attempt to topple the latter by "forcing" them to increase military spending: "The repository was constructed in the early 1960s by construction brigade soldiers from central Asian and Caucasian republics. Many did not have professional construction training, and some could not speak the Russian language."
- ethbro 9y ago
  If the accident was in 1982, I don't think attributing it solely to events at its construction in the 1960s is fair. Construction issues could have been recognize and addressed in any of the intervening ~20 years. And yes, chasing parity with the US did lead to unsustainable Soviet military GDP allocations, ultimately empowering Gorbachev with an economically- rather than ideologically-derived mandate and thus leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It's a fair argument as to whether or not this was intentionally engineered, but it's a fact that the Soviets spent roughly twice as much of their GDP on their military, and that the Soviet Union eventually collapsed for economic reasons. Soviet military spending by year: https://nintil.com/2016/05/31/the-soviet-union-military-spending/ https://nintil.com/2016/05/31/the-soviet-union-military-spen... Reallocation example under Gorbachev: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/soviet-military-budget-128-billion-bombshell.html http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/soviet-military-budg...
woodandsteel 9y ago
From what I have read, that US policy started with Reagan, who was elected president in 1981. And the Soviets, as communists, were quite clear their long-term objective was to communize the whole world.

by ethbro 9y ago

Yetanfou 9y ago

Rest assured, the Soviet government did not need any pressure from the outside to create its own version of hell on earth. If you doubt this, just read the Gulag Archipel (amongst others). The problems seen here do not relate to any western policies, they stem from the ineptitude of the Soviet government and pre-date any western attempt to topple the latter by "forcing" them to increase military spending: "The repository was constructed in the early 1960s by construction brigade soldiers from central Asian and Caucasian republics. Many did not have professional construction training, and some could not speak the Russian language."

ethbro 9y ago
If the accident was in 1982, I don't think attributing it solely to events at its construction in the 1960s is fair. Construction issues could have been recognize and addressed in any of the intervening ~20 years. And yes, chasing parity with the US did lead to unsustainable Soviet military GDP allocations, ultimately empowering Gorbachev with an economically- rather than ideologically-derived mandate and thus leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It's a fair argument as to whether or not this was intentionally engineered, but it's a fact that the Soviets spent roughly twice as much of their GDP on their military, and that the Soviet Union eventually collapsed for economic reasons. Soviet military spending by year: https://nintil.com/2016/05/31/the-soviet-union-military-spending/ https://nintil.com/2016/05/31/the-soviet-union-military-spen... Reallocation example under Gorbachev: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/soviet-military-budget-128-billion-bombshell.html http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/world/soviet-military-budg...

woodandsteel 9y ago

From what I have read, that US policy started with Reagan, who was elected president in 1981. And the Soviets, as communists, were quite clear their long-term objective was to communize the whole world.