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He was able to get into politburo very young because he was a good administrator and he had powerful patrons. But he became the leader of the USSR just because
by Nokinside 4y ago
He was able to get into politburo very young because he was a good administrator and he had powerful patrons. But he became the leader of the USSR just because there was nobody else. Politburo was so old that everybody ahead of him, or more power hungry than him was in hospice or otherwise not fully functioning.
Then he started finally some of the common sense reforms needed.
His intention was never to drop communism or let the soviet block to disintegrate, but things got out of hand. His greatest act was let it happen even when it was against everything he had worked for.
- epolanski 4y ago> common sense reforms Politically and in terms of press freedom, maybe. Economically it was a disaster that ruined an already stagnating growth and turned it into recession.
- 88840-8855 4y agoFully disagree. Economic reforms were trash, the Chinese did them better. Political reforms broke the system. The Chinese avoided doing them and look at them today.
- vintermann 4y agoToday they are rich and poweful, but have pretty much abandoned any pretense at worrying about capital exploitation of labour. It's a nationalist, corporatist, authoritarian state, ironically closer to Chiang Kai-shek's ideal state than Mao's, let alone Marx's. That was not the outcome he wanted. People often paper over that he was a true believer in Marxism-Leninism, unlike his predecessors.
- lenkite 4y agoThe Chinese have successfully uplifted most of their citizenry out of poverty while their neighbour India - despite a head-start - is yet to manage the same. Looks like the corporate nationalist approach works well at overcoming the lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- B1FF_PSUVM 4y agoShh, can't say that.
- mvc 4y agoOh yeah. China's a real "land of the free, home of the brave" these days. Just ask Jack Ma or Peng Shuai.