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The way I remember as a far off observer was the Soviet Union went through a few very old and ineffective leaders after Brezhnev died, while their war in Afghan
by michaelwww 4y ago
The way I remember as a far off observer was the Soviet Union went through a few very old and ineffective leaders after Brezhnev died, while their war in Afghanistan drained resources so they couldn't possibly keep up with Reagan's Star Wars initiative. Gorbachev was a young, vital fresh face with new ideas that they had to go with to try to reform and survive.
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoIt was a gerontocracy, with old dryed husks dying on the throne pre gorbachev. It was also mostly resource exporting back then, econimically dependent on the west. The oil prices during the gulf war killed them.
- vintermann 4y agoWe call it a gerontocracy, but all those guys were considerably younger than the current and previous US presidents, at 79 and 76 respectively.
- CRConrad 4y agoBut with the Soviet healthcare regime of the time (mainly, I'd guess, smoking like fucking chimneys), their effective age was probably at least that of Drumpf and Biden. To take a President more contemporary to Andropov and Gorbachev: Jimmy Carter is still around, at 97.