7 ms·

sometimes you do wonder how USSR, with all these mad scientists and engineers, could ever go down

sureglymop 4y ago
To be fair they were facing pretty much the entire rest of the worlds fight against "evil communism". It's more remarkable how far they got with essentially a new way of trying things.
- heywhatupboys 4y ago
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- smdyc1 4y ago
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- jacquesm 4y ago
  What a nonsense.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    It's not nonsense that during the cold war the US & allies put sanctions and trade embargos in place for the USSR & Warsaw pact countries, similar how we have with Russia today, meaning their goods had a limited export market, plus they had restrictions on high tech imports as well leading to the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal. Also, with the USD being the global reserve currency, the USSR & Co. were dependent on the USD for trade.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      It's nonsense because it wasn't 'the rest of the world' and it is nonsense because plenty of the fight came from within the USSR. Ignoring that makes it an utterly meaningless statement. And that's before we get into parties resisting the USSR because it started wars with them.
      - sureglymop 4y ago
        Hey I just want to let you know that in my original comment I never mentioned the USSR, nor any other state or empire. The promotion of widespread fear of a potential rise of communism did happen, hence the the "evil" in quotes. I never expressed my opinion about any political ideologies nor did I want to have a discussion about that.
- aivisol 4y ago
  You can remove quotes in your sentence.
realusername 4y ago
When you can't provide basic needs to your population, it doesn't matter how good the scientists are
- jabron 4y ago
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- medo-bear 4y ago
  soviet union was actually very good at providing basic needs (food, housing, education, medical care) to its population. in fact much better than even the US does right now. that is not the reason ussr collapsed
  - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
    The poorly stocked Soviet grocery stores would suggest otherwise.
    - medo-bear 4y ago
      do you think that means that people in postwar ussr were malnurished ?
      - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
        I think they were left living in an unnecessarily bleak existence because of the failures of centralized resource allocation.
        medo-bear 4y ago
        basic needs
  - aivisol 4y ago
    Source? As the person who spent good part of my life there, I would like to know more details. I do remember my parents waiting for an government provided apartment for 15 years though.
philistine 4y ago
Stagnation killed them. Those mad scientists, and Soviet society in general, never stopped being able to make those things. It's the fact they weren't able to be more efficient, to increase their output, to give better and more food to its population that was the poison pill. The US took advantage by forcing them to increase military spending. Gorbachev tried to find a way out of stagnation and killed the whole thing instead.
mopsi 4y ago
> sometimes you do wonder how USSR, with all these mad scientists and engineers, could ever go down Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone docuseries by Adam Curtis gives a great answert to that.[1] While it may be factually inaccurate at times, it conveys the feeling those times better than anything else I've ever seen. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3hIsf7LA&list=PLSjQL8MYniTTLA3wnZ25U-s6RgR4uJNvL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3hIsf7LA&list=PLSjQL8MYni...
dragonwriter 4y ago
> sometimes you do wonder how USSR, with all these mad scientists and engineers, could ever go down An oversimplification, as any explanation that’s not way too long for this forum would be, but: a decade long war in Afghanistan without an effective democratic outlet for frustration against the regime for the failure.

To be fair they were facing pretty much the entire rest of the worlds fight against "evil communism". It's more remarkable how far they got with essentially a new way of trying things.

heywhatupboys 4y ago
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smdyc1 4y ago
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jacquesm 4y ago
What a nonsense.
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  It's not nonsense that during the cold war the US & allies put sanctions and trade embargos in place for the USSR & Warsaw pact countries, similar how we have with Russia today, meaning their goods had a limited export market, plus they had restrictions on high tech imports as well leading to the Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal. Also, with the USD being the global reserve currency, the USSR & Co. were dependent on the USD for trade.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    It's nonsense because it wasn't 'the rest of the world' and it is nonsense because plenty of the fight came from within the USSR. Ignoring that makes it an utterly meaningless statement. And that's before we get into parties resisting the USSR because it started wars with them.
    - sureglymop 4y ago
      Hey I just want to let you know that in my original comment I never mentioned the USSR, nor any other state or empire. The promotion of widespread fear of a potential rise of communism did happen, hence the the "evil" in quotes. I never expressed my opinion about any political ideologies nor did I want to have a discussion about that.
aivisol 4y ago
You can remove quotes in your sentence.

realusername 4y ago

When you can't provide basic needs to your population, it doesn't matter how good the scientists are

jabron 4y ago
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medo-bear 4y ago
soviet union was actually very good at providing basic needs (food, housing, education, medical care) to its population. in fact much better than even the US does right now. that is not the reason ussr collapsed
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  The poorly stocked Soviet grocery stores would suggest otherwise.
  - medo-bear 4y ago
    do you think that means that people in postwar ussr were malnurished ?
    - kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
      I think they were left living in an unnecessarily bleak existence because of the failures of centralized resource allocation.
      - medo-bear 4y ago
        basic needs
- aivisol 4y ago
  Source? As the person who spent good part of my life there, I would like to know more details. I do remember my parents waiting for an government provided apartment for 15 years though.

philistine 4y ago

Stagnation killed them. Those mad scientists, and Soviet society in general, never stopped being able to make those things. It's the fact they weren't able to be more efficient, to increase their output, to give better and more food to its population that was the poison pill. The US took advantage by forcing them to increase military spending. Gorbachev tried to find a way out of stagnation and killed the whole thing instead.

mopsi 4y ago

> sometimes you do wonder how USSR, with all these mad scientists and engineers, could ever go down Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone docuseries by Adam Curtis gives a great answert to that.[1] While it may be factually inaccurate at times, it conveys the feeling those times better than anything else I've ever seen. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3hIsf7LA&list=PLSjQL8MYniTTLA3wnZ25U-s6RgR4uJNvL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3hIsf7LA&list=PLSjQL8MYni...

dragonwriter 4y ago

> sometimes you do wonder how USSR, with all these mad scientists and engineers, could ever go down An oversimplification, as any explanation that’s not way too long for this forum would be, but: a decade long war in Afghanistan without an effective democratic outlet for frustration against the regime for the failure.