A History Lesson

I hope that no one is insulted by the title, but I have to teach a lesson in history. If you are insulted, then close your eyes and take a nap.

In 1917, the Russian Empire was falling. The czar, Nicholas II, and his dynasty, the Romanovs, were in decline and headed for political and personal destruction. A small, radical group, called the communists, led by one V.I. Lenin, raised enough power from the czar's unpopular and basic laissez-faire policies to throw him out of his palace on his butt!

As the years went by, Lenin brought to the people of Russia, now the Soviet Union, prosperity, equality, and renewed hope in their common future. Shortly after the revolution of 1917, Lenin died. His body still lies in repose at the Kremlin in Moscow. Yes, you can go see it if you want. It just costs a few kopeks...but now I digress.

Josef Stalin, literally the man of iron, took for himself the prosperity and glory of the Soviet people. He was a man with a giant complex of inferiority. He could never see beyond his own security and selfish goals. Even though, he beat the Nazis, even though American history will tell you otherwise, he was still a deeply disturbed man. He literally sent tens-of-thousands to the gulags in Siberia, and outright slaughtered millions more. But why? These were his people, but they were reminders of how precarious his position was. He was one small man (literally), but he commanded the masses to unyielding loyalty; therefore, if you uttered a word against him, you probably wouldn't be around to see the next day. All in all, the Soviet Union reached its zenith under Stalin. His policies and ideas for expansion would see the Soviet Union grow in technological and agragrian markets, including humanity's conquering of space.

Even though, Stalin is a hated figure today, the people of his Soviet Union seemingly adored the man (he was their "Grandfather"). His death in the early 1950s, sent the Soviet Union into a political vaccuum. The Communist Party was in disarray and fighting within itself, but one figure led the Soviet Union on out of the darkest years it had seen, Nikita Khrushchev.

Khruschev debated Vice-President "Tricky Dick" Nixon in Moscow during the late 1950s. John F. Kennedy, who was unprepared for the political genius of Khrushchev, left a conference with him feeling like he'd been horse-whipped by Khrushchev's tongue. Khruschev laid the foundations for a modern Soviet Union. He expanded Stalin's ideas and principles with one hand and denounced and belittled him with the other. Khrushchev, however, was ahead of his time, and the ruling Communist Party, whom he represented, was unprepared for his propositions and they forced him from power in the 1960s.

Khrushchev was replaced by moderate Leonid Brezhnev. Brezhnev was a party boy. He knew how to play by their rules and keep them smiling. He was also the one that sent the Soviet Union down the road of stagnation. It was during his tenure from the mid-1960s to early 1980s that the Soviet Union headed into its decline. Brezhnev was not Stalin nor Khrushchev. He lacked the vision and determination to be anything more than what the Communist Party told him to be. Brezhnev spent big bucks (or rubles) on the Soviet military and the Cold War. The Soviet Union also spent atrocious amounts of money on the "space race" with the US.

Brezhnev's death was followed by a rapid succession of leadership within a two year period. The period of 1982-1985, saw the Soviet Union under the leadership of four individuals (including Brezhnev and Gorbachev).

By 1985, Mikail Gorbachev was the youngest and last leader of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party had given him the highest position because of his youth and the embarrassment of losing so many leaders in so few years. Gorbachev, like Stalin and Khrushchev, was a tactician and visionary. He had great plans for the Soviet Union. He had to undo over twenty years of economic stagnation and failed policies of the Brezhnev-era, but he was determined to accomplish this feat.

Although, Gorbachev was a polarizing figure, he lacked the political strength to control his policies. His policies were radical compared to his predecessors and his contemporaries. The Communist Party said little at first, but they became more vocal and adament after the effects of these policies were apparant.

Gorbachev, like Nicholas II before him, was leading the Soviet Union into a trap that had been set by radical reformers within his own country, and those nations of the West, like the United States. Today, many westerners call Gorbachev a great man, but his own short-sightedness led to the collapse of what he was attempting to save, the Soviet Union. His policies were radical, but they were not beyond the scope of Communist thought and ideology.

I like to compare this to licking the spoon when you are baking a cake. Gorbachev allowed the Soviet people to lick the spoon from the cake he was making. His inability to see beyond the short term effects allowed the Soviet people to break out and go for the entire cake! How is this wrong? Gorbachev did not calculate the risks of a nation of people who were starved and devestated by twenty years of economic decline. By tasting the cake, the Soviet people rebelled for greater access to the "cake."

Now what is the point of this long-winded essay?

Today, many people attribute the fall of this "Evil Empire" to Ronald Reagan. I argue, however, that Reagan was merely at the right place at the right time. Reagan's policies did little, if anything, to facilitate the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was on the decline long before Reagan was president.

The Soviet Union's decline was a result of many factors, including Brezhnev's starving of the people--both mentally and physically, and Gorbachev's haphazard baking!

You don't give a man dying from dehydration in the desert a gallon of water to drink at once. You give him a little bit at a time until he's back on his feet and well again. Just like when you're baking and a hundred homeless people show up at your bakery, you don't let them in or they'll take over your shop!

Hence, the story of the Soviet Union.