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He claims Gorbachev actually believed he was saving socialism. Is this true? Was he actually just an idiot? It feels possible but I have always just considered him to be evil

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[-] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 15 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I do genuinely want to read a Marxist analysis of how the Soviet Union fell and the Soviet project ended up fizzling out. Im open to "well the CIA did it" but its a little trite and I suspect there's much more to it than the evil Americans merely tricked everyone. Or Gorbachev was uniquely evil, cause maybe he was or wasnt but no one person can destroy a system.

Ive read a bunch of partial analysis, but never like a book just about the 80s to 90s USSR - and not some imperialist bourgeois criticism either, like an honest Marxist analysis.

[-] frisbird@lemmy.ml 22 points 5 hours ago

The CIA did not do it. The reactionaries in the USSR did it. Kruschev was the beginning of the end. He and his faction wanted to accumulate wealth, so over the decades following his election they progressively built up the mechanisms for wealth accumulation. This is called liberalization, and it's where the technical definition of Revisionism comes from - making socialism compatible with liberalism. As this process proceeded, the economy stalled out, the inequality got bad, the repression took on an elective component instead of the necessity post revolution and pre world war. Eventually the contradictions sharpened to crisis and the liberals were firmly in charge of most important levers. They dissolved the union and became the new oligarchs.

[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 12 points 5 hours ago

I hear the chinese have a few good ones but idk if there are good translations

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 14 points 5 hours ago
[-] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 hours ago

Thanks comrade!

[-] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 5 hours ago

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[-] TerminalEncounter@hexbear.net 17 points 6 hours ago

Gorbachev wrote his own memoirs about it, which is nice as a primary source. But I dont exactly trust his own reasoning lol

this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
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