Неплохая книга о причинах распада СССР (рецензия)

Anna · 29 фев 2004

Вот попалась на глаза рецензия на книгу, где, если верить рецензенту, распад СССР объясняется исходя исключительно из внутренних причин (а не вмешательства Запада, что разозлило, судя по всему, некоторых читателей на американском Амазоне). Может, кто читал уже, книжка не новая.

Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000

Kotkin dismisses the oft-cited explanations that emphasize increased U.S. military spending and the failure of central planning, arguing that as late as 1985 the Soviet Union was “lethargically stable” (p. 2). Instead, he blames attempts -- first initiated by Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization effort and culminating in Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika, glasnost, and democratization -- to reform a system that was inherently incapable of reform. To offer only an explanation of the Soviet Union’s collapse, no matter how compellingly argued, however, is unsatisfactory because that explanation leaves too many questions unanswered. Why were the reforms undertaken? Why did the Soviet elites not resist them? What effect did the Soviet legacy have on the reforms? By considering these questions, Kotkin provides a deeper understanding of the Soviet Union’s astonishing collapse.

Kotkin’s first and second chapters pertain to why reform was undertaken. To say that competition between the superpowers was keen in the post–World War II era would be superfluous. The arms race, the space race, and the Olympic games are common examples, and even the 1972 world championship chess match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer seemed less about chess and more about whether “our guy” could beat “their guy.” Kotkin omits references to these competitions, however, because the competition that mattered most fundamentally was societal: Which country (or system) could produce a society of abundance and justice? Kotkin writes that “from its inception, the Soviet Union claimed to be an experiment in socialism, a superior alternative to capitalism,” and “if socialism was not superior to capitalism, its existence could not be justified” (p. 19). This competition is the one that the Soviet Union lost, despite the temporary surge in oil prices in the 1970s that buffered its decline and wreaked havoc on Western economies. Indeed, as the years passed, Western economies grew while the Soviet economy stagnated. Add the strains of maintaining its satellite nations and of suffering severe environmental degradation, and the impetus for reform becomes clear. Besides losing the competition with the West, the Soviet Union faced an even less pleasant reality: socialism was not living up to its own ideals.
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According to Kotkin, what made Gorbachev’s reforms so risky, far riskier than Gorbachev ever realized, was that he, unlike Khrushchev, did not have an ideological safety net. Whereas Khrushchev could say that socialism’s failure was owing to Stalin and that reforms would restore “Leninism,” when Gorbachev acknowledged socialism’s need for reform, the only possible conclusion was that socialism itself was inherently flawed. In the end, the Soviet Union could not afford the superpower competition. Its economy was underperforming, and its ideology was bankrupt. It withdrew from Afghanistan and gave up eastern Europe. In August 1991, conservatives tried to restore the old order, but their attempt failed with Boris Yeltsin’s standing triumphantly and defiantly atop a Soviet tank. With nothing to hold the Soviet Union together, it disintegrated without the bloodshed that many had believed inevitable.
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Stas · 29 фев 2004

Да и здесь на форуме уже был спор на эту же тему. Я лично согласен с автором книги - развал CCCР произошел по внутренним причинам и никакие происки ЦРУ тут не при чем. Это был закономерный результат всей его предидущей истории.

Xitpij_Laban · 1 мар 2004

Народ, а вам еще не надоело?!

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Неплохая книга о причинах распада СССР (рецензия)

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Неплохая книга о причинах распада СССР (рецензия)

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