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Mikhail Gorbachev has died

(www.reuters.com)
970 points homarp | 4 comments | 30 Aug 22 20:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.766s | source
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lapcat ◴[30 Aug 22 21:07 UTC] No.32655071[source]▶
The United States didn't do enough to help Russia transition to democracy in the 1990s. There was no "Marshall Plan" after the Cold War like there was after World War II. This was a huge mistake, and we see the consequences now, with Russia having turned back toward totalitarianism and imperialism. Sadly, it seems that Gorbachev's efforts were mostly for naught. But it was courageous at the time to open up the Soviet Union to glasnost and perestroika.

Of course Yeltsin was a big part of the problem too.

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duxup ◴[30 Aug 22 21:18 UTC] No.32655216[source]▶
The locals in power have to want to do it too. As soon as enough don’t want it, it is over.

I’m skeptical of the idea that you can impose Democracy.

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lapcat ◴[30 Aug 22 21:25 UTC] No.32655325[source]▶
> I’m skeptical of the idea that you can impose Democracy.

We didn't need to impose democracy. Russia had democracy for a time. The Marshall Plan was about economic investment. The transition from communism to capitalism was a very rough one for the Soviet people, and that's a big part of why democracy failed.

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1. JumpCrisscross ◴[30 Aug 22 21:32 UTC] No.32655404[source]▶
> Marshall Plan was about economic investment. The transition from communism to capitalism was a very rough one for the Soviet people, and that's a big part of why democracy failed.

It was also about stabilising a war-torn continent’s economy. To keep them from going communist.

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2. munk-a ◴[30 Aug 22 21:37 UTC] No.32655460[source]▶
And it would've made a lot of sense to re-apply it here since Russia has clearly gone in a strongly authoritarian direction and is invading its neighbors. It's a pretty clear example of a destabilizing actor in the region.
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3. JumpCrisscross ◴[30 Aug 22 23:01 UTC] No.32656287[source]▶
> it would've made a lot of sense to re-apply it here

Absolutely agree with you. Long-term, I think the stable state for Russia is a deconstruction of the old empire and a global commitment to Marshall Plan the resulting republics into modernity.

4. gernb ◴[31 Aug 22 05:23 UTC] No.32658684[source]▶
How would you have applied it? Japan surrendered so they had a lot less say in how things where handled. No such thing happened with the USSR/Russia.