Mikhail Gorbachev has died

Say what you will, he seemed a politician very keen on world peace, beyond mere lip service. He understood the lacunae of the Soviet system and genuinely set about to reform them. But ultimately it was Ethno-national interests in Ukraine, Baltics and Central Asian republics along with the rise of opportunist power-grabbers like Yeltsin that did him and Soviet Union in.

And perhaps his own reluctance to follow the Chinese model. He prefered to do political reforms before economic ones, while the Chinese prefered the economic reforms first and foremost.

He ended the war in Afghanistan. He was more keen on Nuclear disarmament than Western leaders: Western leaders dragged their feet on that matter, and ultimately we didn't get no where near Nuclear disarmament.

He ushered in reforms. See the Soviet films of the period to see a very different picture from cold war era Hollywood depictions.

That was a very human mistake to prioritize politics (people) over essential root-causes (money). I am convinced that for most people, their development years (pre-adolescent) shape them, and for Mikhail, the experiences of his father and maternal grandfather as he witnessed as a child shaped him. He saw a cruel world made by people and tried to fix it, but for humans, the root cause is always superseded by basic needs.

As a historical overview, I like Kevin Spacey introducing the Scorpions for "Winds of Change" (Gorbachev's 80th birthday party):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huQL5SHpFJ0

Now we're right back in the Cold War, tensions right up around Able Archer level, ready to torch much of the world on another misunderstanding. No, you won't hear about it on social media but I bet all the nuclear submarine commanders have been doing extra drills lately, what?

As far as economics, what did Russia ever have that China didn't? An absence, that's what China had. An absences of lucrative fossil fuel reserves to sell to Western countries, isn't that the Russian resource curse model? What if Europe stops buying Russian gas? But China never had any gas to sell, just rice. Now, what, we'll all be buying Chinese silicon instead? Why didn't Russia develop modern tech, while China did?

Putin would have got on just fine with Wall Street, like Mohammed Bin Bone Saw Sultan did, but he didn't sign up for petrodollar recycling, so war. Not much more to it than that, really. Same with Qadafy, Sadam, etc. Old dying empires are so ugly on their way down aren't they?

> That was a very human mistake to prioritize politics (people) over essential root-causes (money).

I guarantee you that people existed before money, and that people create(d) money. People are the root cause.

In general I agree, but the key point is that that is only true until either those basic needs are meet or the promise was shown to be a lie.

But you have to feed and shelter people properly before trying to change them.

Look at China, so long as the economy is good the people mostly don't care about communism/politics.

> And perhaps his own reluctance to follow the Chinese model.

I always thought it was the other way. The Chinese saw what Gorbachev did and didn't like the results. June 4th (this was 1989, where Gorbachev's reforms were well on their way) was the turning point where the CCP decided collectively to conclusively reject political reforms and crack down on those who insisted on them. I think the hardliners in CCP felt vindicated when USSR disintegrated a short while after believing they dodged a similar bullet by the crackdowns.

That's very skewed, at the moment yes Chinese people aren't interested in demands, but you can 100% already get a taste that if the ccp doesn't back off / reform certain areas of society people will demand change.