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Mikhail Gorbachev has died

(www.reuters.com)
970 points homarp | 6 comments | 30 Aug 22 20:37 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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publicola1990 ◴[31 Aug 22 03:22 UTC] No.32658007[source]▶
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.

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1. badrabbit ◴[31 Aug 22 04:31 UTC] No.32658398[source]▶
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 He saw a cruel world made by people and tried to fix it, but for humans, the root cause is always superseded by basic needs.
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2. the_other ◴[31 Aug 22 08:38 UTC] No.32659811[source]▶
> 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.

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3. 0dayz ◴[31 Aug 22 09:54 UTC] No.32660211[source]▶
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.
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4. badrabbit ◴[31 Aug 22 12:47 UTC] No.32661373[source]▶
But you have to feed and shelter people properly before trying to change them.
5. badrabbit ◴[31 Aug 22 22:35 UTC] No.32669222[source]▶
Look at China, so long as the economy is good the people mostly don't care about communism/politics.
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6. 0dayz ◴[01 Sep 22 10:08 UTC] No.32674308{3}[source]▶
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.