Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (130865)	1/28/2001 2:01:11 PM
From: Joe NYC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1571808

combjelly, pete, Good points about the technology and it's impact on the elimination of the USSR. I think another component was somewhat psychological. The communism started as a bloody, ruthless regime (with some intellectual fellow travelers). It became even more so in the transition from Lenin to Stalin. Russia started out in the century very poor, with uneducated and somewhat primitive people. (fertile ground for collectivist ideas). But communism succeeded in turning the nation into well educated one, and not as poor as before. But as this happened, there was less and less apetite to continue the bloody and ruthless tradition on which the system was based. They basically disarmed themselves, by their hesitation to use the best weapon in their arsenal - terror against their own people (and enemies). I can tell you what Stalin would do in Afganistan. He would kill every living thing in the entire country, at whatever price necessary. The more modern leadership of the USSR was confused by the resistance, not willing to pay the price it would have taken to win, and had some distaste for how bloody the whole affair turned out. The same with the revolutions in Eastern Europe. It would not have taken much to suppress it. A lot less than in Afganistan, since I don't think Eastern Europeans had the appetite for a bloody confrontation. But the bloody nose they suffered in Afganistan made them fear even the feather weight opponents in the streets of East European countries. Anyway, I guess Reagan sensed some lack of confidence on part of the Russian leadership, (vs. his supreme confidence) and tested their resolve on several fronts at the same time. The Russians failed one test after another. Domesticly, it's funny how confused, out of touch and out of the loop many Democrats (in Congress) were with what was really going on, but they turned out to inconsequential. People in Eastern Europe had a better idea about what was going on, and seized the opportunity. 1989 was the end of communism as a global force, even though it lingered on a little longer inside disintegrating Soviet Union. Joe