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kleinbl00 · 3563 days ago · link · · parent · post: Russia opposition politician Boris Nemtsov shot dead
Have you read The Dead Hand? It offers an explanation for the fall of the Soviet Union better than any I've read; the old-schoolers up to Chernenko were all kleptocrats that understood perfectly that the sham that was Communism was supported wholly by the black markets, nepotism and the nomenclatura system while Gorbachev legitimately believed in Communism. So when Gorbachev instituted all these reforms so that Communism could work as intended, the whole artifice crumbled around his ears. It's a hell of a book. As the guy who turned me onto Richard Pipes, I'd be remiss in not recommending it.