He made the correct decision. Communism had no place in Europe then and still doesn’t now.
Such a Great Man!
That Russian guy with a stain on his head
I’m realizing now that Kevin O’Leary “Mr Wonderful” from shark tank looks VERY similar to Gorbachev
By that point, after Kazakhstan became the last country to secede from the union, the USSR no longer existed in any meaningful capacity anymore.
“Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall” – Ronald Reagan
The USSR had many different economic systems through out its existence. However it is most well known for the Command Economic system. This was according to the USSR the most practical way to implement Carl Marx ideas of laborers owning the means of production. In this system private ownership or property along with private businesses and private sales was not allowed. Everything was owned by the state and since the state was elected by workers councils in a round about way the workers owned the means of production.
Since private business was banned all business were state owned. Soviet workers were no different then their Western counterparts they did the minimum amount of work possible for the maximum amount of wages. However in the Western world businesses had the pressures of the free market since any one can open a business and competition was fierce. Western business through market selection became profitable to own and operate. But in the USSR such market pressure did not exist and business were not allowed to go bankrupt. So how did the Soviets know if their state owned businesses were doing well or not?
This is where the central planning of the Command Economy comes from. The USSR had planning commissions in Moscow who’s job was to try and figure out how much of certain goods should be sold at what price and what quality. Since they did not have the free market they had to attempt to simulate the feed back of a free market. If business didn’t meet these targets they were considered bad and were targeted for closure or re-organization.
Gorbachev and the rest of the Politburo were not stupid. They realized the inefficacy of the Soviet System and wanted to improve it. They had even sent delegates to China which was testing out its reforms in several key areas. The Soviet delegation was quite impressed and wanted to implement Chinas reforms in the USSR. But through immense bungling by Gorbachev the transformation and the resulting economic crises ended up with the union collapsing under its win weight.
Crikey … it has been 30 years…. thank god it came to an end… yet it is still led by a dictator….
Most chill man in Russia. I kinda respect him for contributing to the Europe we have today (minus, you know, Russia).
I’ve heard a joke that Gorbachev becomes a professional actor after that, acting in the scene where himself resigns presidents in many movies and TV shows.
This bastard, Yeltsin, Putin and their whole gangs’ crimes are worse than Hitler’s.
12 comments
He made the correct decision. Communism had no place in Europe then and still doesn’t now.
Such a Great Man!
That Russian guy with a stain on his head
I’m realizing now that Kevin O’Leary “Mr Wonderful” from shark tank looks VERY similar to Gorbachev
By that point, after Kazakhstan became the last country to secede from the union, the USSR no longer existed in any meaningful capacity anymore.
“Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall” – Ronald Reagan
The USSR had many different economic systems through out its existence. However it is most well known for the Command Economic system. This was according to the USSR the most practical way to implement Carl Marx ideas of laborers owning the means of production. In this system private ownership or property along with private businesses and private sales was not allowed. Everything was owned by the state and since the state was elected by workers councils in a round about way the workers owned the means of production.
Since private business was banned all business were state owned. Soviet workers were no different then their Western counterparts they did the minimum amount of work possible for the maximum amount of wages. However in the Western world businesses had the pressures of the free market since any one can open a business and competition was fierce. Western business through market selection became profitable to own and operate. But in the USSR such market pressure did not exist and business were not allowed to go bankrupt. So how did the Soviets know if their state owned businesses were doing well or not?
This is where the central planning of the Command Economy comes from. The USSR had planning commissions in Moscow who’s job was to try and figure out how much of certain goods should be sold at what price and what quality. Since they did not have the free market they had to attempt to simulate the feed back of a free market. If business didn’t meet these targets they were considered bad and were targeted for closure or re-organization.
Gorbachev and the rest of the Politburo were not stupid. They realized the inefficacy of the Soviet System and wanted to improve it. They had even sent delegates to China which was testing out its reforms in several key areas. The Soviet delegation was quite impressed and wanted to implement Chinas reforms in the USSR. But through immense bungling by Gorbachev the transformation and the resulting economic crises ended up with the union collapsing under its win weight.
Crikey … it has been 30 years…. thank god it came to an end… yet it is still led by a dictator….
Most chill man in Russia. I kinda respect him for contributing to the Europe we have today (minus, you know, Russia).
I’ve heard a joke that Gorbachev becomes a professional actor after that, acting in the scene where himself resigns presidents in many movies and TV shows.
This bastard, Yeltsin, Putin and their whole gangs’ crimes are worse than Hitler’s.
The biggest of scums