Quote:
Originally posted by FlamesAddiction@Sep 30 2004, 09:30 PM
Personally, I think the propaganda war played the biggest role in the fall of the Soviet Union. Not that economic factors, and military spending weren't important factors too, but I downplay their role.
The U.S. and west in general, promoted itself and convinced almost a whole generation of young Russians that "blue jeans and rock music" (American images in general) were good things. Gorbachev saw the writing on the wall and had to modernize, and I personally don't think the arms race was all that significant. If anything, it only made things worse dor a while as it created and perpetuated the "good-guy/bad-guy" theme of the Cold War. Once Gorbachev made concessions to the liberal movement in Russia, it couldn't be controlled until communism fell.
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Unfortunately for the Soviets, blue jeans and rock music were a legitimately good alternative to, umm,
not blue jeans and not rock music.
On a related note... a friend of mine grew up in Pilzn (Czech) and to hear her tell it, the only people that bought into the system, as opposed to just paying appropriate lip service to it, were mocked and ridiculed (including her own grandfather). With that kind of attitude in the "member states", it was doomed no matter how many times Bon Jovi was allowed to play in Moscow.