The Express

Gorbachev revealed real reason behind Soviet Union's collapse was NOT fall of Berlin Wallr Gorbachev is still a divisive figure in his homeland as many Russians still associate him personally with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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The former USSR leader said: "As long as weapons of mass destruction exist, nuclear weapons, the danger is colossal."

He also warned relationships between Russia and the West remain in a “chilly war" despite the official end of the inactive conflict three decades ago.

He said: “Look at what’s happening, in different places there are skirmishes, there are shootings.

”Ships and aircraft are being sent here, there and everywhere, this is not a situation we want."
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The fall of the Berlin Wall is widely seen as the symbolic moment when communism in Eastern Europe – started by Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik revolution in 1917 – was brought to an end.

However, Mr Gorbachev revealed his real thoughts on what caused the fall of communism during a 2006 interview, during which he claimed it was nothing to do with his desire for reform.

He also stopped short of highlighting the importance of the Berlin Wall coming down, instead noting the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 as the pivotal moment in the fall of the Soviet Union.

He said: “The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, even more than my launch of Perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1199763/world-war-3-mikhail-gorbachev-soviet-union-berlin-wall-chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-spt

MrBrownJay1:
does he even remember, since he was drunk all the damn time...?

Jimi24:
Boris Yeltsin was drunk all the time NOT Mikhail Gorbachev

dermmy:
Gorbachev was too weak. He contributed to the collapse of USSR and I'm happy he admitted his "perestroika" was one of the reasons not only his perestroika even his crappy "glasnost".

mysticwarrior:
do you really expect a man like Gorbachev to be as iron fisted like Stalin who starved 30 million soviets to death? Gorbachev was a very compassionate man who has human sympathy in his heart, he withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan due to the atrocities committed there, he wasn't man who see the killings of people as a means to demonstrate toughness, he was an intelligent man

grandstar:
He might be right,

All I do know is that the Soviet Union was bankrupt by the time of its collapse and that was what eventually doomed it. .

And lest I forget, Gorbachev willingness for reform was also a very big reason for its fall. Many power drunk rulers would have held on to communism for decades after it lost its usefulness. Just take a look at Cuba or better still, North Korea. He put people first and not his own ego.

mysticwarrior:
do you really expect a man like Gorbachev to be as iron fisted like Stalin who starved 30 million soviets to death? Gorbachev was a very compassionate man who has human sympathy in his heart, he withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan due to the atrocities committed there, he wasn't man who see the killings of people as a means to demonstrate toughness, he was an intelligent man

dermmy:


I don't support dictatorship or killing of people. I know Stalin was a monster but he was able to keep the republic together in the face of antagonism from the capitalist entente countries likewise Nikita Kruschev and Leonid Breznev.

This is cold war politics bro, an era where both sides were actively seeking to undermine its opponent influence and you can't afford to be weak because you don't want to be seen as a monster. U.S was monstrously vicious during the cold war sponsoring coup in other countries especially countries that were inching towards socialism infact U.S had plans to nuke China during the Cuban missile crisis.

When the union experience an external interference during the hungarian revolution in 1956 the revolution was crushed by Nikita. Same thing America would do when its capitalist client state was inching towards socialism. I don't have to explain why U.S intervened in the Vietnam war with a crushing response even though it failed.

Let's take a look at the Prague spring 1968 the liberalization policies of Alexander Dubcek didn't come from within it came from outside Soviet-Russia and other satellite states intervened and it was reversed.

Fast forward to Gorbachev era. He did well by pulling Soviet troops out of Afghanistan the war took its toll on USSR financially. Afghanistan was USSR own Vietnam it was a quagmire but Gorbachev decided to allow the republic disintegrate becasue he was incapable. The west later gave him a nobel peace prize for his weakness because he helped them disintegrate their biggest enemy lolss. I can tell you that man is regretting for him to have said his perestroika led to the collapse of USSR because Russia of today is being treated badly by the west.

The west never honoured the agreement it made with Russia that they won't interfere in Russia's remaining sphere of influence after the cold war ended they keep expanding towards Russia wooing its remaining allies into NATO and the EU

Had it been Vladimir Putin was weak the west would have taken the whole of Ukraine especially strategic Crimea. Sorry for my long epistle.