Скачать или смотреть Does Reagan Deserve Credit for Cold War Win? – Sarah Paine

Full episode:    • Sarah Paine – Why Russia Lost the Cold War  
Me on twitter: https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp

Final Sarah Paine lecture: Why Russia lost the Cold War.

To me, the most interesting question is not why the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed - it's how a brutal, centrally planned, stupendously inefficient, colonial land empire survived for so long.

I was surprised to learn about the central role that oil played in sustaining (and eventually dissolving) the Soviet Union.

By the 1950s, the Soviet system was in a crisis. Soviet growth rates had started to slow significantly as compared to the booming West. USSR's heavy-industry based economy was energy-starved. The 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran blocked Soviet access to Iranian oil.