USSR: The Doomed Empire

USSR: The Doomed Empire

Introduction:

The 1940's and the next four decades after, were a time of bitter

struggle between the US and the Soviet Union. National identity as well as

ideological differences brought both countries to the brink of nuclear war, a

revolutionary style of warfare causing the most disastrous demographic disaster

known to man. There are numerous speculations on who actually started the war.

It can be argued both ways that both the US and the USSR acted offensively

towards each other. But the only real fact is that “one represented an open

democracy and the other a closed totalitarian system” and both were the only

real superpowers left standing after World War II.1 This split generated a

bipolar effect bringing the entire world into a game of tug of war between the

two superpowers. Throughout the four decades actual combative war never broke

out but in turn a similar game of chess was played. One country would move and

the other would countermove. It was finally America that came out on top and

the Soviet Union a collapsed failure, but not necessarily because the US was

stronger and out muscled the Soviets militarily. The end of the Cold War was

primarily due to economic factors.

What America proved was that the economy works best when the government

stays out and individuals within the society do the work.2 It is only the

individuals within the society that truly understand what products are in demand.

Under Communist regime a few select rulers decide what are the needs of the

society, what resources are their country's scarcities, and how to obtain these

scarcities. Finding this information is a big job and requires endless amounts

of domestic attention. With this in mind the quote “Nature's laws are

immutable... Communism is only an ideal dream”3 becomes much clearer. One

leader simply does not have enough time nor money to invest in the acquisition

of thorough and accurate knowledge pertaining to the country's economic system

(especially a country as large as Russia). But I am not writing to debate

whether communism can or can not work but that America/Democracy did not really

beat Russia/Communism in the Cold War. Russia/Communism destroyed itself.

Russia blotched the job. How? By instead of striving to build the country's

economic muscle and develop mutually beneficial relationships with neighboring

countries therefore acquiring the otherwise unavailable scarcities, Russia chose

to attempt building an empire throughout Europe and Asia based on the

ideological concept of Communism and by competing with the United States in an

arms race it could not support.

Directly after WWII, Stalin set Russia up under a Communistic regime.