Soviet History S18 Comments

I never realized how ironic that situation actually was. I wonder if it set a precedent for Afghanistan relations with other nations and eventually us. Were the Soviets expecting to have as much trouble as they did?

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Another really interesting part of the Chernobyl disaster is its effect on wildlife! Drinking the water and eating the vegetation created animals with radioactive material in their makeup and I wonder how that has spread throughout the Soviet Union if it has at all. The dramatic change this disaster created was unprecedented and likely, without it, things would have been much different.

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This is a great post! Do you think that perhaps it is the sudden dissolution of Russia’s satellite possessions which played a role in the weakening of the Soviet Union? How did these movements for independence affect morale in the Soviet state? It’s very interesting to see how all these factors play a role in the collapse and I believe that this movement for independence played a significant part in the dissolution.

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This is really interesting to me because youth consistently plays a strong role in the redefining of a country or change in social standards. While the prior youth-revolutions are consistently discussed, I’ve never heard of the gopniks before. It’s a really interesting subject, especially because they emerge in the era of a dying Soviet Union. Great post!

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It seems like the alcohol polices resembled the roaring 20’s in the US. I loved the fact that you started your post with the history of alcohol in Russia.

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Is it a shock that Gorbachev did not address the country for 3 weeks? I believe that the leader should always speak up about an incident in a timely manner but 3 weeks is to long, however, I wrote on this topic also and found a site that stated the government put out a 15 second blurb on the situation stating that they were investigation the situation.

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