In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet Union was the largest arms exporter in the world. According to Robbin Laird’s article “Soviet Arms Trade with the Noncommunist Third World”, in 1980 the USSR was responsible for 34% of the world’s arms exports. A CIA report from 1980 places the value of those salesContinue reading “With Their Tanks, and Their Bombs, and Their Bombs, and Their Guns: Soviet Arms Exports”
Category: Sixth Research Digest
The USSR in Afghanistan: A Really Bad Foreign Policy Move
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Before combing through 17 Moments and the Current Digest, I didn’t really have a firm understanding of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, I very quickly found out that among the events that took place in the 1970s under Brezhnev’s leadership, the invasion of Afghanistan proved to be a troubling turn of events for the […]
Afghanistan, The Graveyard of Empires
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a small, but significant, part of the greater Cold War between the east and west. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979 with about 30,000 troops. The Soviet invasion was originally meant to be short term assistance in order support a puppet government but would drag on for …
The Soviets in Afghanistan (1979-1989)
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In April 1978, the government of Afghanistan was overthrown in a Leftist military coup putting the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan into power. This unpopular new government, backed by the Soviet Union, proceeded to begin to purge it’s political … Continue reading →
Vasilii Shukshin: The Soviet Unions Brad Pitt
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During a complex era that called upon the Soviet Union for “Developed Socialism” [1], an international legend of film was born. Though the progress towards communism was slowed politically, the revolution of film and the Soviet Union’s introduction to western culture was propelled. At the forefront of film from the Soviet Union was Vasilii Shukshin, […]
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The Definition of a SNAFU
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In military jargon, a SNAFU is an acronym which stands for “Systems Normal: All F***ed Up.” This acronym perfectly sums up the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, for several reasons. But how did the entire situation come about? As described by the Seventeen Moments module, the invasion was prompted by a sort of “domino-esque” executions ofContinue reading “Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The Definition of a SNAFU”
It Was the End of the World as We Knew It (And Did We Feel Fine?)
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Before You Start Freaking Out . . . Big disclaimer: this post WILL be a tad bit off-topic. I had a hard time picking something I really resonated with among the possible topics in the Seventeen Moments, BUT this article about the “detente” period in the late 60s and 70s got the ball rolling forContinue reading “It Was the End of the World as We Knew It (And Did We Feel Fine?)”
An Underground Economy
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In Gregory Freeze’s book, Russia: A History, he states that the 1970s were “years of instability and conflict” (445). Seventeen Moments in Soviet History also noted that the Ninth Five Year Plan (1971-75) “illustrated the Brezhnev administration’s attempt to overcome the contradiction between an increasingly urbanized and culturally sophisticated society and the centralized determination of …
Don’t Forget Czechoslovakia
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“At 3am 21 August 1968, I woke up to a completely different world from that one I went to sleep in, just a few hours earlier. The only way how you can help us is this: not to forget Czechoslovakia, don’t forget Czechoslovakia. Please excuse my bad grammar, with the Russian tanks under my windowContinue reading “Don’t Forget Czechoslovakia”
Graveyard of Empires – The disastrous Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: by Andrew Grant
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Introduction: The Graveyard of EmpiresAfghanistan has often been called the “graveyard of empires”, throughout its long history, many invaders have attempted to conquer the land, but been repelled and driven back. Even when they were conquered, they resisted and tossed out the invaders. Its mountainous terrain has been a great tool, which made it hard …
