How The IMF / World Bank Engineered the Economic Collapse of the USSR
No Comments »What do you think caused the fall of communism in the soviet union?
3 reasons (or more if necessary)
my answer:
1. Their brutal 10-year war with Afganistan. The US drew them into it and armed the Mujahideen to defeat them. Elements within the US sought to weaken the USSR, but knew that it would have been politically unacceptable at the time to engage the USSR directly.
2. 1985: “Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the minister of oil of Saudi Arabia, declared that the monarchy had decided to alter its oil policy radically. The Saudis stopped protecting oil prices, and Saudi Arabia quickly regained its share in the world market. During the next six months, oil production in Saudi Arabia increased fourfold, while oil prices collapsed by approximately the same amount in real terms. As a result, the Soviet Union lost approximately $20 billion per year, money without which the country simply could not survive.”
the following is from pt. 3 of this very thorough paper about the relationship between the Soviet Union and international banking institutions such as IMF and the World Bank:
http://www.robertcutler.org/download/html/ch92dap.html
3. “Soon after Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he arranged the retirement of many holdovers from the old regime and then set out to attack the problem of economic reforms… Integrating the Soviet economy into the world economy was a necessary concomitant of these reforms. The Soviets began to seek ties with international economic institutions… By the end of the year, the USSR had voluntarily restricted its oil exports in sympathy with OPEC’s attempts to maintain a fixed stable price…
The proximate cause of the renewed Soviet interest in GATT was the need to increase exports … in order replace the loss of foreign income due to the collapse of oil prices. (SEE #2)
The USSR requested observer status at GATT in 1986, the same year that China formally applied for membership… GATT soon approved the Chinese application for full membership but needed four years to grant the Soviet Union mere observer status.”
(that paper illustrates the ways in which the USSR was compelled to make compromises in order to involve itself with the international banking institutions – despite the influence over its economy that it would be granting to western powers – but due to the instability of oil prices and its failure to win the Afghan conflict, the Soviets had little choice. This was the beginning of the end.)
In conclusion, the primary causes of the collapse of the USSR were economic, not social or military. Stretched to the breaking point by the Afghan War, and unable to compete with the US in an ongoing arms race, the USSR was driven into a position where the World Bank and other international financial powers could deal a fatal blow to the Soviet economy, causing it to fold like a deck of cards. The USSR would not have lasted, and was facing enormous dissent from within, but it was ultimately the powers of international finance who pulled the plug and caused it to collapse when it did.
Update: I believe that this is the very same plan that is being executed today in the United States. will explain this further as I gain a better understanding… but for now, please take the time to watch this video… it is 25 minutes long, but considering the complexity of the subject matter, I think it is presented very succinctly!
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