Deficit and Foreignness as Causes of the Collapse of the USSR
1. Revolutions seldom occur in times of real famine. When there is simply nothing to eat, people usually do not have the strength for a political struggle: they must take care of survival. Another thing is a severe shortage, when some food is available, but it is difficult to get it, while the real or illusory threat of full-fledged starvation looms over people.
The shortage of bread in Paris in 1789 caused popular unrest, which was picked up by irresponsible intellectuals of the Enlightenment and eventually resulted in the Great French Revolution. There was bread in the country, but against the backdrop of many years of poor harvests in Europe, it was exported – the British were ready to pay several times more for grain than the Parisian urban poor. The Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars ruined France, which suffered greatly and finally lost the race for the title of the main world power to Great Britain
A shortage of bread in Petrograd in February 1917, caused by snow drifts and overcrowded railways during the war, led to bread riots in the capital, which were supported by the Petrograd garrison, propagandized by left-wing agitators. Thus, due to a relatively mild and temporary shortage of food, the Russian Revolution began, which eventually led to defeat in the First World War, millions of deaths in the Civil War, and to a real famine, which, with some interruptions, lasted until the end of the 1940s and took the lives of millions of people during this time.
Some believe that the events of 1991 were also played by the chronic late-Soviet deficit, which, due to a number of circumstances, turned into an acute phase:
The main reason for the collapse of the USSR was the food problem. If it had been resolved in time, the collapse of the Soviet Union might not have happened, Oleg Ozherelev, a former assistant to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on economics and a teacher of the current head of the Accounts Chamber Alexei Kudrin, said in an interview with Lenta.ru.
“Why did hundreds of thousands of people come to Manezhnaya Square [in 1990]? Not because of Gorbachev’s lack of dictatorial powers or lack of democracy. And because of food shortages. The shops were empty, no food was available,” he said.
According to him, the authorities had an understanding of the need for deep reforms, these reforms, albeit with a screech, were carried out, and the country was transformed, but everything was solved by the deficit.
“Even during collectivization, agriculture was radically undermined. But in Russia it was the main industry. In fact, it played a decisive role in the funeral of the Soviet Union. The opportunity for a timely and orderly transition of farmers to market forms of reproduction was missed. I repeat: if there had been food in stores, there would have been no “revolution” in 1991,” Ozherelev said.
2. From the rubric “mores of the past”. It turns out that in the USSR there was a special punishment for molesting foreign citizens. I quote from the Code of Administrative Offences of the RSFSR:
ARTICLE 164.3. SOLICITATION OF FOREIGN NATIONALS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ACQUIRING BELONGINGS
Violation of public order, expressed in the molestation of foreign citizens for the purpose of buying, exchanging or otherwise acquiring things from them, entails a warning or the imposition of a fine in the amount of up to one hundred rubles with or without confiscation of the purchased items.
The same actions, committed repeatedly within a year after the imposition of an administrative penalty, entail the imposition of a fine of up to two hundred rubles with confiscation of the purchased items.
However, one should not think that the laws of the USSR were lenient. For dollars, for example, you could at least go to prison, and at most you could get the death penalty.
By the way, why do you think in modern Russia no one is jackal outside hotels, begging foreigners for badges and chewing gum?
3. According to popular opinion, the USSR practically did not show American films to its citizens for censorship reasons – they say, there is no point in advertising the lifestyle of a hypothetical enemy and thereby undermining faith in communism.
In reality, however, censoring Hollywood movies wasn’t such a problem in most cases. It was enough just to cut out American flags, negative references to the USSR and Russians, scenes of excessive moral decay or, say, trips to the grocery store.
Why, then, were so few Hollywood films purchased for Soviet distribution? And those that were bought were often second-rate films that had previously failed at the American box office (but, surprisingly, were loved by the Soviet public)? Here’s a video that answers that question:
The reason is trivial: the USSR simply did not have the money to buy expensive successful paintings.
Of course, Soviet people unaccustomed to horror could make good money on the screening of some “Jaws”, but the Americans demanded either 20-30 million dollars, a significant amount for a poor socialist country, or a percentage deduction from the distribution.
The State Film Agency bought films only for a fixed amount. Either the capitalist magic of interest did not fit well into the quarterly plans, or they simply did not want to share the statistics of ticket sales (which could be used to calculate the population of closed cities and military bases).
In this way, not even because of censorship, Hollywood cinema became an attractive forbidden fruit for Soviet citizens. It was shown in the USSR just enough to properly irritate the people.