Top 5 mistakes the Soviet Union made.

Mikhail Belovolk wrote:

1. 1991 Failed Coup Attempt
2. Gorbachev
3. Sino-Soviet Split
4. Corruption in the CPSU
5. Pact with Hitler

How exactly?

See I think the pact with Hitler was good at the time because the Soviet Union was in no condition to fight a war at that time. Eventually though Germany and Russia were going to fight each other Stalin just thought it would be later than it ended up being.

I meant overall, I believe it was bad (although at the time it was probably good).

That pact wasn't a mistake.or if it was, if it wasn't made, what difference would it make?

For the USSR it wasn't bad; but for the international workers movement it was a disaster. Kinda difficult to defend the workers state when it became allies with Nazis.

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For the USSR it wasn't bad; but for the international workers movement it was a disaster. Kinda difficult to defend the workers state when it became allies with Nazis.

That's what I meant.

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Kinda difficult to defend the workers state when it became allies with Nazis.

Calling them allies is a bit of a stretch. Both sides hated each other and were just prolonging fighting so they could deal with other people.

The point is that it is mighty difficult to convince the capitalists otherwise.

I don't think we really need to convince capitalists to anything except like lining up in front of a ditch.

The Soviet/German non aggression pact gave the Soviet military the ability to deal with the Japanese in Manchuria without having to be concerned about a two front conflict. Without it, a victory at the battle of Khalkhin Gol (one of the most geopolitically important battles the Soviets ever fought) may not have been possible.

The pact did not make the Soviet Union or Stalin look very good, but without it there very well may not have been a Soviet Union which survived to regret the decisions Stalin's government made.

You've got a point.

I disagree with 2.
I strongly agree with 4 and 5.

1. Allowing republics to split off if they felt like it.
2. Afghan war.
3. Waiting 5 years to make major economic changes.

Why giving the republics rights to go away if they want is a mistake? Then whats the point of a union of republics?they can just name it soviet socialist republic of russia then.

Its a bad idea to let republics leave the union by their own will, because they're taken a chunk of your nation hostage basically. Any factory, civillian, or resource is now being pulled from under you.
For example: Ukraine was a big grain producer. When they decided to leave the union, the rest of the union now loses a big chunk of grain that they probably relied on.

Its like a player leaving a team, or a part of a car engine falling off by its own will.
All the republics worked together as one nation, and shared a common economy and relied on each other. When one forces itself out, the rest is forced to make up for everything lost by the secession.

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Its a bad idea to let republics leave the union by their own will, because they're taken a chunk of your nation hostage basically. Any factory, civillian, or resource is now being pulled from under you.
For example: Ukraine was a big grain producer. When they decided to leave the union, the rest of the union now loses a big chunk of grain that they probably relied on.

Its like a player leaving a team, or a part of a car engine falling off by its own will.
All the republics worked together as one nation, and shared a common economy and relied on each other. When one forces itself out, the rest is forced to make up for everything lost by the secession.

Isn't that the idea of self-sufficiency? The USSR knw it had to be able to sustain itself in case it broke up. Besides, Lenin was the one who said they could willingly leave.

It's just my opinion that they should be able to leave whenever they want.

Well you know when the USSR broke up a lot of Russians were all of a sudden living in foreign countries.

I am aware of that.

Soviet192491 wrote:

In the U.S. propoganda prevents freedom of speach. Of course you are free to insult any founder or revolutionary of the U.S.. But by doing so you stand a chance of getting into a conflict. It depends on what kind of people are around you. Most don't care, at least in NYC. But outside I'm sure you'd get a beating. I even remember one town telling its residents not to buy gas from Citgo because it's run by Hugo Chavez, a communist.

You can insult the founders of the U.S., but 99% of the U.S. population thinks of the founding fathers as gods due to propaganda.

I am only going to list 3 for now:
1. Spending too much on the military starting with Brezhnev, and not spending enough on consumer goods and light industry. This caused the era of stagnation and left the Soviet Union vulnerable if it did have a reformist leader in the future.
2. The immediate cause of collapse was Gorbachev's reforms, and having Brezhnev and Gorbachev in sequence was the worst thing that happened to the USSR.
3. The Great Purge that led to the Soviet Union being unprepared for WW2.