Full podcast episode: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/p8ddqs9pxN3UinU.html Lex Fridman podcast channel: kzfaq.info Guest bio: Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian historian at Harvard University, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, and an author of many books on history of Eastern Europe, including his latest book The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History.

The Soviet Union collapsed because Rocky went over there to fight Drago and won the hearts of the people there. "If I can change, then you can change, everybody can change!" The Soviets all stood up and clapped.

As someone born in the USSR, I completely agree with the historian. The USSR would have collapsed in more or less the same time. There are publicly accessible records of the meetings of the Supreme Soviet at the start of Gorbachev's term as a head of the party and the state. From the economics point of view, the arguments and decisions in these meetings are idiotic, these people would have driven any successful enterprise into a ground.

The Soviet union collapsed, waiting for this guy to get to the point

"there isn't a world anymore to take over, it's just corporations"- number 2 from Austin Powers movie

Nailed it. Adding: US pressure imploded the superstructure of the Soviet Bloc, and in that way really sped up this continuing trend of the historic collapse of the Russian Empire that he's talking about. The USSR froze a whole lot of things, conflicts, trends, in a lot of countries, but this collapse of the superstructure is part of this much longer trend.

didn't know Serhii Plokhy worked at U of A, a local university. Small world

Why don't you just ask Putin, he knows the whole 400 year history of Russia

Very interesting. Makes me wanna do an even deeper research on this.

Actually, Lithuania was first to gain indepemdence from soviet unio. It is much smaller country than Ukraine, but Ukraine followed us after 😊

Gorbochov said the turning point for the USSR was Chernobyl.

Keep up the great work Lex!!

2:53- He is missing lots of key factors when he talks about Russia or then USSR size…they didn’t have much livable land…they did have a lot of useless land..where the United States is almost 92% livable with the ability to expand that almost to 100% other then some areas in the Arctic of Alaska (more Islands way off Alaska). That matters, you can say you have a piece of land, but if it means nothing..what is it actually doing for you? Now you could say maybe under that land is natural resources, but with out a major build up or a population willing to live in that area…the land still means nothing. Just like in China and India..who have more livable land than Russia…but do not build it up. Instead they stack the people higher up in the cities. Or just stuff more people into one room.

I would like to hear more of this guy

Central planning and state control of industry doesnt work.

Oh yes, this clip will get the russian bots seething 😂

No one can really understand or answer why Soviet Union fell. I've watched numerous content and read many books about 20th century. My mom says that leadership just got old. There were too many old people who didn't really control shiet, soviet people (among others) saw western life through TV, some were able to travel and they were done. Soviet life was miserable. Nobody wanted it anymore. So once the leadership weakened, people of different nations tried to take back control

Ignoring the people's demands creates change; GIVING it to them creates it even more quickly. The Soviets were *always* doomed.. because in the modern (instant global communication) age, citizens could easily compare the inferior quality of their lives to those of their Western counterparts.

The Soviet Union was the last of a particular kind of empire, but I wouldn't call it the last empire. The US is very clearly an empire now and China seems to be laying the groundwork to become an empire in the future.

The reason the soviet union collapsed is because they failed to imprison everyone. 😆

Barely scratched the surface

As expected, Lex did not ask about the Crimean referendum back then in 1991 and 1994.

When money drains power drains. It is that simple.

A nice review of the history of dissolution, but it misses the point. The proximate cause of collapse is the failure of communist economics. Communism lacks price signals to match supply to demand in modern economy. The underground black market, practice of "blat" managed by "tolkach," offered barely enough to limp along for two generations, 1948 -1988. Contributing - vainglorious military taking half of GDP. But it was lack of free market signals, and devastating waste of resources, that killed the beast.

The Soviet union was a colonial empire. Corruption killed it

The single best thing that happened to socialism everywhere. And you think otherwise you are not paying attention. The collapse of the Soviet Union was not the collapse of socialism.

Sounds like the US now.

after listeining the first 10 minutes: to simple a thinker, to conservative, not understanding historical forces stemming from economic forces enough and world (market) systems ... but a good author of entertaining books he and his team are ... however my impression may be to much a gut-feeling ...

9:10- I disagree, although the United States is a different type of power, it is still to this day on Empire that reformed the British model for Empire building. You don’t need to own a whole country, just control the major trade routes, then indirectly…you own that country. The US uses military bases, military agreements, and control of 96% of oceans to make this happen. We are an Empire that has won the world. That when countries act out of line or out of our interest…we can directly affect them.

One of the interesting problems related to the fall of the Soviet Union is exactly that 10s of Millions of Russians ended up in these other countries that were longer part of the Union. And it appears that they face discrimination in most of those countries... Which is interesting / unfortunate. Makes you wonder why Russia didn't just give them an option to come back home... Which would be an alternate option to the Russia-Ukraine War... The ethnic Russians and Russian speakers move to Russia, and Russia gives them homes and money to try and rebuild their lives. Fighting over ownership of land... Is primitive stuff... It only really matters if there's some critical resource connected to that land.

British Empire ended after the hand over of Hong Kong

Yeltsin withdrew Russia from the USSR to get rid of Gorbachev and to promote his own position as president of Russia to the highest political position.

He said the US was doing everything it could to keep the Soviet Union in tact. I'm glad that Lex has started having comedians on his podcast.

@Aktoto1 what are you trying to say?? If you question his qualifications, check his credentials! Are public.

"mobilization from below, collapse of the centre" I'm not sure what he is referring to but my theory is that it collapsed because it was way too politicized... Too many people had their polical school diploma and acted like little caesars scuppering many chances for meaningful change... Thats why it fragmented along republican lines because that's where the actual power was and the little assrs from inside Russia couldn't become independent because practically they had no power that was all in Moscow

This guy is not correct. I was in America in 1991. NO ONE wanted the rotten Soviet Union to continue. Maybe a tiny few elites but 99% of the American population wanted the USSR to fall. Only then could we consider the Cold War over. No one wanted the USSR as a "junior partner" - that is fantasy, although we did like Gorbachev. But we had high hopes for Yeltsin as well.

KGB defector Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union in his book New Lies For Old. Under Khrushchev the communists adopted a new long range strategy to overcome the west and bring about the communist revolution. Part of this strategy was to take away the image of the enemy, and collapsing the USSR, was, he believed, part of this plan, a grand deception that will bring about a false sense of security in the west then ultimately disarmament of the enemy. Considering how things have played out since then, one would have to assume Golitsyn was not only credible but also extremely accurate.

Logical perspective.

4:56 no he said that they shouldn't devolve into their racial hatred, speaking of Russians and Ukrainians as one people, or not...

Lex should explain what it’s like to sell his soul

Being thick! I'm glad he explained it to me. "What was the Man-U score, again?"

Time for Vlad to understand it’s done. No redo’s.

How many of these have a chance for me and you and me in a relationship or something and then we

His illogic makes me doubt everything he says. At 3:44, he is asked if the collapse could be attributed to pressure applied by the US, which had an interest in weakening the USSR. His answer is “no, because the US did not want the USSR to disintegrate.” If a boxer is killed during a bout, did his opponent-who had an interest in beating him up-contribute to his death? “No, because his opponent had no intention of killing him, which would create all kinds of problems.” Uh…

The only two books I would recommend on this topic are from Vladislav Zubok, which as a russian-american, was highly critic but accurate of USSR's policies, and Armageddon Averted. This Ukrainian historian, of course, cannot be relied on.

💥 Factors contributing to the Soviet Union collapse: interconnected processes, including ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration. 00:03 Interconnected processes of ideological collapse, end of the Cold War, and territorial disintegration contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. 00:03 Disagreement with the sole explanation of ideology for the collapse, emphasizing factors like mobilization from below, economic collapse, and ideological implosion. 01:20 🔍 US did not intentionally cause Soviet Union collapse, as they wanted to maintain it during the Cold War. 04:22 US did not aim for Soviet Union collapse and disintegration. 04:22 Strategic documents from 1948 show US concern about Soviet collapse. 04:30 Even in 1991, US did not desire Soviet Union's collapse. 04:36 🌍 Global processes led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, inevitable due to historical and geopolitical factors. 06:39 History is full of 'what if' scenarios, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was bound to happen due to global processes. 06:39 The 20th century saw the disintegration of empires, highlighting the inevitability of the Soviet collapse in a different form. 07:26 The comparison of world maps in 1914 and 1991/1992 shows the significant changes due to empire disintegration. 07:43 🕰 Significance of Ukraine in the Soviet Union collapse and post-Soviet Russia's policies. 09:56 Post-1991 Russia shifted to a more centralized structure and increased russification. 09:56 Ukraine played a critical role in the collapse of the Soviet Union through a referendum and subsequent dissolution. 10:44 Chronology of events, including the Ukrainian referendum and dissolution of the Soviet Union, was crucial in understanding the collapse. 11:01 🔍 Analysis of Vladimir Putin's perspective on the collapse of the Soviet Union and its significance in Russian history. 13:38 Ukraine's independence marked the end of the Soviet Union and remains crucial in current geopolitics. 13:38 Vladimir Putin's statement on the collapse of the Soviet Union was strategically timed around Victory Day celebrations.

What a wonderful perspective.

Lex should interview Putin.

Me too

I am more worried about thr collapse of the US

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Maybe have a historian on who can talk about how Communism in Russia was a British psyop

For more balanced view let's interview russian historian next, many of which independent and living in the west like Tamara Eidelman. This interview is kinda asking japanese on Hiroshima and american history, which pretending to be neutral.

Putin sees things in tribal terms.

it's the most aggressive tone historian i've heard which right away makes feeling he view history subjectively, not neutral. And why making such angry face with brows?

It's sad. In a few years you'll be asking "WHY AND HOW DID THE AMERICAN EMPIRE FALL?".

Stopped watching after this charlatan started calling the USSR an "Empire" 🤡🤡🤡

why does he sound like hannibal actor

Spoke for 16 minutes on the topic and said nothing.

Not first!

China still has an empire for now.

Never happened. Russia is Soviet Union 2.0 ;-(

He didn't explain anything

This dude is a dope

I totally disagree with Serhii. Many national republics in Russia have a wide cultural autonomy, wider than in the ussr. They strongly hold and support their traditions, language, religion (especially in Chechnya). Unfortunately people who don’t live here just can’t see it in real life. Greetings from Russia.

Russia is the last empire

It's interesting to consider... That the real reason that the US Civil War happened was not slavery so much as that the Confederate states wanted independence. And Lincoln decided that that was just not going to happen... That the union was critical to maintain. So, Putin's view of Soviet collapse, or the Chinese' view of Taiwan... Seems to speak to a rather common instinct. The Germans reunited West and East Germany. And even the Koreans half want North and South Korea reunited... If likely, on healthy terms, where the North Korean governmental system vanishes.

"historian"

Yo lex !!! Ur mum

These are some sorry viewers... 90,000 views and only 900 likes... Come on guys. It just takes a second.

319th view! Yayy

Lex. Hello sir. This Dude is nonsense 😂😂 Bush wants Soviet 😂😂

Putin bitches and moans, plays the victim card ad nauseum. Quite the poor excuse for a Czar.

So we can blame all these problems on Jewish thought.

СССР не был империей. Он не подходит под это определение даже при всем желании натянуть сову на глобус После 3 минуты очень сложно стало слушать эти измышления. Если делить на периоды жизни Союза, то падение началось после смерти Сталина, когда выплыло все гнилье наружу, которое мимикрировало по коммунистов с 18 года. Если обратить внимание на экономичкскую составляющую, то саботаж начался с реформ Хрущева, которые и были направлены на подрыв экономики. В итоге на излете Союза эти псевдо-коммунисты и распяли страну на 28 сьезде проголосовав против спасения 2/3 голосов. А сами коммунисты за Родину погибли в ВОВ. А тут про дичь затирают с умным лицом для западной аудитории

Explain Nato expansion and effort to mount nuclear weapons at Russian border, please...

What was a country that left Warsaw pact first after " Solidarity" movement and made others in Central and Eastern Europe to fallow? Hint: the same country that send Bolsheviks back home when they were trying to spred communism to the rest of Europe

NINETY NINETY NINETY ONE

Funny that Jewish Friedman doesn’t explain the Soviet Union’s rise. Why would a Jew leave that part out, I wonder?

1991, birth of gulf war and the super Nintendo! What an amazing year, i was 4 years oldeÿù ft 5⁵in cave ⁸in 6⁶⁶😊was ⁷⁶⁶