2026-09-05 15:02 UTC
Off topic, I think there are some lessons of history related to the Politburo of the CC of the CPSU in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.
(Central Committee; Communist Party of the Soviet Union.)
There was a war that was easy to start and difficult to end (the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979).
There was corruption at the highest level (even in Brezhnev's family, if I recall correctly).
Brezhnev was a notorious addict to orders and medals.
Brezhnev was senile in the final years.
There was a grey eminence, Mikhail Suslov (though I forget when he died).
The economy stagnated and was on the way to effective bankruptcy.
@AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz @dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz
Replies (1)
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@AmenZwa@mathstodon.xyz 2026-09-05 15:09
@vnikolov@ieji.de @dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz My memory of Brezhnev was a wall of military medals that hung from a pair of stout eyebrows, topped with a bushy fur cap. The 60s to the 80s was the tumultuous times behind the Curtain, I suppose. Ultimately, modernity got the better of it all, by the 90s. I’m not equipped to assess whether the Soviet Union or the modern Russia has stronger ill effects upon the rest of the world.