TTC Video – Communism in Decline: From Sputnik to Gorbachev

When measured against other social theories throughout world history, communism is more than just another a philosophical thought experiment. The beliefs and practices of communism were institutionalized in Lenin’s Bolshevik state, as experienced within the experimental and unprecedented development of the Soviet Union. For 74 years, the experiment held together. Communist regimes, at their peak, ruled more than one-third of the world’s population.

What happened? What really caused this giant experiment to decline and fall apart?

In Communism in Decline: From Sputnik to Gorbachev, Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius reveals the internal and external forces that ripped apart the grand communist experiment. What were the mistakes made by the Soviet leaders who believed too deeply in their own propaganda? And why were they not able to see the many ironies in their own poor decisions? In 12 fascinating lectures, you will learn how the Soviet Union went from winning the space race against the United States in 1957 to Gorbachev’s resignation and the dissolution of the great experiment in 1991.

The Men at the Top

Eight men led the Soviet Union from its founding in 1922 to its collapse in 1991. Each of them believed that communism was the only way forward to achieve a bright and successful future for modern society. Theoretically, at least, they believed that political power should belong to the workers and peasants; but if that was the ideal aspiration, no one came close to achieving it.

As the leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Vladimir Lenin became the guiding personality of the Soviet Union after founding the Russian Communist Party, then signing treaties with nearby countries and regions. After serving only two years as the head of the Soviet Russian government before his death in 1924, he was succeeded by Josef Stalin. In power from 1924 until his death in 1953, Stalin’s murderous dictatorship caused the death of millions in the Soviet Union. Stalin is also known for becoming an ally of the United States in the effort to defeat Germany during World War II.

In the years after Stalin’s death, there were several notable Soviet leaders who followed Stalin. What did these men bring to their leadership roles and how did their decisions shape the Soviet Union and the world? In this course, you will learn about

Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev ruled the Soviet Union during the complex times of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis and when his country was arguably at its zenith—when Sputnik won the space race for the Soviet Union in 1957.
Leonid Brezhnev. Brezhnev saw himself as the leader of the worldwide fight against capitalism. That mission resulted in the USSR coming to the aid of any socialist or communist government that seemed to be on the verge of failing. This “Brezhnev Doctrine” led him to the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Mikhail Gorbachev. Explore the “Gorbachev Phenomenon” and “Gorbymania.” Although not so popular at home, this Soviet leader was beloved internationally. He knew the Soviet Union needed to move forward economically, and he “thawed” the Cold War as one way to achieve that goal. In 1991, Gorbachev oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Promises vs. Reality

The communist doctrine promised a great deal that its leaders never delivered. No one knows what would have happened if the Soviet Union had followed Lenin’s doctrine, and if the longest-serving Soviet leader had not strangled his country as a murderous dictator. By the time Gorbachev decided the Soviet Union could improve its standard of living by coexisting with capitalist countries and getting back to the best of Lenin’s philosophies, it was too late. Too many systemic problems existed for Gorbachev to overcome, including

Commodities Shortages. When people had to stand in line for hours to purchase the basic necessities for their families—if anything was on the shelves by the time they got to the front of the queue—it was clear their government was not providing for “each according to his needs” as Marx had proposed.
What “They” Have. With the standard of living in the West being so much higher than that of the Soviet Union, it was difficult for citizens to believe that capitalism should be their mortal enemy.
The National Problem. The Soviet Union attempted to blend people of numerous ethnicities into one state. Leadership promised that each ethnicity would share in the power while preserving their own cultural attributes. Instead, as economic shortages worsened, each group felt they were taken advantage of by the others.
Dissent

After the death of Stalin, the most violently repressive of all Soviet leaders, some voices of dissent could be heard arguing for freedom of speech and greater respect for human rights. Although Khrushchev initially allowed some dissent to distinguish his rule from Stalin’s, he eventually cracked down on free speech, afraid it would undermine his power. In Communism in Decline: From Sputnik to Gorbachev, you will learn about the well-known major demonstrations such as Solidarity in the shipyards of Gdansk, Poland and demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Additionally, you will learn about more subtle forms of dissent, including

Laughter. Repressed people fight back however they can, and in the Soviet Union telling jokes became a widespread form of dissent. In this course, you’ll hear many of the political jokes that became a form of social protest—criticizing the system, its ideology, and the resulting daily indignities.
Books. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is one of the most well-known writers who used literature to reveal the truth about the Soviet prison camps and life in the country, in general. His most famous work, The Gulag Archipelago, was smuggled out to the West and published there in 1973.
Samizdat. When an uncensored, non-Soviet-approved text could be found, people took it upon themselves to copy its pages one at a time, via typewriter or by hand, and then pass the pages around. Whoever received these samizdat (“self-published”) products would have only one night to read them before passing them on to the next person.
While communism failed in the Soviet Union in the long term, it had lasted for 74 years and remains the official ideological system today in China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba. Only time will tell whether communism as practiced specifically in those countries will be able to overcome the problems that took down the Soviet Union.

What Will You Learn?
Meet the men who led the Soviet Union and consider their varied approaches to leadership

Discover how citizens were able to voice dissent in a repressive regime

Reveal the internal and external forces that tore apart the Soviet Union