Reply #54: Joseph Stalin [View All]

[Selatius]

When he instituted the command economy in the 1930s. Instead of allowing workers to decide how their resources should be used, the state did instead, and the state, being an authoritarian, undemocratic regime, reacted poorly to the needs of the people. It was simply unsustainable. The government spent money on guns and bombs but not on improving the lives of the people. As a result, their economy stagnated by the 1970s and into the 1980s.

The Soviet Union was doomed no matter who was president in the US. Reagan and the Pope provided a rallying symbol to the oppressed. This is why they're so highly thought of in many East European countries today.