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Podcast: Bungacast
Episode: Excerpt: /293/ Goodbye 20th Century (RIP Gorby)
Description:
On the meaning of Gorbachev.
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[Patreon Exclusive]
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Mikhail Gorbachev continues to be lauded in Western circles for overseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union without much bloodshed. But given the historic societal disaster that followed, is this status unmerited? How naive was Gorbachev about the wolves at the door? And to what extent was the writing on the wall by the late '80s – was there an alternative path not taken?
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Readings:
Big Man Walking: Gorbachev’s Dispensation, Neal Ascherson, LRB, 2017
Voices of Glasnost reviewÂ
Why Gorbachev Failed, Slavoj Zizek, Compact
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Listenings:
OK BUNGER! The Problem of Generations, pt. 4 (on Gen X, th...