EH.Net Mailing List Archive: EH.Eastbloc

        I looked at your papers and found some parts to be very 
interesting, especially the 12/18/99 ECONOMIST citation that 58% of 
Russians believe it would have been better off if the country had stayed 
the way it was before 1985 (and with 48% being for a return to state 
planning). Do you have an actual page number and article title for that? 
        Your hypothesis that the "planners" triggered the collapse in 
Russia is interesting. However, it is really hard to group the Soviet 
leaders into one group. Certainly, Yeltsin and some of his liberal 
reformers did contribute to the collapse, as did Gorbachev himself with 
his own version of market reforms. But there were many other views from 
the top, such as those who tried to prevent the collapse in 1991 with the 
coup attempt. You are certainly correct in stating that the Russian people 
are not responsible for the destruction of their country and economy: over 
70% voted early in 1991 for the preservation of the Soviet Union (even a 
a majority in the outlying republics voted in favor of preserving the 
Soviet Union), but that vote was ignored by Yeltsin, who even went so 
far as to unconstitutionally close down a parliament elected by the 
Russian people and then blow it up with tanks when it did not disburse as 
ordered in 1993. The 1996 "election" was a farce, with outright purchases 
of votes and a one-sided media that even the WALL STREET JOURNAL labeled 
to be "unabashedly" pro-Yeltsin (not to mention the standard game of 
bribing the people with spending projects just before the vote)-- my 
recollection is also of many of the mafia/rich (perhaps even including 
Yeltsin himself, who refused to set up any legal means and timing for a 
transfer of power if he lost the vote, implying he had no intention of 
leaving power even if he had lost the "election") threatening civil war if 
the communists won in 1996 (but I haven't been able to find a reference 
from that latter issue-- anybody know of one?). 
        At any rate, to make your papers more realistic, I do believe you 
need to state some of the facts related to the many planners and producers 
who did not and do not want the destruction of their economy and country. 
Sincerely, 
Austin Murphy  
 
"I spent most of my time being a high-class muscleman for Big Business ... I  
helped in the raping of half a dozen Central America republics for the benefit 
of Wall Street ... In China I helped to see that Standard Oil went its way 
unmolested..." --Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.),1935