I don't think you are really disagreeing with me, though yours is a more nuanced take.
With a more functional economy,.or even more financial reserves, the USSR could have bought food.
Once the citizens can noonger afford bread, revolution is as inevitable as gravity. Without money, during a famine feeding and paying the army to suppress the revolution becomes next to impossible.
North Korea is something of a special case, but mostly because they are spending all the food and money they do have on keeping the army functional. The North Korean population is unlikely to balkanize.
The revolutions of the "Arab Spring" have all been fairly directly linked to the price of food as an igniting factor, however with the USSR, there were a large number of factions that had been quietly bidong their time and waiting for the right moment to throw off the shackles.
I am sure without the economic situation of the 80s, the USSR still would have fractured, it just happened much faster thanks to deft acceleration by Ron.
I don't think you are really disagreeing with me, though yours is a more nuanced take.
With a more functional economy,.or even more financial reserves, the USSR could have bought food.
Once the citizens can noonger afford bread, revolution is as inevitable as gravity. Without money, during a famine feeding and paying the army to suppress the revolution becomes next to impossible.
North Korea is something of a special case, but mostly because they are spending all the food and money they do have on keeping the army functional. The North Korean population is unlikely to balkanize.
The revolutions of the "Arab Spring" have all been fairly directly linked to the price of food as an igniting factor, however with the USSR, there were a large number of factions that had been quietly bidong their time and waiting for the right moment to throw off the shackles.
I am sure without the economic situation of the 80s, the USSR still would have fractured, it just happened much faster thanks to deft acceleration by Ron.