Mikhail Gorbachev Dies At 91

The last leader of the Soviet Union died today at 91. I'm personally very sad to hear this, his death makes this world feel smaller and emptier.

He was a man who saw sense & accepted the changing reality on the ground - especially in relation to Eastern Europe.

Of course, he also accepted that the retention of nuclear weapons was downright dangerous & a serious threat to humanity.

Aidan.

RIP

RIP.

He may not have caught up with his thoughts, but Eastern and Central Europe is grateful to himHe may not have caught up with his thoughts, but Eastern and Central Europe is grateful to him.

Ivan

A great statesman.

His decisions set Eastern Europe free from imposed Communism to follow its own destiny. 

I remember the chatter in Finland when he first came on the scene - basically it boiled down to ‘is this guy for real!!!’. It was such an amazing alteration to the status quo.

After decades of delicate relations, Gorbachev's arrival change the whole landscape. 

RIP

As someone whose parents lived in Soviet Latvia, obviously our country was happy that the USSR collapsed under his regime. 

However, what many people except for Russians don't understand is that Gorbachev sold out Russia's wealth to Vanguard and Blackrock. This is what economist Michael Hudson called “capital flight” or “oligarchy”, where a small portion of oligarchs in Russia were paid off to move all of Russia's wealth to Western countries. This policy was initiated under Gorbachev's “korporativ” campaign, where KGB officers and administrative officials were given the right to privatize major Russian commodity industries, which were later on bought by Vanguard/ Blackrock post-independence. 

So post-1991 Yeltsin implemented the seeds sown by Gorbachev, getting rid of Russia's manufacturing, getting rid of their engineering , and concentrated solely on privatizing and exporting raw materials out to the west. 

A small exert from Michael Hudson's interview with Karl Fitzgerald from Renegade Economics: 

The Harvard boys gave the following advice: “none of this export revenue from the hole in the ground should really be turned over to the state – we want to make sure that you only tax labor and tax business, but don’t tax natural resources – let it all be privatized. And so Russia thought, gee this sounds like a funny way to get rich but that’s what they did. And so they followed the Harvard advice to give away the oil, the nickel companies, the mineral resources, and that’s how they got the money to begin sending it all to the west. There wasn’t any Russian money to buy these companies because the IMF and World Bank wiped out Russian savers with a hyper inflation by getting rid of all the capital controls and letting the rouble float. So it was just one bad advice after another and now the Russians realize they’ve been taken.”

Long story short- “thanks” to Gorbachev's perestroika policies, which were later developed by Yeltsin, the average Russia Joe and Jane (or Vladimir and Yekaterina) suffer just like any American today as slaves of a debt-based monetary system. In 1998, Russia experienced their first financial crisis because all of their loans were based in eurodollars, but with a dollar shortage they were unable to pay the interest on those loans, which was denominated in dollars. 

So if you ask the majority of Russia's over 50 population, whether life was better during the USSR or today, most will paradoxically say that the Soviet Union was better, simply because although there were no phones or TVs or cars, not one Russian was drowning in Vanguard or Blackrock debt. 

RIP 

As time goes on there would be less and less leaders alive during the USSR era 1922-1991.

As far as I know there is only two Soviet premiers still alive Nikolai Ryzhkov and Ivan Silayev, (That excludes any leaders, premiers and heads of state of the Republics or autonomous regions within the USSR).

Also in several post Communist countries in Eastern Europe most ex leaders of those countries are still alive but they tend to be ones that only held that post for a few days before the leadership was disbanded.

Anyway its a part of history that we all look back on and how the leaders (and the regime) influenced us and made us the people we are today. 

In terms of Numismatics almost double the amount of commemorative coins were released during his term compared to before 1985.