OFFLIST: Re: [lbo-talk] Re: Law Student With a History of Taking Left Turns

Brad DeLong delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU
Fri Jul 25 11:11:38 PDT 2003



>Brad DeLong wrote:
>
>>>Gorbachev?
>>
>>A very impressive guy in a lot of ways...
>
>And a total product of the CPSU. So how'd it produce an impressive
>non-monster?
>
>Doug

More remarkable, I think, was Khrushchev. Khrushchev genuinely *was* a monster--one of the head monsters in the 1930s. But after he persuaded Zhukov to roll the tanks for him in the mid-1950s, he decided that he was not going to be a monster--a tyrant seated on a throne of skulls--any more. He decided he was not going to be a Leninist any more, but a (Karl) Marxist.

I still think that there was an opportunity in the mid-1960s for Khrushchev to try (and succeed!) in doing what Gorbachov tried (and failed!) to do in the mid-1980s--glasnost, perestroika, and a successful journey along the Chinese path to economic reform.

Of course, all of Khrushchev's lieutenants thought he had simply gone mad...

Brad DeLong



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list