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Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

26 Oct

Reading here Brezhnev's speeches at internal party conferences. On one occasion (in 1973) he went into great detail about how the Soviets were lagging behind the West in high-tech exports, and were just not competitive on the international market.

Here he is complaining how the Netherlands is ahead of the USSR in foreign trade.

Later he talks about how the Soviets are falling behind in acquiring foreign licenses (compared to countries like Japan):

Read 7 tweets

Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

19 Oct

Some people have criticised my negative assessment of Catherine Belton's engagement with her sources, suggesting that I selectively pointed to one or two dubious sources. I am receptive to this criticism; therefore, I am running another thread (the last one, I promise).

This thread is about Belton's claim that the KGB siphoned off billions of dollars from the Soviet economy in the final days/months of the Soviet regimes. Where do we find this claim? Right here.

Here's another bit where she talks about it.

Read 17 tweets

Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

19 Oct

https://twitter.com/DylanPrimakoff/status/1317856614469169155

Well I don't normally respond to tweets from people I don't know but this thread allows me to highlight some further problematic sourcing in Belton's book. You can see that here Belton argues that certain "progressive members" of the KGB working at IMEMO had pushed for reforms.

https://twitter.com/DylanPrimakoff/status/1317856614469169155

You begin to wonder here who Belton is specifically referring to. The Institute of World Economy (IMEMO) was generally known for "liberal" proclivities, and this had little to do with the KGB or the GRU.

The Institute's director Nikolai Inozemtsev was attacked by the Party hardliners for "revisionism," and had to leverage his ties with Brezhnev to protect himself and his institute. You begin to wonder whether Belton had read anything on IMEMO history.

Read 13 tweets

Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

18 Oct

I've noticed there's a lot of public interest in what I make of Catherine Belton's Putin's People. Fine. Let me give another example of problematic sourcing, and I will use this as an opportunity to address broader issues about how we deal with authenticity of sources.

Belton's book begins with a remarkable conversation between "Putin's banker" and exiled oligarch Sergei Pugachev and the well-known Yeltsin associate Valentin Yumashev. The two discuss how Putin came to power and their role in his rise.

Some really revealing stuff in here, see e.g.

Read 18 tweets

Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

17 Oct

So I promised a thread on Belton's Putin's people, and why I think it's untenable as "history" (as fiction - yes, it's well-written). There are so many problems with the book that I don't even know where to begin, so instead of having a thousand examples, I will just mention two.

Both have to do with methodology. How do we - historians - establish that something is a fact? We find evidence. We weigh this evidence against other evidence to see how convincing it is. We provide references in order to convince fellow historians of the veracity of our takes.

Belton fails to do this. Her early chapters detail the collapse of the USSR, in which she claims that perestroika, begun under Andropov, was basically a "KGB" project (because, you see, KGB operatives served abroad and they knew that life was better there).

Read 14 tweets

Sergey Radchenko

@DrRadchenko

16 Aug

Check out this remarkable conversation between Madeleine Albright and Primakov. This is not too long after Primakov became Prime Minister. After the events of August 1998, Russia was in dire economic straits, and Primakov badly needed to have debts re-scheduled.

Here's he is talking about the basis of the Russian economy ("theft") and lashes out against certain unnamed people who brought Russia to this point. He added that he was fighting corruption and that anything "happened to his family," he "would physically destroy those involved."

Complaining about the US obstruction of IMF loans, Primakov asks Albright whether perhaps the US was counting in his government to fail so that Gaidar and Chubais return. Says this will never happen. Adds that he's trying to steer a narrow path between chaos and dictatorship.

Read 5 tweets

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