#OTD in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev took over as the leader of the USSR. During his term, he would make numerous ill-fated attempts to reform the moribund system, but only accelerated its decline. Thus, his reign ended with the disintegration of the very USSR he sought to preserve. Both his admirers and haters portray this as some sort of unnatural historical turn, wherein a single leader took over and dismantled what was otherwise a functional system. I'll give you a *very* small taste of what he inherited. What happened afterwards should surprise no one.

Reading Cold War Soviet apologia is legit infuriating.

"We must unilaterally abandon all opposition to the Soviets and even stop criticizing their human rights record if we want to avoid the slide to nuclear war. But it would be unfair to expect them to stop expanding." Surrender all your desires for freedom. Surrender any idea of possibly helping them escape this and even moral support. Surrender any idea that the system you're trying to escape is even bad at all. This is the only way to avoid a nuclear holocaust.