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yes sure us. We're he shawrass. Welcome to the Russian rulers history podcast episode 109 the end game nears.

Last time we recounted the muddled progress, if you could call it that,

where Garbachev tried to reform both domestic and foreign policy with little success, especially with the economy.

Now before I start, let me apologize for not being on time with this podcast. Life keeps presenting one challenge

at a time in front of me. So while I try to keep a regular schedule of podcasts, sometimes

it just isn't possible. I will be doing episode 110 in the next week or two,

but after that I'll have to take a few weeks off, probably three or four, because I'm traveling. I'm traveling off to Australia

where I'll be teaching some classes in lab testing and in health in both

Sydney and Melbourne. So, but the good news is I'll have lots of scripts that'll be able to prepare because frankly the trip over there.

Flight is over 15 hours so I will have lots of time to put together some scripts and because remember we're almost at the end of the

Russian rulers segment of the podcast and we'll be moving on to different events and people

from there. So, well, I'll be off for a while. There's good news behind it.

Anyways, let's get going on this podcast.

The Challenge is facing Gorbachev in 1985 and 86 were immense, especially economically.

The Soviet budget was a secret to even the most senior public bureau members.

Gorbachev and his memoirs claims to have not known what the numbers were

until almost the end of his tenure as party head.

Now, I find this a bit incredulous and probably just an excuse for not doing anything

about it. The military took up 40% of the total budget which shocked the Politburo members who were now becoming more and

...