Let's talk about the fall of the Soviet Union. In August 1991 there was an attempted coup as communist

hardliners sought to reestablish the dominance of Soviet rule in Russia and in its satellite states. The coup attempt collapsed after just three days,

and it eventually led to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary on the 24th of August, and the Supreme Soviet

of the USSR suspended the activities of the party on August 29th.

Following this, former Soviet states declared their independence which radically

reshape the world that we live in today and it continues to reshape our world as the

Ukraine crisis shows us oh so clearly. To help us understand all of this here

on the warfare podcast I decided to go back through the history hit archive to bring you an episode

with the brilliant Peter Kennes. He explains to us just how the

fall of the Soviet Union occurred and how it continues to make waves across our world today.

Enjoy. Peter, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for asking me.

Okay, this is a big question.

Did the Soviet Union collapse under its own internal contradictions because of economic

forces, commodity prices, things like that, or was it external pressure and resistance that led to its collapse?

Well we can say with some assurance that the Soviet Union collapsed not because of a great uprising because the people were

dissatisfied with what they had and then rebelled and then over through the regime

which oppressed them. But actually Lenin formulated that

what you need for a revolution is not so much that lower classes cannot tolerate their oppression, but those who are in position of control cannot do it any longer.

And so I always thought started the crucial movement of the collapse of the Soviet Union

when Karbachev at one point said to Sheverdanza,

...