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Sarah Paine — Why Russia Lost the Cold War

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

Sarah Paine — Why Russia Lost the Cold War

Dwarkesh Podcast

2025/12/19
Dwarkesh Podcast

Dwarkesh Podcast

2025/12/19
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

This is the final episode of the Sarah Paine lecture series, and it’s probably my favorite one. Sarah gives a “tour of the arguments” on what ultimately led to the Soviet Union’s collapse, diving into the role of the US, the Sino-Soviet border conflict, th...

Highlights

This final lecture in the series explores the multifaceted collapse of the Soviet Union, examining how a combination of internal decay and external pressures culminated in one of the most significant geopolitical shifts of the 20th century.
13:08
The U.S. Navy was destabilizing as they couldn't track U.S. submarines.
28:52
The Soviet economy lost the Cold War due to structural failure and external pressures.
37:04
Yeltsin's signing of the Belovezh Accords enabled national independence across the former Soviet Union.
46:59
Germany provided $15 billion to support repatriated Soviet soldiers as part of the reunification deal.
48:31
Russia opposed US troops in Iraq and regime change during Gulf crisis
1:13:45
Gorbachev promoted democratization but didn't believe in market prices or property rights.
1:47:48
Russia struggled to adapt to modern economic growth due to its historical legacy.

Chapters

Did Reagan single-handedly win the Cold War?
00:00
Eastern Bloc uprisings & oil crisis
15:53
Gorbachev’s mistakes
30:37
German unification and NATO expansion
37:33
The Gulf War and the Cold War endgame
48:31
How central planning survived so long
56:10
Sarah’s life in the USSR in 1988
1:14:46

Transcript

Sarah Paine: Thank you for coming. It's a treat to be with you and sharing all this stuff. Since we seem to be in a second Cold War, maybe it's a good time to revisit the last one. To see why it turned out the way it did and why the participants in it thou...