Sarah Paine – Why Russia Lost the Cold War

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, the oil bust, ethnic rebellions and even the Roman Catholic Church. As she points out, this is all particularly interesting as we find ourselves potentially at the beginning of another Cold War.

As we wrap up this lecture series, I want to take a moment to thank Sarah for doing this with me. It has been such a pleasure.

If you want more of her scholarship, I highly recommend checking out the books she’s written. You can find them here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/S.-C.-M.-Paine/author/B001HCVOTG

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒
* Transcript: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/sarah-paine-cold-war
* Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381?i=1000742025593
* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5MF73tDb0Nw9Bt7O5oIsIV?si=04d739580dd14269

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒
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𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
00:00:00 – Did Reagan single-handedly win the Cold War?
00:15:53 – Eastern Bloc uprisings & oil crisis
00:30:37 – Gorbachev's mistakes
00:37:33 – German unification and NATO expansion
00:48:31 – The Gulf War and the Cold War endgame
00:56:10 – How central planning survived so long
01:14:46 – Sarah's life in the USSR in 1988