Posted on 05/04/2019 7:45:26 PM PDT by OddLane
Sometimes, a history lesson works better when it’s a little ragged and personal. Clocking in at a little over 90 minutes and consisting primarily of a sit-down interview with the former Soviet leader, Werner Herzog’s Meeting Gorbachev speeds through a vast stretch of the 20th century, explaining the decline of the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain through the eyes of the man whose reforms precipitated much of it. But Herzog himself brings a surprising — and, it turns out, necessary — element to their interactions: that of the grateful world citizen, one of billions who felt the first pangs of existential relief when Gorbachev brought a new openness to the USSR and began talking nuclear disarmament with President Ronald Reagan.
Meeting Gorbachev is a hagiography, but it’s unafraid to position itself as such; Herzog makes his case proudly and passionately.
The director opens by first apologizing to the former Soviet leader for the crimes committed by Germans against Russians during World War II. “I am a German, and the first German you ever met probably wanted to kill you,” he suggests. Gorbachev counters that his childhood neighbors in the Northern Caucus town of Privolnoye were a family of Germans who owned a sweet shop, and that he was fond of them as a result. “I thought that such wonderful sweets could only be made by good people,” he recalls thinking...
(Excerpt) Read more at vulture.com ...
Gorbachev - The most overrated figure in history.
How so?
The Left always credits Gorbachev with ending the Cold War. It was all Reagan, Gorby just didn’t have a choice.
The USSR didn’t really outlive the generation that established it.
Next generation took over, they weren’t infected with the demon lies that were used to create it. They weren’t in the grip of Lenin’s ability to twist minds and conquer hearts.
Gorbachev’s an intelligent man. He wasn’t willing to wipe out life on Earth for the vision of Karl Marx. Push came to shove, he said “I’m climbing off the alligator.”
Gorbachev is a great man. If he hadn’t been overthrown he probably would have led Russia and the other republics through a much better long-term transition.
This film sounds like a 2 hour-long Gorbasm.
There’s a movie out called Red Jane about a British woman who passed nuclear secrets to the Soviets. The review in either Variety or the Hollywood Reporter calls her a “heroine.” The left loves colluding with Russia.
The Russians couldn’t stand him, he was more popular in the US than in Russia.
The problem with Yeltsin was that he couldn’t say no to Bill Clinton.
“The problem with Yeltsin was that he couldn’t say no to Bill Clinton.”
Agreed, he had little choice in the matter, as Reagan was breaking the back of the Soviet economy with a multi-front series of attacks (and Chernobyl didn’t help them in this regard). If he didn’t go along, his only choice was war - and I heard personally from someone in the know that in 1982 the Soviet general staff told the Politburo that they could never defeat the West, and that they should work out their best possible deal. This was in the immediate aftermath of the Israelis Downing 79 of the most advanced Soviet aircraft in Lebanon in 1 battle, many surreptitiously piloted by Russians, without the loss of a single aircraft of their own. It is likely that this recommendation led to the appointment of Gorbachev, since the appointment of a well-spoken and educated reformer was viewed as being less risky than putting in just another old Communist who would die in 5 years or less.
The only difference between Gorbachev, and his predecessors, is that he’s still alive.
Interesting.
Well there’s always a choice, he just made the right one.
But I agree with your assessment.
"I knew it!"
Same guy that brought me to tears laughing at Timothy Treadwell being eaten by a bear. That just funny!
“The left loves colluding with Russia.”
The loved the USSR. But when Russia started rebuilding the churches, and protecting their kids from homosexuality, the left developed a pathological hatred for them. Then when the Russians had the quaint idea of not being an administrative district of the Brussels/London/New York globalism project, most of the republicans developed a hate for them.
So they have no friends out there these days. The dems despise them for not being communist. And the repubs hate them for the same reasons they hate Trump.
The Robert Reich Story.
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