If Putin were in charge instead of Gorbachev would he have sent in the tanks?

[techs]

Just wondering if people think that Putin would have given up the Russian Empire if he had been the leader of Russia instead of Gorbachev?

 

[senseamp]

The western paranoia about Putin is kind of silly, if you ask me. Gorbachev didn't give up on USSR, BTW. His goal was never to dissolve USSR, but to make it more free and less repressive. Dissolution of USSR was the effect of removing the repression, but it wasn't his goal. But he did liberalize it, allow free speech and expression, and let chips fall where they may. Of course, once people could speak their mind, they spoke for independence of their republics from USSR, and eventually it fell apart. What would Putin do? I don't know. I am guessing he would have gone a more China like approach, keeping the strong state while allowing more economic freedoms. So probably USSR would have still been intact in some form or another.

 

[ProfJohn]

Gorbachev?s goal was the save the Russian economy and thus save the empire. He failed at both goals.

I have no idea why the media and liberals view him as some type of savior.

And once again you show you general lack of knowledge of the world here Techs. The Soviets did not ?give up the Russian Empire? their empire fell apart from within. They were broke and the communist party had virtually now power near the end.

And there was an attempt by hard line commies to save the ?empire? and it failed when Yeltsin rallied popular support against the attempted coup. Had Putin been in charge I don?t think it would have made any difference at all because they were on the road to collapse for many years prior to the actual collapse. The only reason Putin has any power at all is due the economic reforms that are enriching the country now. If the Soviet Union did not collapse then these reforms would have never taken place.

 

[senseamp]

I don't think you can overestimate the importance of Gorbachev to the end of the Cold War. Economic collapse in itself is not enough to bring down an authoritarian communist state. Just look at North Korea and Cuba and even pre-war USSR What Gorbachev did was allow people to criticize the existing system and demand change (glastnost) and also he kept the hardliners in check long enough so that when they finally tried to retake power it was too late. Of course this reality doesn't fit in well into the Reagan personality cult some people have.

 

[Colt45]

Without Gorbachev there wouldn't have been a need to send in tanks.