I have not read it, but I am looking for a review - thanks
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http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/060105_soviet_lessons.shtml(Several months ago, Dmitry Orlov suggested writing an essay for www.survivingpeakoil.com relating how the people of Russia survived the collapse of the Soviet Union. I heartily welcomed the idea, and that was the last I heard from Dmitry for some time. I had just about given up on the article when it finally did appear a few weeks ago. In reading through this article, I quickly ascertained that Dmitry had far exceeded his goal. It was clear that this article deserved a larger readership than I could give it at survivingpeakoil.com. As science editor at From The Wilderness, I passed this article on to Mike and Jamey, and they readily agreed that it should be published by FTW.
Through his comparison and contrast of the Former Soviet Union to the U.S., Dmitry provides us with one of the most penetrating analyses of post-peak that I have read. This article is packed with original insights derived from personal experience. The picture which Dmitry paints is unsettling, but it is far better than jumping feet first into darkness. The impending breakdown of the US and world economies is here clarified to the point that you can begin to prepare for this eventuality. And this article gives some of the most practical suggestions on how to prepare. I gained a great deal from this article, and I would like to personally thank Dmitry for sharing it.
Before presenting the article, perhaps we should emphasize one major difference between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution which now confronts us. Russia was able to survive the collapse and stage a comeback because it was largely a political and economic collapse. Russia still had a rich resource base, and most importantly vast energy reserves. Moreover, it was a regional collapse; there was a healthy world outside of Russia to which it could turn for aid, albeit at an exploitive price. Following the global peak of oil and the worldwide, irreversible decline in energy production, there will be little left on which to stage a comeback. Any economy which is dependent on hydrocarbon energy will be slowly constricted. Dmitry mentions this in his article, but it bears repeating. In this sense, the collapse of the Soviet Union could be viewed as a dress rehearsal for what is to come. — DAP, FTW Science Editor)
FREE - The other 2 sections have a price - no doubt because From The Wilderness is an online publishing house!
Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century
(PART ONE OF THREE)
By
Dmitry Orlov
Special to From the Wilderness
Introduction
June 1, 2005 0900 PST (FTW) A decade and a half ago the world went from bipolar to unipolar, because one of the poles fell apart: The S.U. is no more. The other pole – symmetrically named the U.S. – has not fallen apart – yet, but there are ominous rumblings on the horizon. The collapse of the United States seems about as unlikely now as the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed in 1985. The experience of the first collapse may be instructive to those who wish to survive the second.
Reasonable people would never argue that that the two poles were exactly symmetrical; along with significant similarities, there were equally significant differences, both of which are valuable in predicting how the second half of the clay-footed superpower giant that once bestrode the planet will fare once it too falls apart.
I have wanted to write this article for almost a decade now. Until recently, however, few people would have taken it seriously. After all, who could have doubted that the world economic powerhouse that is the United States, having recently won the Cold War and the Gulf War, would continue, triumphantly, into the bright future of superhighways, supersonic jets, and interplanetary colonies?
But more recently the number of doubters has started to climb steadily. The U.S. is desperately dependent on the availability of cheap, plentiful oil and natural gas, and addicted to economic growth. Once oil and gas become expensive (as they already have) and in ever-shorter supply (a matter of one or two years at most), economic growth will stop, and the U.S. economy will collapse. <snip>
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