HOW LONG CAN AN EMPIRE SUSTAIN ITSELF WITH LIES?
The world seemed less complicated after 1945. There were two large competing camps with two different ideologies: The capitalist West led by the United States and the communist East of the Soviet Union. Each of the two superpowers sought to prove to the world that its system is superior. During the Cold War that ensued, the two global dominators—both armed to the teeth—faced off against each other, and it was this very arms race that eventually brought down the Soviet Union. Historian and Eastern European history expert Stefan Karner believes it was fundamentally the Soviet Union’s inefficient economy that brought about the empire’s collapse. The country simply could not compete in the arms race against the much stronger economy of the United States. Soviet leaders deployed a big lie to conceal the empire’s predicament: “The Soviet Union is the greatest nation on Earth!”
At the time of the Soviet empire’s collapse in 1991, it maintained an active military force of more than 3.5 million soldiers and had more than 4 million more in the reserves. For years the military had been staging gigantic parades to demonstrate the power of the Soviet Union to its people and the world. The propaganda displays were designed to distract from the nation’s economic and other domestic problems, but all in all, it was more than the economy could sustain. In 1988 the Soviet budget listed military spending as a single item totaling about $33 billion, but experts believe the true figure was 10 times higher than
that, concealed in the budgets of other ministries. If that’s correct, military spending would’ve accounted for about 12% of the nation’s GDP. The fatal blow came with the decision to invade Afghanistan in 1979, which triggered a guerrilla war that was to last for nine years. In this proxy conflict, Afghan warlords were supported against the Soviet Army by a number of nations, including the United States. By the time the Soviet Union withdrew its troops, it was on the brink of economic collapse: The cost of the war—and government mismanagement—had wrecked the economy. But the lies that were told at the time endured. The Russian media, now mostly under the strict control of President Vladimir Putin, highlight stories that benefit Putin’s regime. An army of hackers and journalists creates “news” designed to keep the Russian people on the side of the government and destabilize Putin’s domestic and foreign adversaries, including many Western democracies.
What can the U.S. learn from the Soviet experience? For one thing, don’t lie about the true state of affairs. “It doesn’t surprise anyone that politicians lie,” says Professor Jäger. As an example, the Trump administration did not fully acknowledge the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic. Journalist Bob Woodward says the president told him the virus was “deadly stuff” even before the first U.S. death in February 2020, but the public message was “Stay calm, it will go away.” The virus has now killed 700,000 Americans and many people have lost confidence in politicians, health authorities, and the media. Basic truth has become elusive.
20 MILLION
Soviet lives were lost under dictator Joseph Stalin, not counting the losses of World War II. While money flowed to the secret police to carry out Stalin’s purge, the poorest citizens were left to fend for themselves.