Gorbachev, recognizing social and economic costs of alcoholism, attempted to reduce it. The Russian's also used humour to cope with the reality of a socialist existence. The following is an example of typical (black) Russian humour: .
Two men joined a queue in front of a bakery after a hard days work. After waiting several hours one man declares to the other, "I'm sick of this! I'm going to go and shoot the President."" He storms off, yelling and waving his arms about. A few hours later he returns and takes his position at the end of the line. The other man calls back to him, "did you shoot the President?- The first man replies " No. The line was too long!-.
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The Cold War.
The failing Soviet economy owed much to an extremely expensive conflict known as the Cold War. The Cold War was an ideological battle between the Soviet Union and the USA. It began, in earnest, in 1945 and ended with the collapse of the USSR. The first skirmish in the Cold War was the Berlin Blockade and subsequent airlift. Germany, divided at the end of the war, was split into Eastern/Communist Germany and Western/Democratic Germany. Berlin was in the Soviet sector but was under the joint control of the USSR, Britain, France and the USA.
Europe was effectively split into two spheres of influence. Western Europe, aided by the United States, was democratic and capitalist. Eastern Europe, comprising of the USSR and the satellites, was Communist. The USA, fearful of the USSR converting Europe to Communism, instituted a policy of containment via the Marshall Plan. The plan, also known, as the European Economic Recovery Plan, aimed to use money to stabilise post-WW2 Europe to minimize the chance of communist uprisings. .
While the USA used her economic power to hold Western Europe, the Soviet were prepared to use force. Soviet troops suppressed uprisings in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Ostpolitik means Eastern Policy.
