The unforeseen Collapse of the Soviet Union : the Reflexion of Edward Gibbon in George F. Kennan’s Mirror
Kozovoï, Andreï
The unforeseen Collapse of the Soviet Union : the Reflexion of Edward Gibbon in George F. Kennan’s Mirror - 2012.
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One of the questions frequently raised when trying to understand the end of the Soviet Union remains the experts’ inability to foresee it during the Cold War. Only a few people were able to “prophesy” the December 1991 break-up. Regarding this issue, George F. Kennan’s example is enlightening. The “father of the containment policy” had been inspired by Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which had helped him predict the end of the Soviet Union. From the 1960s onwards, for various reasons, this comparative interpretation became less popular; the collective imagination was impoverished, and failed to anticipate 1991.
The unforeseen Collapse of the Soviet Union : the Reflexion of Edward Gibbon in George F. Kennan’s Mirror - 2012.
27
One of the questions frequently raised when trying to understand the end of the Soviet Union remains the experts’ inability to foresee it during the Cold War. Only a few people were able to “prophesy” the December 1991 break-up. Regarding this issue, George F. Kennan’s example is enlightening. The “father of the containment policy” had been inspired by Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which had helped him predict the end of the Soviet Union. From the 1960s onwards, for various reasons, this comparative interpretation became less popular; the collective imagination was impoverished, and failed to anticipate 1991.
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