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My grandpa bet me $50 the USSR would still exist by 2000, and I've been thinking about that lost bet ever since
Back in 1998 I was sitting in my grandpa's kitchen in Toledo arguing about the Cold War for a school project, and he was so sure the Soviet Union would pull through that he put 50 bucks on it. He passed away in 2003, so he never had to pay up, but I still think about how wrong smart people can be about huge stuff. It got me wondering what our timeline would even look like if the USSR held together, like would we still have that weird map in every classroom with all the red. What's the one alternate history call you got totally wrong, or the one you're still smug about getting right?
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derek_green33d ago
Smart people can be wrong about huge stuff" cuts both ways though. The USSR was already falling apart by 1990, the Baltics were gone, the economy was a mess, and nobody was putting it back together. Calling the collapse was not some genius move either, most people watching it happen knew it was over. The real lesson is that your grandpa grew up when the USSR looked permanent, and he just never updated his map, same as people today who still think China's economy grows 10 percent a year.
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