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> so much of what the Soviets worked on feels rooted in a sort of “that’ll show them!” inferiority complex That's what the Cold War was about, innit? Same reas
by ivankuz 2y ago
> so much of what the Soviets worked on feels rooted in a sort of “that’ll show them!” inferiority complex
That's what the Cold War was about, innit? Same reason why the US went to the moon.
- bamboozled 2y agoExcept the US actually made it to the moon with functional equipment and not Ekranoplanz.
- dieortin 2y agoThe soviets put the first satellite and man in space, so I bet they had functional equipment too
- ein0p 2y agoFirst woman in space too, and a very long list of other firsts some of which remain untouched by anyone else (eg landing in the surface of Venus and sending digital pictures back). Valentina Tereshkova went to space in 1963, at a time when women in the US had to ask their husband’s permission to open a bank account.
- bamboozled 2y agoThey did not get to the moon though did they, which is what we were discussing.
- Waterluvian 2y agoMy perception was that the Cold War was partly about exploiting this trait, forcing them into financial ruin by running races they couldn’t help but compete in.
- pvg 2y agoA short and fun to read corrective is Kotkin's Armageddon Averted. The competition, inefficiency and the demands of its own power projections were a costly strain but nowhere close to leading to ruin or an irrecoverable state.