ProvCast Episode 4: Reagan & the Soviet Collapse, 25 Years Later
Communism | Democracy | Europe & Eurasia | Human Rights | Soviet Union (USSR)
In this episode we’ll speak again with Joseph Loconte, a senior editor for Providence and an associate professor of history at King’s College in New York. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, which is about J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis’ experiences in the First World War.
For our latest issue of the print edition—which should be hitting mailboxes soon if they haven’t done so already—Joe wrote an article chronicling the fall of the Soviet Union. He begins with Ronald Reagan’s predication that communism would collapse and the USSR would fall upon the “trash heap of history”. President Reagan made this predication in June 1982 during an address at the British Parliament in Westminster Palace. On Christmas Day 1991—at least for those who follow the Western Christian tradition—Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet leader, and the Soviet flag flew over the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time. On the next day, twenty-five years ago today as we release this episode, the Supreme Soviet formally declared that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
If you would like to read Loconte’s article, click here. Also, be sure to subscribe to the quarterly print edition. It’s only $28 a year, and it helps cover the cost of printing and shipping the journals.
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Joseph Loconte is an associate professor of history at the King’s College in New York City and a senior editor at Providence. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918.
Mark Melton is the Deputy Editor for Providence. He earned his Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews and focuses on Europe.
Photo Credit: Photograph of President Reagan and Vice-President Bush meeting with General Secretary Gorbachev on Governor’s Island, New York. December 7, 1988. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, via Flickr.
