About this episode

This episode explores the parallels between Bolshevism and the shock therapy of the post-Soviet 1990s in Russia.

False Dawn – Russia's Two Utopian Experiments and the Legacy of Shock Therapy https://explaininghistory.org/historiography/russian-revolution/ In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore John Gray's False Dawn and the remarkable parallels between two failed attempts to remake Russia on a Western model – Bolshevism and the "shock therapy" of the post‑Soviet 1990s. After the First World War, John Maynard Keynes warned that the Carthaginian peace imposed on Germany would lead to endless instability. The Treaty of Versailles was a missed opportunity – and so, in a different way, was the settlement that followed the Cold War. Instead of a new international order that might have integrated Russia into the world system, we got free‑market triumphalism and the chaotic dismemberment of the Soviet Union. John Gray's argument is provocative: both War Communism (1918‑21) and the shock therapy of the Yeltsin era were Western utopian projects, divorced from Russian history and culture, that produced catastrophic human suffering. War Communism, with its abolition of private property and markets, was an attempt to impose Marxian socialism on a country that had no…

More episodes of Explaining History

• Between Two Empires – The Arab Revolts Against the Ottomans in Mesopotamia · July 15, 2026 · 31 min
• War and Empire in the 20th Century · July 6, 2026 · 33 min
• Mamdani, Corbyn and the War Within the Centre-Left · July 1, 2026 · 33 min
• Quebec's secret biological warfare history · June 25, 2026 · 34 min
• Belfast and the international networked far right · June 18, 2026 · 40 min
• Italy from the fascism to post war republic · June 17, 2026 · 43 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Explaining History podcast page.