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No.
Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it as rhetorical device to illustrate the necessity of reforms.
Anyway, Robin Williams predicted it all five years before Yeltsin's trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIcmoY3_lE
Worth noting this footage of a ussr grocery store (1990/91) : https://youtu.be/t8LtQhIQ2AE Not endorsing the article, I think it's worth thinking beyond just the economic frame and also factoring in community resilience and such. There's arguments such as from writers like Orlov: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Orlov_(writer)
At least they were spacious! And the small trolleys were kind: you didn't have to feel bad that yours was empty.
Even developing contries' markets usually are groaning with produce. What a condemnation of the communist experiement!
Worth noting this footage of a ussr grocery store (1990/91) : https://youtu.be/t8LtQhIQ2AE Not endorsing the article, I think it's worth thinking beyond just the economic frame and also factoring in community resilience and such. There's arguments such as from writers like Orlov: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Orlov_(writer)
This post is over half a decade old, I wonder what percent of American budgets are spent on groceries in 2023? More or less than 8%? There is more to this story. Freakonomics did an episode about the Cold War "Farms Race". https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-the-supermarket-helped-...
I dunno about Yeltsin and the Houston store, but I do know this: I went on a student tour of the USSR as a college student in 1991, arranged through my University (U of Alabama). I was getting a minor in Russian language, and it seemed like a fun trip. It actually got MORE fun because in the run-up to the trip (in spring, 91) there was some dissent in the USSR and many parents wouldn't let their kids go. In order to…
It's naive to imagine Yeltsin's mind was really changed by a spontaneous visit. He didn't have intelligence on what a US supermarket was like? The premiere of a superpower just randomly decided to visit a grocery store? No. Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it…
It's naive to imagine Yeltsin's mind was really changed by a spontaneous visit. He didn't have intelligence on what a US supermarket was like? The premiere of a superpower just randomly decided to visit a grocery store? No. Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it…
A senior person in an authoritarian system like that could be surrounded by “yes men” who would repeat the official Soviet lines that perhaps American supermarkets weren’t all that much different from soviet ones, or only available to the super rich, etc
Perhaps they also received legitimate reports as well. An unplanned impromptu trip would be a good way to see which reports were the most accurate.
It's naive to imagine Yeltsin's mind was really changed by a spontaneous visit. He didn't have intelligence on what a US supermarket was like? The premiere of a superpower just randomly decided to visit a grocery store? No. Yeltsin was contemplating reforms and changes and wanted to collect a political tool he could later user if needed. He knew exactly how this visit would go, and it was intended so he could use it…
In the same way the assassination of Ferdinand started WW1, that is to say, both would have likely happened anyways.
Yes, the relative abundance produced by capitalism would have overcome the USSR/Russia even absent Yeltsin's visit. Everywhere communism has been tried, it's failed, and the most assertive efforts have led to the death of tens of millions.