Clipped from www.theoildrum.com
Peak oil and the Fall of the Soviet Union: Lessons on the 20th Anniversary of the Collapse
Synopsis: The causes of the fall of the Soviet Union are thought to be inefficiency and the Soviet response to the Reagan Administration’s military buildup of the early 1980s. However, a more plausible explanation is the decline in Soviet oil production caused by peak oil. This gives the world an example of a modern economy confronted by peak oil and what lessons we can learn from it.