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Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects-Revised & Updated
A guide to the decline of the American empire for individuals, families and communities The United States is in steep decline. Plagued by runaway debt, a shrinking economy, and environmental catastrophes to rival Chernobyl, the United States has been retracing the trajectory of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s toward national bankruptcy and political dissolution. By comparing a collapse that has run its course to one that is now unfolding, Dmitry Orlov holds a unique lens up to America's present and future. As Orlov's predictions continue to come true, his writing continues to gain mainstream acceptance. This revised and updated edition of Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for the events that are unfolding here. Orlov gives no quarter to prophets of doom and gloom, finding plenty of room for optimism, if only we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation instead of trying to perpetuate an impossible status quo. This challenging yet inspiring and surprisingly upbeat work is a must-read for anyone concerned about peak oil, the environment, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a resource-constrained world. Dmitry Orlov is an American engineer who was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse and has written extensively on the subject of the impending collapse of the United States.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
July 11, 2020
Dmitry Orlov has a distinctive voice. I have heard it before; it is an European voice, a voice that has seen big ideas and the empires founded upon them crumble into dust. He reminds me of my fathers generation that left Europe after the war. He reminds me especially of a Hungarian man I met at work. It is world weary, cynical yet profound in its own way. A perfect example is the 107 year old man that we encounter in 'Catch 22',
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
But I live like a sane one. I was a fascist when Mussolini was on top. Now that he has been deposed, I am anti-fascist. When the Germans were here, I was fanatically pro-German. Now I'm fanatically pro-American. You'll find no more loyal partisan in all of Italy than myself.
CAPT. NATELY
You're a shameful opportunist! What you don't understand is that it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
You have it backwards. It's better to live on your feet than to die on your knees. I know.
CAPT. NATELY
How do you know?
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
Because I am 107-years-old. How old are you?
If you do not want to hear home truths explained anecdotally do not read this book. It is a book of observation not facts and charts. This is a man that observed the fall of the Soviet Union from the perspective of a Soviet citizen with an American home.
He is quite convinced that America is in the process of collapsing. He makes useful comparisons with the USSR but they are not flattering. He thinks because of the turbo charged capitalism, prevalent in America, people will starve rather quickly. In USSR at least there was a lot of fat in industry and a willingness to turn a blind eye by managers when people came to work to steal stuff to swap with others.
His main advice is do not rely on the state institutions when things go belly up. Keep your head down and shut up....and survive. Oh yes and make useful friends because money won't save you.
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
But I live like a sane one. I was a fascist when Mussolini was on top. Now that he has been deposed, I am anti-fascist. When the Germans were here, I was fanatically pro-German. Now I'm fanatically pro-American. You'll find no more loyal partisan in all of Italy than myself.
CAPT. NATELY
You're a shameful opportunist! What you don't understand is that it's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
You have it backwards. It's better to live on your feet than to die on your knees. I know.
CAPT. NATELY
How do you know?
OLD MAN IN WHOREHOUSE
Because I am 107-years-old. How old are you?
If you do not want to hear home truths explained anecdotally do not read this book. It is a book of observation not facts and charts. This is a man that observed the fall of the Soviet Union from the perspective of a Soviet citizen with an American home.
He is quite convinced that America is in the process of collapsing. He makes useful comparisons with the USSR but they are not flattering. He thinks because of the turbo charged capitalism, prevalent in America, people will starve rather quickly. In USSR at least there was a lot of fat in industry and a willingness to turn a blind eye by managers when people came to work to steal stuff to swap with others.
His main advice is do not rely on the state institutions when things go belly up. Keep your head down and shut up....and survive. Oh yes and make useful friends because money won't save you.
March 22, 2015
Dmitry Orlov grew up in the Soviet Union (USSR), before it collapsed and was reborn as the Russian Federation. In the mid-’70s he moved to the US. On extended visits to his Leningrad home, he directly observed the unpleasant process of a powerful empire collapsing. On later visits he observed how the Russians had adjusted to living in a post-empire society.
It’s very clear to him that America is also a rotting powerful empire — socially, politically, economically. We spend far too much on the military, our debt levels defy the imagination, Peak Cheap Energy is behind us, and big storm clouds are moving in. America is heading toward collapse, and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it, but there’s a lot we can do to prepare for it.
In his book Reinventing Collapse, Orlov provided suggestions and warnings for Americans, based on his ringside experience at the Soviet collapse. Orlov is not a dark, creepy prophet of doom, but a witty comrade who is amused by the absurdity of our indifference to the huge and obvious dangers we face. All civilizations collapse; it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Civilizations can take decades or centuries to decompose, but economies can disintegrate suddenly, with a high human cost.
In its final months, the USSR was limping and wheezing. Then the price of oil fell sharply, slashing their income from oil exports. The system could no longer afford to function — crash! Families began struggling, and the government did little to help them. Factories shut down, traffic disappeared, and the air became clean and fresh. There were long lines at the few open gas stations, where sales were limited to ten liters (2.5 gallons), paid for with a bottle of vodka (money was worthless). Middle class folks discovered rewarding new careers in dumpster diving. The birth rate fell, and the death rate surged. Many drank themselves into the next realm.
Despite this, many homes remained heated, all lights stayed on, nobody starved to death, and the trains ran on time. It turned out that an excellent place to experience a collapse was in a communist land, where the state owned everything. Nobody received an eviction notice, because there were no private homes. The Soviets brilliantly decided not to create a car-based transportation system, because that would have been a foolish waste of precious resources. Gasoline shortages were not a serious problem for a society that was largely car-free. Importantly, their economy did not depend on imported energy.
Housing projects were always located conveniently close to the excellent mass transit system. They wisely did not create a nightmare of endless sprawling suburbs. Instead, Soviets lived in unglamorous, energy-efficient, solidly built, high-rise apartment complexes, many of which provided garden plots for the residents.
The Soviet collapse lasted about ten years, and then the nation got back on its feet. While Russian oil production had passed its peak, they still had significant reserves of oil and natural gas to sell, and this was their salvation. It gave them another decade or two to live in the industrial lane. They were able to bounce back — temporarily. The US will not be so bouncy.
The American collapse will be harsher, because we live in a market economy, and free markets have zero tolerance for providing free goods and services to the destitute. The bank that owns your home will foreclose if you can’t pay. The tax collector will evict you if taxes aren’t paid. The power, phone, and water will be shut off. The repo man will snatch your cars. The food production system will stumble. Say bye-bye to law enforcement and for-profit health care. If the railroad system isn’t modernized before the crash, the USA is likely to break apart.
Near the end of the Soviet empire, there was widespread contempt for the system. Driven by resentment, many highly educated people deliberately shifted to menial work, and sought their pleasure in nature, books, and friends. When the crash came, they didn’t lose their identity, have an anxiety attack, and submerge into despair. “The ability to stop and smell the roses — to let it all go, to refuse to harbor regrets or nurture grievances, to confine one’s serious attention only to that which is immediately necessary and not to worry too much about the rest — is perhaps the one most critical to post-collapse survival.”
Air, water, and food are necessary for survival. Many of us have been brainwashed into believing that life is impossible without flush toilets, automobiles, cell phones, electricity, computers, and on and on. These are wants, not needs. Orlov recommends that we begin the process of mental preparation now, so that we can become more flexible, and better able to roll with the punches when the storm arrives. Simplify your life now, and learn how to be comfortable living without non-essential luxuries and frivolous status trinkets. Imagine how you will live when money becomes worthless. Learn practical skills.
The USSR provided its citizens with a place to live, and most people stayed put. They knew the people around them, which encouraged mutual support. Americans are highly mobile, moving every five years. We often feel like space aliens in a world of strangers. It’s smart to get to know your neighbors, so you can help each other.
When hard times come, be generous with others. Keep possessions to a bare minimum, so you aren’t attractive to thugs and thieves. Outwardly, blend in with the herd — dress like them, act like them, and think like them. Create a wardrobe that’s in harmony with the trendy down-and-out look. During collapse, being an oddball of any kind will be risky. Angry mobs have a big appetite for finding folks to blame and punish, and American mobs are very well armed.
Before the revolution of 1918, the Russian people were well fed by a system of small, low-tech peasant farms. The communist collectivization of agriculture was a disaster. On the bright side, this inspired big interest in kitchen gardens. At the time of the Soviet collapse, these gardens comprised ten percent of cropland, and they generated 90 percent of domestic food production. The average garden was just one-tenth of a hectare (a quarter acre). The US also blundered into industrial agriculture. In the coming years, rising energy costs will eventually derail our highly mechanized food production system.
Reading this book is a sobering and mind-expanding experience. It gives us a vitally important subject to contemplate. Readers are served an all-you-can-eat buffet of good old-fashioned common sense — the best antidote there is for magical thinking, denial, and the intense never-ending hallucinations of consumer fantasyland. It’s a valuable book for people who have “krugozor” (a broad mental horizon that allows outside-the-box thinking). I read the first edition, published before the crash of 2008. Following the crash, Orlov published a new and improved second edition.
It’s very clear to him that America is also a rotting powerful empire — socially, politically, economically. We spend far too much on the military, our debt levels defy the imagination, Peak Cheap Energy is behind us, and big storm clouds are moving in. America is heading toward collapse, and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it, but there’s a lot we can do to prepare for it.
In his book Reinventing Collapse, Orlov provided suggestions and warnings for Americans, based on his ringside experience at the Soviet collapse. Orlov is not a dark, creepy prophet of doom, but a witty comrade who is amused by the absurdity of our indifference to the huge and obvious dangers we face. All civilizations collapse; it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Civilizations can take decades or centuries to decompose, but economies can disintegrate suddenly, with a high human cost.
In its final months, the USSR was limping and wheezing. Then the price of oil fell sharply, slashing their income from oil exports. The system could no longer afford to function — crash! Families began struggling, and the government did little to help them. Factories shut down, traffic disappeared, and the air became clean and fresh. There were long lines at the few open gas stations, where sales were limited to ten liters (2.5 gallons), paid for with a bottle of vodka (money was worthless). Middle class folks discovered rewarding new careers in dumpster diving. The birth rate fell, and the death rate surged. Many drank themselves into the next realm.
Despite this, many homes remained heated, all lights stayed on, nobody starved to death, and the trains ran on time. It turned out that an excellent place to experience a collapse was in a communist land, where the state owned everything. Nobody received an eviction notice, because there were no private homes. The Soviets brilliantly decided not to create a car-based transportation system, because that would have been a foolish waste of precious resources. Gasoline shortages were not a serious problem for a society that was largely car-free. Importantly, their economy did not depend on imported energy.
Housing projects were always located conveniently close to the excellent mass transit system. They wisely did not create a nightmare of endless sprawling suburbs. Instead, Soviets lived in unglamorous, energy-efficient, solidly built, high-rise apartment complexes, many of which provided garden plots for the residents.
The Soviet collapse lasted about ten years, and then the nation got back on its feet. While Russian oil production had passed its peak, they still had significant reserves of oil and natural gas to sell, and this was their salvation. It gave them another decade or two to live in the industrial lane. They were able to bounce back — temporarily. The US will not be so bouncy.
The American collapse will be harsher, because we live in a market economy, and free markets have zero tolerance for providing free goods and services to the destitute. The bank that owns your home will foreclose if you can’t pay. The tax collector will evict you if taxes aren’t paid. The power, phone, and water will be shut off. The repo man will snatch your cars. The food production system will stumble. Say bye-bye to law enforcement and for-profit health care. If the railroad system isn’t modernized before the crash, the USA is likely to break apart.
Near the end of the Soviet empire, there was widespread contempt for the system. Driven by resentment, many highly educated people deliberately shifted to menial work, and sought their pleasure in nature, books, and friends. When the crash came, they didn’t lose their identity, have an anxiety attack, and submerge into despair. “The ability to stop and smell the roses — to let it all go, to refuse to harbor regrets or nurture grievances, to confine one’s serious attention only to that which is immediately necessary and not to worry too much about the rest — is perhaps the one most critical to post-collapse survival.”
Air, water, and food are necessary for survival. Many of us have been brainwashed into believing that life is impossible without flush toilets, automobiles, cell phones, electricity, computers, and on and on. These are wants, not needs. Orlov recommends that we begin the process of mental preparation now, so that we can become more flexible, and better able to roll with the punches when the storm arrives. Simplify your life now, and learn how to be comfortable living without non-essential luxuries and frivolous status trinkets. Imagine how you will live when money becomes worthless. Learn practical skills.
The USSR provided its citizens with a place to live, and most people stayed put. They knew the people around them, which encouraged mutual support. Americans are highly mobile, moving every five years. We often feel like space aliens in a world of strangers. It’s smart to get to know your neighbors, so you can help each other.
When hard times come, be generous with others. Keep possessions to a bare minimum, so you aren’t attractive to thugs and thieves. Outwardly, blend in with the herd — dress like them, act like them, and think like them. Create a wardrobe that’s in harmony with the trendy down-and-out look. During collapse, being an oddball of any kind will be risky. Angry mobs have a big appetite for finding folks to blame and punish, and American mobs are very well armed.
Before the revolution of 1918, the Russian people were well fed by a system of small, low-tech peasant farms. The communist collectivization of agriculture was a disaster. On the bright side, this inspired big interest in kitchen gardens. At the time of the Soviet collapse, these gardens comprised ten percent of cropland, and they generated 90 percent of domestic food production. The average garden was just one-tenth of a hectare (a quarter acre). The US also blundered into industrial agriculture. In the coming years, rising energy costs will eventually derail our highly mechanized food production system.
Reading this book is a sobering and mind-expanding experience. It gives us a vitally important subject to contemplate. Readers are served an all-you-can-eat buffet of good old-fashioned common sense — the best antidote there is for magical thinking, denial, and the intense never-ending hallucinations of consumer fantasyland. It’s a valuable book for people who have “krugozor” (a broad mental horizon that allows outside-the-box thinking). I read the first edition, published before the crash of 2008. Following the crash, Orlov published a new and improved second edition.
November 21, 2008
One of the most influential books I've ever read, VERY highly recommended to everyone I know and care about. It describes what will likely unfold as the great empire of the US falls on its face, similar to how the USSR did in the late 80s, but with much less preparation in our case. Shocking, disturbing, hilarious and actually heartening, in some ways I'm looking forward to the low-energy version of the USA.
For an idea of the gist of this book, you can read a transcript of the author's presentation at the recent Plan C Conference (which I was lucky to attend). Please do and prepare yourself and your family.
For an idea of the gist of this book, you can read a transcript of the author's presentation at the recent Plan C Conference (which I was lucky to attend). Please do and prepare yourself and your family.
August 16, 2010
I gave Dmitry Orlov’s Reinventing Collapse one star out of five, but that could be too generous. This book is not worth reading and should never have been published. It’s not about economic collapse as much as it is the author’s argument that the US is inherently no better than the former Soviet Socialist Republic. To say that Dmitry Orlov is pessimistic is such a gross understatement in scope and scale that it’s almost not useful; like saying the ocean is big or the sun is far. The only thing Dmitry has in greater abundance then pessimism is arrogance. He makes Tom Friedman look like a humble friar. His writing is so pessimistic and arrogant that it completely distracts from any useful point he may be trying to make.
This book contains numerous errors in logic. Many issues are portrayed as black and white when the reality is far more complicated. He arrives at many conclusions which simply are not or cannot be explained. And nothing is backed by evidence. Take this passage for example:
The colonies’ precocious move to leave the fold of the British Empire has made the US something of a living fossil in terms of cultural evolution. This is manifested in some trivial ways, such as the inability to grasp the metric system or its distinctly 18th century tendency to make a fetish of its national flag, as well as in some major ones, such as its rather half-hearted embrace of secularism.
On top of all this his writing is flat and unsophisticated. I rarely read a book I don’t like but this one isn’t worth your time.
April 22, 2009
As Orlov states himself, his book is an exercise in imagination-stretching. Whatever degree of confidence you may have in the proposition that the economy and society of the USA will collapse soon, from zero (most Americans) to nearly 100 (the author), a few sessions with this volume will assuredly lead you to think things you haven't before.
The bedrock Orlov bases his book on is that the economic system of the US, depending as it does on a vast supply of oil and foreign credit, will collapse once this supply thins out. The thesis built on this bedrock is not that we can somehow avoid the collapse, but the more humble (and reasonable, in my opinion) notion that there are particular aspects of the US economy and society that make us particularly vulnerable to disaster when the collapse comes. He compares the United States to a society whose collapse he witnessed firsthand, the former Soviet Union, and finds we come up on the losing side of the "collapse gap".
Whether you buy his particular brand of reasonable doomsaying or not, I find it very compelling that the steps he recommends for weathering collapse (live more sustainably; get to know your neighbors; stop concentrating on monetary wealth and build up concrete and social assets; start growing some of your own food; learn valuable, productive skills) are more or less things which would benefit us in any case, whether our economy collapses or not. If he turns out to have been wrong, and we get out of this depression back into the "business as usual" of five years ago, and go back to clearing land for more strip malls and suburban cookie-cutter housing developments, then - oh well - at least it was an interesting read. If he's not wrong, then hopefully it will be slightly less shocking when the collapse comes.
The bedrock Orlov bases his book on is that the economic system of the US, depending as it does on a vast supply of oil and foreign credit, will collapse once this supply thins out. The thesis built on this bedrock is not that we can somehow avoid the collapse, but the more humble (and reasonable, in my opinion) notion that there are particular aspects of the US economy and society that make us particularly vulnerable to disaster when the collapse comes. He compares the United States to a society whose collapse he witnessed firsthand, the former Soviet Union, and finds we come up on the losing side of the "collapse gap".
Whether you buy his particular brand of reasonable doomsaying or not, I find it very compelling that the steps he recommends for weathering collapse (live more sustainably; get to know your neighbors; stop concentrating on monetary wealth and build up concrete and social assets; start growing some of your own food; learn valuable, productive skills) are more or less things which would benefit us in any case, whether our economy collapses or not. If he turns out to have been wrong, and we get out of this depression back into the "business as usual" of five years ago, and go back to clearing land for more strip malls and suburban cookie-cutter housing developments, then - oh well - at least it was an interesting read. If he's not wrong, then hopefully it will be slightly less shocking when the collapse comes.
June 24, 2008
Awesome. Russians are badass. Americans are screwed. What's new. Pass the home-brewed vodka.
November 18, 2011
Orlov wrote at the end that he had set out to write a serious book about the collapse of the American economy/society in its present form that would be fun to read - he succeeded. He writes from the rare perspective of a person equally familiar with, and at home in, Russia and the U.S.
In this book he describes in concrete details the things he saw traveling in the former Soviet Union during and after that government's implosion and offers his thoughts on why things fell apart there. He then points out similarities and differences between the pre-fall U.S.S.R. and the present and predictable near-future state of affairs in the U.S.; the resemblances are discouraging, and the divergences seem to be about equally divided between things that would make a collapse here worse or better than the one that took place there.
Along with a consistent focus on specifics and their impacts on the lives of ordinary people, a standout quality of this book is a streak of bleak and sardonic humor, as the author points out the inanities and foibles of people and institutions in both countries, without diminishing the sense that he also loves his two nations.
I don't agree with all the aspects of his projected future, but that's to be expected, as Orlov acknowledges, with so many things that are impossible to predict with certainty. I recommend this book highly, as one well worth reading for anyone wanting to get beyond the three-ring circus of contemporary culture and politics and hear the thoughts of a shrewd adult.
In this book he describes in concrete details the things he saw traveling in the former Soviet Union during and after that government's implosion and offers his thoughts on why things fell apart there. He then points out similarities and differences between the pre-fall U.S.S.R. and the present and predictable near-future state of affairs in the U.S.; the resemblances are discouraging, and the divergences seem to be about equally divided between things that would make a collapse here worse or better than the one that took place there.
Along with a consistent focus on specifics and their impacts on the lives of ordinary people, a standout quality of this book is a streak of bleak and sardonic humor, as the author points out the inanities and foibles of people and institutions in both countries, without diminishing the sense that he also loves his two nations.
I don't agree with all the aspects of his projected future, but that's to be expected, as Orlov acknowledges, with so many things that are impossible to predict with certainty. I recommend this book highly, as one well worth reading for anyone wanting to get beyond the three-ring circus of contemporary culture and politics and hear the thoughts of a shrewd adult.
April 7, 2010
The preview text on the back cover pretty much addresses most of the content of the book.
The book was accessible, owing to the anecdotal experience of the author, as opposed to a detached and academic feeling that could have easily been used. But to do so would have lost the charm.
There's a sort of slow-motion immediacy presented in Orlov's predictions. Collapse is an inevitability, if not an eventuality: this is not debatable. The questions lay in the Why and the When. I think that too many people get caught up in an urgency and either go nuts in preparing or shrug it off as if there was nothing they could do. It is difficult to make the case for preparation when it seems that the economy is returning to its positive growth status. The case can be made, I think quite easily, that the way we live is far from our potential as individuals, societies, and a species. If we work to reach our potential, then we can go very far in mitigating disaster, if not making the best of it.
The book was accessible, owing to the anecdotal experience of the author, as opposed to a detached and academic feeling that could have easily been used. But to do so would have lost the charm.
There's a sort of slow-motion immediacy presented in Orlov's predictions. Collapse is an inevitability, if not an eventuality: this is not debatable. The questions lay in the Why and the When. I think that too many people get caught up in an urgency and either go nuts in preparing or shrug it off as if there was nothing they could do. It is difficult to make the case for preparation when it seems that the economy is returning to its positive growth status. The case can be made, I think quite easily, that the way we live is far from our potential as individuals, societies, and a species. If we work to reach our potential, then we can go very far in mitigating disaster, if not making the best of it.
May 23, 2010
Orlov is a kind of Dave Barry of collapse pundits. His snapshots of informal economies that grew in Russia during and after sovietism are useful to think about. he makes fairly coherent arguments on how a collapse of our economies might not play out as in Russia. However, his speculations of a post collapse America tend toward the extreme, and suggest an overnight transformation into our worst dystopian nightmares without providing any logic for assuming this.
The advice in the book is also vague and platitudinous: reduce your reliance on money, stockpile useful tools, connect with people, reduce attachment to luxuries, learn how to do stuff. He does make the point that in the future you may have to learn to think on your feet, be adaptive and flexible, and possess better people skills than you do now.
It's not a long read, and the sharp wit does offer levity to a grave topic. It's certainly not essential reading on the topic. It's easy to see his work being more effectively transmitted as a columns or essays.
The advice in the book is also vague and platitudinous: reduce your reliance on money, stockpile useful tools, connect with people, reduce attachment to luxuries, learn how to do stuff. He does make the point that in the future you may have to learn to think on your feet, be adaptive and flexible, and possess better people skills than you do now.
It's not a long read, and the sharp wit does offer levity to a grave topic. It's certainly not essential reading on the topic. It's easy to see his work being more effectively transmitted as a columns or essays.
October 5, 2016
Like a lot of books/people that make predictions, this book had me literally laughing out loud. Put together about 8-10 years ago now (2nd edition put out about 2009?), the predictions of peak oil and US societal collapse had me thinking of the "reports of my demise are much exaggerated" quote. While it's true that imperial collapse seems to happen more quickly nowadays (e.g. compare ancient Rome, the Ottoman empire, the British, and the Soviet Union), the author is necessarily basing his analysis on his own experience.
Still, I did get something out of his foreign perspective on the US and world geopolitics. Like a lot of non US people in the world, he careens between admiration, exasperation, and bewilderment at how a people as unworldly, impetuous and naïve as he sees most Americans can be the world's superpower. LOL.
Still, I did get something out of his foreign perspective on the US and world geopolitics. Like a lot of non US people in the world, he careens between admiration, exasperation, and bewilderment at how a people as unworldly, impetuous and naïve as he sees most Americans can be the world's superpower. LOL.
November 17, 2015
Dmitry Orlov's Reinventing Collapse is about the United States falling in on itself and what may come after the dissolution of the so-called empire. It is rather upbeat and even quite funny at times -- something you wouldn't expect from a book about political and economic breakdown. In spite of several really good one-liners, the general tone is more serious and the perspective of the author on the subject is quite unique in that he was born in Russia and was an eyewitness to the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Overall, I think it's a valuable addition to anyone's library and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy book to read in the political nonfiction category.
October 27, 2010
This is one of the best books I have read. Perhaps, because I share similar background with the author, I can really relate to his writing. He is a very deep thinker, yet presents his reflections in a very entertaining and clever way. He can make you laugh even when talking about the grimmest things. This book is also extremely useful as a glimpse of what to expect going forward into the decline of the USA and the Western world with it. I also try to read everything this author puts out on his blog.
June 6, 2012
A rant. A propagandist railing against propagandists. If you agree with him, or if you're the oppressed, you get his sympathy. If you're less oppressed, you clearly are overprivileged and don't know how to think. Take the thought experiment, but take it with one of those 2-foot-high cylinders of salt.
January 9, 2019
While "Reinventing Collapse" offers an interesting proposition, it fails miserably at selling it. This book should rather be categorized as Comedy, as the completely outlandish, ludicrous statements made throughout this book will make anyone with a critical mind laught out loud repeatedly. Most claims within this book are depressively pessimistic, yet the author fails to present any evidence why such claims should become reality, except vague references to the Soviet Union and Peak Oil theory. Some sections of this book may fail to make you laugh, but will instead make you roll your eyes at the arrogance the author proudly displays in this book.
Making all of this worse, the author basically claims anyone disagreeing with his theories to be simply ignorant, in denial, "wallowing in blissful ignorance" or to have "been subjected to mind control [...] through repetition", refusing to accept what lies ahead for the United States.
There is however, a small upside to this book. The predictions of the later chapters, namely "Adaptation" and "Career Opportunities", are, however unrealistic they might be, quite entertaining to read and imagine!
Making all of this worse, the author basically claims anyone disagreeing with his theories to be simply ignorant, in denial, "wallowing in blissful ignorance" or to have "been subjected to mind control [...] through repetition", refusing to accept what lies ahead for the United States.
There is however, a small upside to this book. The predictions of the later chapters, namely "Adaptation" and "Career Opportunities", are, however unrealistic they might be, quite entertaining to read and imagine!
January 12, 2024
When I was a much younger lad, around 2005, I saw a quite alarming documentary on PBS that was all about the swiftly coming (and truly inevitable) "oil crash" due to "peak oil." It was indeed a frightening little film and considering that this documentary came out not long after Hurricane Katrina (where I recall seeing gas prices above $3 for the first time in my life) I found the entire narrative of the documentary horrifyingly prescient.
A couple years later I recall hearing about "peak oil" and the "oil crash" all over again, especially coming from the lips of the rather well-to-do who seemed to "relish" this apocalyptic event in like manner to Bill Gates when he was all a-giggle upon learning how "devastating" Covid would be.
But, as often happens...nothing happened. And now this book (from 2009) feels not so much dated as risible. That collapse is a real possibility for the United States and the West is feasible, even likely. That it will be more akin to the Soviet collapse and not, say, THE PURGE or a ZOMBIE CATACLYSM also seems likely. But that it will be due to PEAK OIL AND THE OIL CRASH which NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER seems to come any closer but recedes the more you approach it (like chasing the moon) is simply beyond any semblance of reality.
Match such utterly shit prognostication with a very tenable grasp of other salient facts (like that, as awful as our economy is it is still built on some better principles than the USSR or that climate alarmism is just that, alarmism) as well as the most tin-eared attempt at sarcasm and you have a real stinker of a book. Perhaps Orlov improved with age but this work suggests he began his collapse musings in a most pitiful state.
A couple years later I recall hearing about "peak oil" and the "oil crash" all over again, especially coming from the lips of the rather well-to-do who seemed to "relish" this apocalyptic event in like manner to Bill Gates when he was all a-giggle upon learning how "devastating" Covid would be.
But, as often happens...nothing happened. And now this book (from 2009) feels not so much dated as risible. That collapse is a real possibility for the United States and the West is feasible, even likely. That it will be more akin to the Soviet collapse and not, say, THE PURGE or a ZOMBIE CATACLYSM also seems likely. But that it will be due to PEAK OIL AND THE OIL CRASH which NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER seems to come any closer but recedes the more you approach it (like chasing the moon) is simply beyond any semblance of reality.
Match such utterly shit prognostication with a very tenable grasp of other salient facts (like that, as awful as our economy is it is still built on some better principles than the USSR or that climate alarmism is just that, alarmism) as well as the most tin-eared attempt at sarcasm and you have a real stinker of a book. Perhaps Orlov improved with age but this work suggests he began his collapse musings in a most pitiful state.
October 15, 2025
I usually read books because the title or the concept seems interesting. However every now and then i end up finding something else i wasnt expecting and can’t wait to just finish the book. I doubt this book had an editor. It had no story, it had no characters, there were no citations, and other than being born in Russia and several subsequent visits, the author didnt have the type of subject expertise i like to read. Essentially, this one just one guy’s predictions (based on peak oil), peppered with opinions and very few facts. I enjoyed the information about Russia. The prophecies about the American collapse had me asking “how the fuck can an engineer be privy to all this information?” Then u realize he’s just spitballing. I’m not saying he’s wrong but when he claims we’re running out of oil in 2005 and we’re here 20 years later it does make u wonder if the rest of his predictions will meet the same fate.
I found the writing often boring and repetitive. It made me realize the importance of an editor. I think this might have been a better article. There isn’t enough here for a book.
I found the writing often boring and repetitive. It made me realize the importance of an editor. I think this might have been a better article. There isn’t enough here for a book.
February 5, 2025
I wouldn't call this so much of a book as a guide or thought experiment. This book gave a very, very brief of what the collapse of the Soviet Union looked like. Life post-Soviet Union seemed desperate. The author argues that a collapse, whether economic or social, can and most likely will happen in the United States.
The book wasn't preachy. It is pretty dry and just paints a picture of what has been and what the future might look like for Americans. My major critique is that the author had some less than ideal personal views. Some groups were written about in a negative sense and there was some classism going on. Other than those hiccups the book was straight forward with its message.
Things are going to get hard and very dark for Americans within this century.
The book wasn't preachy. It is pretty dry and just paints a picture of what has been and what the future might look like for Americans. My major critique is that the author had some less than ideal personal views. Some groups were written about in a negative sense and there was some classism going on. Other than those hiccups the book was straight forward with its message.
Things are going to get hard and very dark for Americans within this century.
July 15, 2022
How unfortunate for a book mentioning peak oil so often to be published in 2011 of all years.
Also, too much anthropogenic global warming bs for me to handle. Maybe stop reading all that liberal trash you cite, if you wanna get a grasp on energy or climate, or anything.
The stories about the Soviet Union experiences are worthy of stars. So is the hatred of the Empire of Lies. I got a lot to look forward to for this awful zionist crap land, but it ain't peak oil or global warming. Hopefully, it will involve several Russian ICBMs.
Also, too much anthropogenic global warming bs for me to handle. Maybe stop reading all that liberal trash you cite, if you wanna get a grasp on energy or climate, or anything.
The stories about the Soviet Union experiences are worthy of stars. So is the hatred of the Empire of Lies. I got a lot to look forward to for this awful zionist crap land, but it ain't peak oil or global warming. Hopefully, it will involve several Russian ICBMs.
February 4, 2025
Orlov presents a deep geopolitical analysis of the Soviet Union and compares and contrasts it to the United States. He demonstrates wit and at times biting critiques. The collapse of the Soviet Union offers lessons for United States residents and indeed anyone going through even a personal collapse.
August 11, 2025
Finished. Suprisingly playful exploration of scenarios and options in a "post-collapse America," based on the author's observations in the post-collapse USSR. It requires a serious suspension of one's innate sense of 'it can't happen here,' but worth the effort to provisionally accept the premise and contemplate.
July 17, 2017
This book was mostly fantasy about the sort of crazy stuff that might happen after collapse, but not written in an entertaining fictional fashion, more as a bunch of vignettes. I prefer Orlov's "Shrinking the Technosphere".
January 4, 2018
The version I had seemed to be missing a bunch of stuff, so I don't know how complete my reading was, but this was an interesting if slightly hyperbolic look at the future. I would be interested in a more academic analysis of the resilience of the Soviet system to collapse.
February 24, 2020
Engaging analysis and personal anecdote regarding the collapse of the Soviet economy and its resemblance to ongoing and impending economic calamity in the US. Orlov's intelligence, wit, and compassion color what might otherwise be a dreary read.
January 31, 2021
An interesting comparison of the collapse of the USSR as an empire and all of the changes that occurred in the former USSR and what is happening in the United States after the 2008 financial crisis and a new depression we are likely entering
September 7, 2022
An excellent book on an important topic. Had many insightful and humorous analogies between soviet union and U.S.
I did learn some things of Russian culture which I very much resonated with. Like that "hard work" sounds like "fool".
Certainly worth archiving.
I did learn some things of Russian culture which I very much resonated with. Like that "hard work" sounds like "fool".
Certainly worth archiving.
September 28, 2017
Articulate and very witty author. I enjoyed this book immensely despite the depressing topic
February 28, 2020
Insightful, thought-provoking and entertaining, all at the same time. Maybe even right too.
May 22, 2011
Dmitry Orlov provides a non-specialists' look at the two losers of the Cold War, the USSR and the USA. Using his experiences of the collapse of the Soviet Union as a touchstone, he compares and contrasts the two former super powers, predicting possible (probably?) outcomes for the United States based on our strengths (not as many as we like to imagine) and our weaknesses (more than we allow ourselves to consider). He regularly writes things that are beyond the margins of contemporary American discourse (i.e., they are pretty self-evident) with a gallows humor that is at times laugh-out-loud funny (which is good, because cry-out-loud sad is the alternative response).
On for-profit medicine and health insurance--two highly questionable institutions:
Thoughts on higher education in the US:
On voter apathy in an entrenched two-party state:
On the future benefits of being a keen observer of grass and trees:
There is a great interview with Orlov here at Transition Voice .
On for-profit medicine and health insurance--two highly questionable institutions:
For-profit medicine is an institution of highly questionable merit. The additional nonsensical twist of health insurance, which is only affordable to those who have a permanent, full-time job, makes it a powerful tool of social tyranny. Those without health insurance are a single accident away from losing their savings, their possessions and being saddled with debt they will never be able to repay no matter how hard they work. The fear of this nightmare scenario keeps people securely bound to their jobs. This means that Americans are either in a job they are not at liberty to quit, which is a form of indentured servitude, or are one accident away from becoming slaves to their medical debt, which is another form of indentured servitude.... Doctors, in concert with pharmaceutical companies, reinforce this system of medical enslavement, by prescribing, as often as they can, regimens of drugs rather than courses of treatment. (91)
[T]he actual concept of insuring someone's health is itself preposterous. Insurance applies to rare, unforeseen events, such as fires or floods, not events that guaranteed to occur to everyone, such as sickness and death....Further, life insurance is bad for your health: in a situation where basic treatment is always provided unconditionally, but chronic or fatal conditions are given as much attention as society can afford, people make an effort to stay healthy. (92)
Thoughts on higher education in the US:
In the United States, higher education is rarely about educating people, in the sense of them learning how to learn, and having the intellectual freedom to do so. It is most commonly about training: the imparting of temporary, quickly obsolescent skills, not universal knowledge....But it is mainly about securing unquestioning obedience within a complex rule-following system....The elegant trick of the American higher education system is that the obedience it exacts is automatic: the educated citizens do not know what disobedience would be like, beyond the seemingly pointless, self-defeating refusal to profit from the system, which is really all that they have been taught how to do.(97)
On voter apathy in an entrenched two-party state:
Although people often bemoan political apathy as if it were a grave social ill, it seems to me that this is just as it should be. Why should essentially powerless people want to engage in a humiliating farce designed to demonstrate the legitimacy of those who wield the power? In Soviet-era Russia, intelligent people did their best to ignore the Communists: paying attention to them, whether through criticism or praise, would only serve to give them comfort and encouragement, making them feel as if they mattered. Why should Americans want to act any differently with regard to the Republicans and the Democrats? For love of donkeys and elephants? (114-5)
On the future benefits of being a keen observer of grass and trees:
The ability to stop and smell the roses--to let it all go, to refuse to harbor regrets or nurture grievances, to confine one's serious attention only to that which is immediately necessary and not to worry too much about the rest--is perhaps the one most critical to post-collapse survival.... Detachment and indifference can be most healing, provided they do not become morbid. It is good to take your sentimental nostalgia for what once was, is, and will soon no longer be, up front, and get it over with. (130)
There is a great interview with Orlov here at Transition Voice .
May 14, 2010
If there’s one thing about the inevitable decline of the United States that gives me some bit of deeper comfort, its that people like Dmitry Orlov have been writing about it for a long time. His article, Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century was first released in 2005 and clearly Orlov had been thinking about superpower collapse for quite a while before then. Orlov strikes me as an unlikely yet inevitable product of our modern world, a lucky person cursed to find himself at the improbable intersection of circumstances where growing up in the Soviet Union (SU) allows him the context to truly observe the predicament faced by the United States (US). Dmitry’s background in the SU allowed him understand and interact with his homeland as it collapsed in a far more valuable way than any casual tourists would have been able to. His experience allows him to recognize and provide a deeper context on the similar process currently underway in the US.
Reinventing Collapse is the modern day Democracy in America, as valuable as de Tocqueville’s thoughts on life in America for our modern time, and what a different America this is. While de Tocqueville described an underorganized loosely affiliated and dynamic nation, Orlov describes a system barely able to sustain itself encapsulated by a populace bent on a particular definition of the American Dream mythos. A mythos that is out of touch with the fact that rapidly depleting cheap energy made car ownership, suburban life and basically everything we think of as “American”.
I was disappointed that Orlov does not offer specific suggestions for people who are “reinventing collapse” in Reinventing Collapse, especially since his 2005 essay, Thriving in the Age of Collapse was full of brilliant hypothetical scenarios which could serve as a jumping-off point for those acknowledging the United States as they knew it was rapidly approaching its dissolution. What is presented in Reinventing Collapse turns out to be some of the most accurate cultural commentary I’ve read on modern America. And I know it is accurate because it stung a little, while making me laugh. Broad generalizations made of the American peoples and psyche might be offensive to some but its hard to argue with their general accuracy. While Soviet schools had far fewer resources, they resulted in kids that knew much more general information and had better conceptual understand rather than a focus on exams. In my own schooling experience, even at my university, every student was filled with angst when a professor wouldn’t outline specifically what to study. When I had Russian professors, students complained that exams didn’t follow homework problems, testing concepts instead. Orlov concludes this is because schools in the US aren’t about learning, they are about institutionalization. Merely biding the time while kids enter the institution of prison, a corporation, the government or the workforce.
This book methodically makes the case that the SU was prepared for successful collapse far more than the US. And on this point, I have to agree with Dmitry. Most everyone in the US is deeply dependent on having a regular income. It would take a 9/11-sized event every month to compete with the national homicide rate. Our can-do spirit and career oriented mindset will be particularly vulnerable to extreme pain in the transition to a post-growth economy, where-as Russians thought that being someone who “works hard and plays hard” was a bit of a fool. Our pattern of migration uproots people from communities, although it makes us more open to strangers than the Russians. The private housing system and its surrounding sprawl make squatting and a nomadic lifestyle the likely viable options in the future. The conditioning of expecting a monetary exchange to obtain needs will be difficult to transition from but the good news is that a favor and barter economy will be more efficient than consumerism, we’ll get products and services customized to our personal needs.
Reading Orlov is like sitting down with a Russian to have a conversation about what life was like in the the collapsing Soviet Union. I’ve yet to find a more vivid and comprehensive description of what to expect when living through the decline of a superpower. Even if you aren’t sold on the idea that the US is going down, at the least, you’ll find the presented insights on the USSR entertaining and interesting.
Reinventing Collapse is the modern day Democracy in America, as valuable as de Tocqueville’s thoughts on life in America for our modern time, and what a different America this is. While de Tocqueville described an underorganized loosely affiliated and dynamic nation, Orlov describes a system barely able to sustain itself encapsulated by a populace bent on a particular definition of the American Dream mythos. A mythos that is out of touch with the fact that rapidly depleting cheap energy made car ownership, suburban life and basically everything we think of as “American”.
I was disappointed that Orlov does not offer specific suggestions for people who are “reinventing collapse” in Reinventing Collapse, especially since his 2005 essay, Thriving in the Age of Collapse was full of brilliant hypothetical scenarios which could serve as a jumping-off point for those acknowledging the United States as they knew it was rapidly approaching its dissolution. What is presented in Reinventing Collapse turns out to be some of the most accurate cultural commentary I’ve read on modern America. And I know it is accurate because it stung a little, while making me laugh. Broad generalizations made of the American peoples and psyche might be offensive to some but its hard to argue with their general accuracy. While Soviet schools had far fewer resources, they resulted in kids that knew much more general information and had better conceptual understand rather than a focus on exams. In my own schooling experience, even at my university, every student was filled with angst when a professor wouldn’t outline specifically what to study. When I had Russian professors, students complained that exams didn’t follow homework problems, testing concepts instead. Orlov concludes this is because schools in the US aren’t about learning, they are about institutionalization. Merely biding the time while kids enter the institution of prison, a corporation, the government or the workforce.
This book methodically makes the case that the SU was prepared for successful collapse far more than the US. And on this point, I have to agree with Dmitry. Most everyone in the US is deeply dependent on having a regular income. It would take a 9/11-sized event every month to compete with the national homicide rate. Our can-do spirit and career oriented mindset will be particularly vulnerable to extreme pain in the transition to a post-growth economy, where-as Russians thought that being someone who “works hard and plays hard” was a bit of a fool. Our pattern of migration uproots people from communities, although it makes us more open to strangers than the Russians. The private housing system and its surrounding sprawl make squatting and a nomadic lifestyle the likely viable options in the future. The conditioning of expecting a monetary exchange to obtain needs will be difficult to transition from but the good news is that a favor and barter economy will be more efficient than consumerism, we’ll get products and services customized to our personal needs.
Reading Orlov is like sitting down with a Russian to have a conversation about what life was like in the the collapsing Soviet Union. I’ve yet to find a more vivid and comprehensive description of what to expect when living through the decline of a superpower. Even if you aren’t sold on the idea that the US is going down, at the least, you’ll find the presented insights on the USSR entertaining and interesting.
February 11, 2011
So Orlov, was present for much of the transition following the fall of the Soviet Republic from empire status, and his insights, albeit entirely observational and anecdotal, provide an interesting alternative the the more popular books on decline of empires and epic fail scenarios.
The book is framed as a comparison of the advantages Russia has as struggling centrally organized state in bridging the collapse of their economy against the vastly different status quo of a profit over persistence modern capitalist America. He then runs down what worked and didn't work in the collapse of the Soviet system, and where America diverges (at it's peril) from the Soviet Model.
The book does a nice job delineating where the U.S. stands to have a much harder fall than the Russians did in collapse, largely because so little is actually produced domestically, our workforce is largely service or administrative, and much of the arable land is far from where people are living; which is an issue as soon as the oil runs out.
The "peak oil" concerns are the most salient, as he points out how Russia was centrally designed to ensure communities were only built near transportation centers, whereas the American Dream of individual lands and a car in each yard promoted suburban communities which can not survive without cheap subsidized oil. Orlov's vision of a financial or oil collapse predicate a great loss of whole communities that were design and subsidized by cheap oil and foreign debt, which will no longer be tenable.
There's never much positive to say about collapses, but I have to hand it to Orlov, for bringing some brevity and temperance to the more popular "lock and load, praise jesus and pass the ammo" tenor that most survival books take. The discussion addressing the futility of arming up and bunkering down were novel and pretty well hashed out in lieu of what occurred in the Soviet collapse.
Unfortunately, the take-away message from the book is that when America's debts are called via resource depletion or debt; we have very little fecund space left to exploit here domestically, and a higher expectation of standard of living leaving us farther to fall.
So yeah, um...happy reading.
The book is framed as a comparison of the advantages Russia has as struggling centrally organized state in bridging the collapse of their economy against the vastly different status quo of a profit over persistence modern capitalist America. He then runs down what worked and didn't work in the collapse of the Soviet system, and where America diverges (at it's peril) from the Soviet Model.
The book does a nice job delineating where the U.S. stands to have a much harder fall than the Russians did in collapse, largely because so little is actually produced domestically, our workforce is largely service or administrative, and much of the arable land is far from where people are living; which is an issue as soon as the oil runs out.
The "peak oil" concerns are the most salient, as he points out how Russia was centrally designed to ensure communities were only built near transportation centers, whereas the American Dream of individual lands and a car in each yard promoted suburban communities which can not survive without cheap subsidized oil. Orlov's vision of a financial or oil collapse predicate a great loss of whole communities that were design and subsidized by cheap oil and foreign debt, which will no longer be tenable.
There's never much positive to say about collapses, but I have to hand it to Orlov, for bringing some brevity and temperance to the more popular "lock and load, praise jesus and pass the ammo" tenor that most survival books take. The discussion addressing the futility of arming up and bunkering down were novel and pretty well hashed out in lieu of what occurred in the Soviet collapse.
Unfortunately, the take-away message from the book is that when America's debts are called via resource depletion or debt; we have very little fecund space left to exploit here domestically, and a higher expectation of standard of living leaving us farther to fall.
So yeah, um...happy reading.
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