Chapter 13 Summary

In the days of Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko, the Soviet Union relied heavily on oil profits to support the state. Nonetheless, when the energy crisis ended and the oil boom was over, the Soviet Union was unprepared for the new era of technology, and the economy suffered severely. Unemployment is high and those who are employed can barely make ends meet. In 1989, nearly half of the people in the Soviet Union fall within the legal, conservative definition of poor.

In Ashkhabad, the capital of Turkmenistan, the people suffer from lack of food and fresh water and poisoning from the pesticides used to in the cotton fields. This monoculture mentality results in tremendous environmental damage that affects the entire population. In a bizarre and ecologically devastating attempt to irrigate the cotton fields, the Aral Sea is drained and virtually destroyed. Mukhamed Velaspar, a young...