[flohofwoe]

East German here, so I don't know all that much of the details of Soviet society before the collapse (but my guess is that the situation wasn't all that different in all former socialist countries).

I would agree that the (East German) state and government was entirely unprepared for its own collapse.

But maybe the people were better prepared because they've been living at the brink of collapse for most of their lives. Shortages of one sort or the other were a normal occurance, you learned quickly to not depend too much on the state, but on family and other people. So when the state "disappeared" people more or less just went on with their business.

And at least in the GDR there was definitely a growing feeling that this couldn't go on for much longer during the 80's, which may have created a "subconscious preparedness".

And of course the "collapse of the GDR" wasn't an "apocalypse-style collapse", but in typical German fashion it was happening very orderly and predictable once the ball was rolling. And (here's a controversial opinion) even though many people had their lives turned upside down in the 90's, lost their job, had to emigrate into the "Golden West", even with all that... being poor in the reunited Germany still was a better life than being "rich" in East Germany (whatever that meant, because there was not much to buy for money anyway).

I'm not sure how people in "the West" would have dealt with its own collapse if the sides had been reversed. Maybe we'll learn in the near future though.

[userulluipeste]

"there was definitely a growing feeling that this couldn't go on for much longer during the 80's"

I heard stories and I'm inclined to believe that it may as well have been just the feeling of later generations. As I understood, people expected things to relapse to previous order since before the WW2, a sentiment shared both by former rich hoping, and by former poor afraid of loosing their benefits. As time passed, all of them gradually accepted things as normal, and the expectation for change was carried on only by following younger generations. I also think that people in North Korea may have had the same feeling for an impending change, especially hearing of USSR collapse, yet that didn't count for much.

[jotm]

This "life always on the brink" preparedness is a major part of what's keeping poor European countries poor.

Everybody distrusts the government, they rely on each other, learn to do things themselves so they don't rely on others. So, money doesn't exchange hands, taxes don't get paid, GDP doesn't grow, more money doesn't get printed.

This is all in a very interconnected world with a mostly free economy, so outsiders just come and buy up everything because at the end of the day, money matters.

Instead of preparing for collapse, how about preparing for being united in work and life and start trusting and depending on each other more.

[flohofwoe]

I agree, but at least looking back that was pretty much the only way to keep going. The government wasn't able to solve (or even recognize) the problems of the "ordinary people", so the people had to deal with solving the problems themselves. Of course this will never be as effective as having an actually functional government, and it will lead to corruption in all levels of society.

[dickjocke]

The average American didn't (and probably doesn't) distrust their government on anywhere near the same visceral level as someone living in the soviet union.

[vbezhenar]

It's hard to trust thieves who demonstrably ignore laws when it suits them.