We do not hear a lot about Russia in the news these days. Back when they were the Soviet Union and were headed by the Communist Party, they were the biggest enemy of the United States and Europe.

Thankfully the efforts of President Ronald Reagan lead to a break up of the Soviet Union. They reverted back into the individual countries that had been swallowed up by the Com-munist in prior times.

Beginning with the October Revolution in 1917 when Vladimir Lenin led a civil war to take over the country, it has been ruled by strong leaders who acted much like dictators. After the death of Lenin in 1924, Joseph Stalin was elected by the legislative body currently called the Duma.

Once he was in power he killed his enemies so that he had sole authority. He remained in power through World War II. After his death, a man named Nikita Khrushchev gained power. He rejected the cruel policies of Stalin and began to give the people more freedom. He pressed for economic gains and once spoke in the United Nations General Assembly and pounded his shoe on the podium and stated that the Soviet Union would bury the United States economically.

Khrushchev lost favor with his base and was eventually replaced by a man named Leonid Brezhnev. Brezhnev started the war in Afghanistan in 1979. The economy of the Soviet Union became very weak during his leadership and he was replaced by a man named Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gorbachev withdrew the troops from Afghanistan and in-stituted a process that they called Perestroika which was a restructuring of the government and the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union. He met with President Reagan several times and between them they ended the cold war. Gorbachev started a process called Glasnost which gave economic free-dom to individuals along with the right to freedom of speech and religion. It was the first step to changing the Soviet Un-ion into a capitalist economic system instead of a socialist economic system. The socialist economy failed in 1991 and led to the dissolving of the Soviet Union back to the 16 indi-vidual nations that formed it.

Perestroika led to democratic elections in Russia and Bo-ris Yeltsin became the first elected president of the Russian Federation in 1991. After this election for a period of time Mikhail Gorbachev moved to the United States and lived in Los Angeles. His daughter Irina still lives there and runs the Gorbachev Foundation which is a charitable organization. Gorbachev today is back in Moscow attempting to establish a new Democratic Party in Russia.

Boris Yeltsin resigned as president after 8 years and the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was appointed President. An 8 year limit was established for the office. Putin was elected to the position in 2000. He is a part of the United Russian Party which won 64 percent of the seats in the Duma in 2007. The Communist Party only had 12 percent of the vote.

Putin served his eight years as president and went back to the position of Prime Minister which is a position appointed by the President and approved by the Dumas. The power of the positions has reversed and Vladimir Putin continues to be the most powerful man in Russia. He does not have a time limit on his position.

Putin has been very successful in revitalizing Russia. In the USA since Putin was elected our Gross Domestic Product which is the measure of financial activity in the country has increased by less than 30 percent. In Russia, the Gross Do-mestic Product under Putin has increased by 191 percent. Russia has opened oil wells and built refineries so that they are a major supplier of refined fuel to Europe.

Under Putin, Russia instituted the Flat Tax system for in-dividuals which require all citizens to pay a rate of 13 per-cent of their income. The poor and the wealthy all pay the same. Businesses pay a corporate tax rate of 24 percent of their profit. Small businesses under a certain size can pay 6 percent of sales or 15 percent of profit.

During President Reagan’s term and Russia’s President Gorbachev’s term, Russia was the scholar and the USA was the teacher. It appears that the scholar is now exceeding the teacher and we could learn a lot of things from the scholar.

They reduced their tax rates. They abandoned Socialism. They drilled for oil and built refineries and became energy independent. Sounds like a good plan to me. Seems to be working better than our current plan.