In '90, N Korea per capita energy use was 2x China's. Then came end of Soviet Union. No more oil imports. No more cheap fertilizer from cheap NG. "Let's eat 2 meals a day" program came next. Rice, corn production dropped 50% '91-'98. Then famine took ~4% of population.
Cuba got 70% drop in oil, fertilizer, food imports after Soviet collapse. "The special period." Govt turned to small, urban, organic farming. Rabbits on rooftops. Compost centers.
What brought about end of USSR? Strong evidence Reagan, Sauds, others directed a plan to bring oil prices down so much to drive USSR broke. Soviet oil/gas abundance shielded them from oil price shocks of '73 and '79. (While US oil production peaked in '74.) Then their oil production peaked in '88 and dropped almost 50% '88-'95, 12Mb/d to 7M. The Soviet regime was extremely corrupt, stealing everything it could get away with. It had to borrow to prevent bread famine after their schemes pushed 80M farmers into urban slums. Finally, without free oil, eastern Europe collapsed.
The power of energy.
Nobels went to fields of Azerbaijan to start Soviet oil industry at the same time Rockefeller was starting in US.
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