Francis Fukuyama, in The Origins of Political Order, suggested that nation states are mountain ranges. As soon as they begin to rise, erosion immediately begins to destroy them. It is a tragic paradox: as nation-states become more powerful, they become more fragile, because beneath the formal structures of state bureaucracy lie populations linked by informal relationships and cultural constructs. If at any point these relationships or constructions change, the political order is lost. By the late 1980s, the USSR was eroding: slow economic growth, broken living standards, corrupt political systems, lagging innovation and a shortage of consumer goods were a clear reality. Communism was crushed by the reality of the costs associated with what it demanded, and people were jaded by Soviet culture. In this article, I will explore how Soviet populations identified with jazz and rock music, television and film programs, American fashion and consumerism, and identify this influx of Western capitalist culture not only as one of many factors that led to the collapse. of Soviet Russia, but also a major reason why the West won the cultural Cold War. Ronald Reagan made it clear in his “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate” that the most glaring difference between communism and Western democracy is the prosperity that comes from freedom. He claimed that Western radio broadcasts, television programs, print media and even geographic proximity had made it clear to those living behind the Iron Curtain that there was abundance in the West. He believed that even Soviet leaders themselves were beginning to understand the importance of freedom, and that such an understanding was imperative to containing and dismantling the Commonwealth...... middle of paper ...... Starr , Frederick. “The flood of rocks”. The Wilson Quarterly. No. 4 (1983): 58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40257510 (accessed April 1, 2014). von Eschen, Penny. Satchmo blows up the world: the ambassadors of jazz play out the cold war. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. Whitton, John. “Cold War Propaganda.” The American Journal of International Law. No. 1 (1951): 151-153. Willis, Conover. “VOA News Series.” Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection, August 8, 1989. April 1, 2014. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mfdip.2010con01. Wilson, John. "Who is Conover? Only we ask." New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1959. Zhuk, Sergei. Rock and Roll in the Rocket City: The West, Identity and Ideology in Soviet Dnepropetrovsk, 1960-1985. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.