When imperial rulers sound a strategic retreat, their authority tends to crumble faster than they could have imagined — or feared. The lot of the Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa springs to mind. Their last leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and FW de Klerk championed reform of their ossified systems confident they would stay in control of the process — only to be swept aside by the forces they had unleashed.
当帝国统治者发出战略撤退的信号时，他们的权威往往会以超出自身想象或担忧的速度崩塌。苏联和种族隔离时期的南非的统治者便是例证。他们的末代领导人——米哈伊尔•戈尔巴乔夫(Mikhail Gorbachev)和弗雷德里克•威廉•德克勒克(FW de Klerk)——曾倡导改革僵化的体制，自信能够掌控进程——结果却被他们释放的力量吞噬。
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