How the USSR was Destroyed

Abstract

The paper considers the chain of events and political and economic processes that led to the collapse of the USSR. The destruction of the country was a long process and the gradual degradation of the institutions of “real socialism” was inevitable due to the inability to overcome the extensive model of economic development. Constant attempts to reform the economy and governance system in the country threatened to the central administration to lose its influence and control over resources, and therefore they were curtailed. Serious contradictions, ethnic and interregional conflicts were embedded in the very structure of the USSR. The core of the political and economic system in the USSR was the Communist Party and federal departments, including security, defense, and law enforcement agencies. When unity in these structures was lost, the collapse of the country turned out to be inevitable. The author believes that attempts to present these processes as exclusively subjective are unreasonable. Hardly anyone in and outside the country really wanted such a development of events, but acting in their own interests, they contributed to that.