Why did the Soviet Union collapse?, could it have been prevented?, what were the causes of it?

Question

I am not a communist nor do I support it, I'm just curious on why and how did one of the most powerful nations in the history of the Earth collapse?, was it Ronald Reagans fault?, Mikhail Gorbachevs?, Joseph Stalin's?, if the 1991 Coup Leaders had arrested Boris Yeltsin would the Soviet Union still be standing today?, what if Trotsky became leader instead of Stalin?, would he have been a better leader?, what if Perestroika happend first instead of Glasnost?, overall, what were the main causes of why the U.S.S.R. collapsed?

Answer 1

There are a lot of factors (involving the issues you bring up) that caused the collapse, but the most generally visible is the economy tailspin under the Twelfth Plan (Perestroika was the motto/nickname - each 5 years the USSR issued a 5 year economic plan - this was just #12). One note: Glastnost was a policy that was PART of Perestroika.

Essentially, yes, the USSR was "powerful" but economically living in an illusionary world. Their economy upheld strong growth rates between the end of WWII and the 1970's - however still trailed the United States considerably. In addition, this growth was based off of large capital investments and military spending (when a gov't spends money on the military - that expense does promote a higher GDP with the manufacturing of weapons, support goods, etc.) while much of their intellectual and good human capital fled for the greener pastures of capitalist countries - where their research and work could be performed and rewarded.

Therefore, while their human capital decreased, their industrial sector increased - making a significantly blue collar economy, but demand for goods decreased in many sectors due to a large amount of the goods produced being used to build more industry and build the economy.

In addition, as the military spending ceased being affordable, that part of the economy laid off countless workers, and living conditions deteriorated before Perestroika even came to be.
Perestroika was just too little too late - and too drastic of change in such a short time period.

Summary: Economy was fueled by building industry and goods for own consumers. Cash influx to build up industry only lasts while sector needs development. Human capital - off to greener pastures. Military spending was too expensive, but helped economy. Changes made too late - fall was inevitable.

Answer 2

Essentially the collapse of the USSR-or the final phase of capitalist restoration was the outcome of the protracted beuracratic degeneration of the of the ussr. This was presciently predicted by Trotsky, who saw that the only hope for the survival of the workers state would be the overthrow of the parasitic beuracratic caste that was moving the ussr towards capitalism.
if you want to get a more in depth analysis of the degeneration of the soviet union, go to the World Socialist Web Site... www.wsws.org

Answer 3

there were many reasons leading to collapse (bad economy and bad leaders - first of all) but until 1989 it was not even probable outcome.
Meanwhile I want to put it this way:
by old Russian political tradition the ruler "owns" the county and could do whatever he wants.
Gory was the one who chose to gave up USSR interests in order to improve relations with West.
Then he (USSR) got into economic trouble and was forced to continue this way beyond any reasons.
Yeltsin wanted to replace him and had chosen to destroy USSR in order to get rid of Gorby and own Russia.
And Russians at that time were so stupid that they followed those "leaders".
(As to "communism" - it was dead long time before)

Answer 4

The short of it, it didn't allow the growth of free commerce, keeping its economy under such tight control it couldn't grow, and was ruined by the arms race against the US. And without Yelstin who saw what was happening and tried to save as much as possible the fall of the USSR would have probably been more violent.