What do you believe was the most significant cause of the downfall of the soviet union?

Answer 1

They were in a ten year war with Afganistan. The muslims never stop they just keep chipping away with them until they broke them economically. Like they are doing to the USA.
soon some one will ask what was the down fall of the USA?
It would have to be the Iraq war and the unstoppable fighting of the Islamic forces.

Answer 2

I was surprised that she said that because I was under the impression that it was Ronald Reagan who brought down the Soviet Union. I have been informed over the years that Reagan's defense policy forced the Soviets to overspend on their own weapons, which led to their collapse. If Reagan didn't bring the Soviets to their knees, then a lot of Republicans have been lying about him for a few decades now. Here is what Republicans have believed up until now: The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Ronald Reagan A central instrument for putting pressure on the Soviet Union was Reagan’s massive defense build-up, which raised defense spending from $134 billion in 1980 to $253 billion in 1989. This raised American defense spending to 7 percent of GDP, dramatically increasing the federal deficit. Yet in its efforts to keep up with the American defense build-up, the Soviet Union was compelled in the first half of the 1980s to raise the share of its defense spending from 22 percent to 27 percent of GDP, while it froze the production of civilian goods at 1980 levels. Reagan’s most controversial defense initiative was SDI, the visionary project to create an anti-missile defense system that would remove the nuclear sword of Damocles from America’s homeland. Experts still disagree about the long-term feasibility of missile defense, some comparing it in substance to the Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster Star Wars. But the SDI’s main effect was to demonstrate U. S. technological superiority over the Soviet Union and its ability to expand the arms race into space. This helped convince the Soviet leadership under Gorbachev to throw in the towel and bid for a de-escalation of the arms race.

Answer 3

Mikhail Gorbachev, who tried to allow people to live a little happier in the country, and relaxed the iron grip. Everything fell in pieces then.

In Cuba, people called Gorbachev "the man who transformed comunism into talcum powder "

Answer 4

War with Afganistan. It broke the country and they spent money they didn't have, like the Bush administration.
They had way to much credit or bills they couldn't pay.
Mainly it was the Islamic forces that brought them to their knees. It just was a costly war. That was never won.

Answer 5

The history book says the Islamic forces broke them as a country. They just wouldn't stop fighting.

Answer 6

Muslims! That war with them in the middle east took all their resources and caused them to go into debt. Finally they finished them off. But they never won that war and it still goes on with their limited resources I wouldn't be suprised to see the muslims take over Russia. Slowly but surely they are taking over the world.

Answer 7

The same thing that's happening in this country. Out of control spending and lending. It all comes down to money. Russa spent money freely it didn't have to keep its status as a world power.

Answer 8

Allowing MacDonalds to open a branch in Moscow!!!