What destroyed the Soviet Union?

[OMGeverynameistaken]

The USSR WAS basically a continuation of the Russian Empire under new management.

So then you would refer to these Russian governments as Russia. It doesn't make sense to call modern Russia the USSR when it gets expansive, especially since Russia has always been expansive.

I don't disagree. The whole "herpderp Putin reviving USSR OMG LOL" thing is a bunch of nonsense.

[United States of White America]

The Soviet Union destroyed itself because people finally saw that communism was and is evil.

Could you, by chance, be able to enlighten all of us as to why communism is evil?

It was created by Karl Marx, who was an incredibly horrible man. Communism lead to the destruction of the class system, and in China it led to massive genocide of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. Many writers who were communist, such as Franz Kafka, wrote really awful books trying to point the finger of blame onto capitalism.

[Kargintina]

Putin destroyered teh USZR Wit his mad hakzso he can remak itz witz with evil armies and start teh wurl wa tree

[Max Worshippers]

http://imgur.com/r/gif/aiEJH

[Kargintina]

Putin destroyered teh USZR Wit his mad hakzso he can remak itz witz with evil armies and start teh wurl wa tree

[Kubra]

Franz Kafka wrote really awful books

opinion disregarded

[United States of White America]

Franz Kafka wrote really awful books

opinion disregarded

Why?

[Distruzionopolis]

Stalinism. Stalinism destroyed the Soviet Union.

[Bolnoa]

My view on this isn't in a selected option.

[Bolnoa]

Stalinism. Stalinism destroyed the Soviet Union.

Main stream version of the Soviet Union died along with Stalin. My favorite age of the Soviet Union died in 1964. It officially died in 1991.

[The New Sea Territory]

Ronald Reagan did jack shit, first of all.

The Soviet Union just made bad economic plans and organized itself really, really terribly.

[Britannic Realms]

Boris Yeltsin.

[Bontavation]

All of these options are leaving out the biggest problem, was trapped in an expensive arms-race and was addicted to high oil prices. During the oil glut of the 80's, things really started to go to hell. This wasn't the only factor, but it is the biggest.

[The Broken Russian States]

SDI Massacred everyone in Moscow.


No seriously, didn't someone launch a coup that killed the USSR?

[Jinos]

I'm largely disappointed people actually believe the Soviet Union collapsed due to some kind of inherent and irreversable flaw. Like, seriously? History is a track record of failed, brutal police states that just keep chugging. North Korea? China? Iran? Burma?

It was all Gorbachev. Maybe if his reforms had come slower, and started with economic benefits first before political freedoms, he could've kept the USSR together - maybe not as a Nation, but at least a Federation of States.

[Pandeeria]

I'm largely disappointed people actually believe the Soviet Union collapsed due to some kind of inherent and irreversable flaw. Like, seriously? History is a track record of failed, brutal police states that just keep chugging. North Korea? China? Iran? Burma?

It was all Gorbachev. Maybe if his reforms had come slower, and started with economic benefits first before political freedoms, he could've kept the USSR together - maybe not as a Nation, but at least a Federation of States.

Gorbachev was only a symptom of a larger issue: the growth of liberalism within the Communist Party. The Party itself grew concerned with freedoms, especially that of the media and speech, eh oh lead to the Union's downfall.

[Greed and Death]

The ideology, communism will never work in the long term.

[Greed and Death]

I'm largely disappointed people actually believe the Soviet Union collapsed due to some kind of inherent and irreversable flaw. Like, seriously? History is a track record of failed, brutal police states that just keep chugging. North Korea? China? Iran? Burma?

It was all Gorbachev. Maybe if his reforms had come slower, and started with economic benefits first before political freedoms, he could've kept the USSR together - maybe not as a Nation, but at least a Federation of States.

So being a police state does not end in doom.
But being an economic left country does.

[Empire of Narnia]

I'm largely disappointed people actually believe the Soviet Union collapsed due to some kind of inherent and irreversable flaw. Like, seriously? History is a track record of failed, brutal police states that just keep chugging. North Korea? China? Iran? Burma?

It was all Gorbachev. Maybe if his reforms had come slower, and started with economic benefits first before political freedoms, he could've kept the USSR together - maybe not as a Nation, but at least a Federation of States.

So being a police state does not end in doom.
But being an economic left country does.

No. North Korea still has a command economy.

[Dracoria]

So being a police state does not end in doom.
But being an economic left country does.

No. North Korea still has a command economy.

The current (non-Monarch, honest!) ruler controls everything from above with an iron fist, and directs the economy disproportionately toward the military. It's not a Command economy, it's a Command&Conquer economy.

[Evil Grantica]

Inherently flawed system plus Reagan plus Gorbachev not being nuts were the big three reasons.

Also, why no Chuck Norris option?

[L Ron Cupboard]

I'm largely disappointed people actually believe the Soviet Union collapsed due to some kind of inherent and irreversable flaw. Like, seriously? History is a track record of failed, brutal police states that just keep chugging. North Korea? China? Iran? Burma?

Have any of those actually been a brutal police state for longer than the Soviet Union?

[Padnak]

Burma looks like its going to keep rumbling until the end of time

[Maineiacs]

Well there's this

http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/03/19 ... listened/#

Didn't the Simpsons do this several years ago?

[ODMS Babel]

I would say the Soviet Union was destroyed due to nationalism and the fact that their heavy-handed approach convinced people they were conquerors rather than liberators, which made everyone hate them. Unlike other Communist regimes, the Soviet Union was far more federal and kept ethnicity-based divisions in existence (as Republics rather than independent states, but still) which meant that the various nationalistic groups that wanted their countries to be separate from the USSR had easy already-made borders to fall back upon.