Why did the Soviet Union collapse?

Fascinating how the Russian memories of the USSR are much warmer than those you’ll find in the countries forced to be part of it.

I was a teenager growing up in Canada when Gorbachev was promoting the ideas of "glasnost" and "perestroika". I do not know what Russians think of that, but in North America, we were really hoping that Russia would embrace democracy and join North America and Europe as equal trading partners. We all had great hope for Russia as a friend. The perception from our side of the pond is that it was the corruption of the Russian oligarchs that siphoned wealth from the Russian nation and its people. It is sad to see that Mikhail Gorbachev is thought of as the scapegoat when it seems obvious to us that Russian oligarchs and the ruling class are more likely to blame.

As a russian citizen I can say that most of the people who are nostalgic for the Soviet Union in fact are nostalgic about their youth. They simply forgot about many features of life in the USSR.

We got a group of visitors from Estonia to Finland in the late 80’s. They had a KGB officer who was guarding them and making sure nobody escapes. But one did escape the group and ended up in Sweden. That’s how wonderful and free the ussr was. And now we are in the EU and we can move anywhere in the EU freely.

"The economy is not yet stable". Boy do I have bad news for you.

Here in Berlin I ride my bike to work every day. My path leads from the former American sector via the former Soviet sector to the former American sector. I cross the former death strip at the Wall four times every day. In 1989 I would have been shot immediately on this route. I am grateful to the revolutionaries from the GDR and also to Gorbachev for allowing the unjust state of the GDR to collapse and for allowing me to move freely today.

Coming from an ex soviet union country, I am happy we gained independency and are deciding by ourselves what is our future

My wife grew up in the Soviet Union. She has nothing good to say about it. Citizens waited half their life in lines just to get basic essentials. If one went to buy shoes, they grabbed whatever was available even if it was not the right size. Then one would trade with someone else for a pair of shoes that fit. And the thing that really shocked me is that basic feminine products like tampons and sanitary pads did not exist. The Soviet Government didn’t think products for women were important enough for their 5 year economic plan. Soviet Union was a joke.

I did not live in the USSR but in a satellite state. The apartments were relatively cheap, but you had to wait for years for the so-called bribe allocation and connections within the party made the process easier and we are not talking about ownership of the property, but long-term use. Traveling abroad, you had to get permission from the authorities, including the political police, you didn't have your passport at home, you had to return it every time, the long and complicated process was helped by the same thing as before. A refrigerator, TV, washing machine, etc. were luxury goods that you often had to wait for years for. The economic situation is characterized by periods of crisis interspersed with smaller crises - which usually ended with workers' protests, which the authorities bloodily suppressed by shooting workers, using tanks, militia, etc. Virtually all the protests were related to the increase in food prices - which were set centrally. The card system operated practically throughout the so-called socialism, to buy anything you had to wait in queues, often for many hours, you bought what was on sale and not what you needed - hence many older people have the habit of accumulating various things. Fruits such as oranges were a delicacy that cost a lot and usually appeared before Christmas. But the shortage concerned practically everything - clothes, building materials, etc. - the system was not economically efficient. Censorship was an official state office, and they decided what could be printed, shown on the radio, theater, and TV. Everything for public consumption, all culture and art, books, films, song lyrics and everything else had to be approved by the state. I could go on for a long time, but it wasn't the best system to live in, the state controlled absolutely everything.

In my opinion, it's good that they don't know that they simply went bankrupt. They don't learn from mistakes.

It seems to me that most of these people took the question, "would you like to bring the USSR back?" as "would you like to be young again?"

They look upon Stalin more favorably than Gorbachev, that's wild

The right question is not if Russia wants Soviet Union back, but if the former Soviet States want to be part of it again ! You know the obvious answer ...

Nostalgia for an ideology that was never more than a pretext for authoritarianism, from people who've spent their whole lives deliberately not noticing anything political or thinking about anything uncomfortable.

Soviet Union was collapsing much before Gorbatchov era. He, Gorbatchov, just heritate it. Some people had good memories because they where young at the time - we all have good memories of our childwood... But the true life was miserable ,compared to the large majority of western countries. Also, there was a big difference between people filiated on the only one politic party, or not. There was a very different treatment. And, at the time, if you wouln`t agree with the line of the government you would be arrest for many years in prison, usually considered a foreign agent working for the enemy ( the eternel enemy ). Amazingly, it sounds exactly like the today`s Russian Federation. For the defenders o f the Soviet Union, one simply question : why millions wanted to emigrate to the west countries for a better life and noone would emigrate to the Soviet Union ? The answer is there, isn`t it ? Unless all that people, emigrating during decades, were suffering of masochism... Please ,defenders of Comunism and the Soviet Union, come to the reality.

‘…of course things were better in the Soviet Union, we weren’t allowed to travel anywhere, bicycles were made of cement, no one had a car, you lined up all day for one rubber boot, or a single cabbage, and you had to put your name on a waiting list for ten years to buy a small black and white television….it was paradise…’

I see a common theme. Many want to go back solely because they were young and had less worries even in reality it may have been far worse

No Gorbachev didn’t start Afghanistan….he ended it. Some of these crazies blame the west, blame Gorbachev ect….always finger pointing and looking for scapegoats. How about spending insane amounts on weapons and wars that couldn’t be sustained under a communist economy…..Chernobyl?? These disgruntled folk looking outwards instead of inwards for the root cause. Everything has a beginning and an end. Nothing lasts forever. Learn from your own mistakes and failures so you learn from them and don’t repeat them.

I was born in USSR and saw it collapse. There was nothing good for a talented person it it. It benefited only the ruling party and lazy people. Hard working people were seeing a small percentage of their efforts returned in value, while it was distributed to everybody else who did no work at all. Thieves were thriving, cause you kept what you stole only for yourself. Everything was provisioned by government. I remember my mother running to the book shop, cause she heard there was a new book being sold. They would bring 100 books to a city with 130k population. But you could always buy books from Lenin, Marks, etc.

The soviet union was more or less bankrupt in the 1980s..Gorbachov tried to revert this,but it was too much effort too late,and people didnt want to live under the Soviet system any longer...they wanted freedom !