Because from what i've been reading it seems like the breakup came out of nowhere and surprised the US quite a bit when it happened. Sure their economy wasn't going great and the US had been undermining them through back-channel oil deals with the Middle-East but even despite these things experts in both the east and the west did not predict that the Soviet Union would collapse as fast as it did.
So what really happened? Why did they seemingly out of nowhere give up all that territory and all of the power they had? Why did they hand the world over to the USA on a silver platter?
Yeltsin was only President of the Russian SSR, not the Soviet Union as a whole. For him to become leader of a sovereign nation, he had to collapse the federal government above him.
Tyler Ramirez
Afghanistan is mostly the answer. It showed that the soviet union was more worried about perception than reality. I think what really ruined it though was the inequality. If someone didn't have the right family connections then life would be harsh. What was needed was an independent corruption police but such a thing is of course almost certain to be used as a tool. t. someone who is acquainted with various immigrants who grew up in various soviet republics
Grayson Edwards
Why though?
Why didn't the communist party stop him. Why did he win the popular vote twice even after the economy started going to hell after the breakup.
Also wasn't it put to a vote whether or not it should break up? It can't be that Yeltsin single handedly convinced all of those countries in the SU to vote for independence.
What the hell is the point of a communist revolution if literally one generation later people are just going to vote to become capitalist again?
The whole thing just seems bizarre and frustrating to understand.
Ian Peterson
Yes. Virtually everyone voted to maintain the union. Then Yeltsin declared Russia independent and the union was dead because it couldn't continue without its heart.
Christopher Bell
Because they failed. They did try though, the KGB for instance had all its personnel working on it but for whatever reason they didn't find it necessary to capture Yeltsin and he outmaneuvered them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d'état_attempt
Kayden Fisher
CIA
Mason Howard
the Nazi is actually right for once
t. son of immigrants
Juan Hernandez
politicians got too much power and found out that if they would collapse economy and start with good capital they'd became much more well-off.
because he masked this attempt by increasing civil rights. Also, stop reddit spacing, it's difficult to read.
Evan Hall
It's almost as though socialism and totalitarian regime are directly incompatible systems!
Liam Adams
Because Gorbachev was a fucking snake who didn't respect his people's wishes to keep the union.
Caleb Lopez
Worked decently for a while, and it was certainly better than the bourgeois-liberal failures that replaced it.
Ian Ortiz
Better than no system at all, annihilkid
Luis Morales
This hasn't changed, though. :^)
Bentley White
...
Levi Sanchez
The upper layer of the soviet bureaucracy ossified and no longer needed to rely on appeasing the proletariat to remain in power. By deposing the Soviet Union and embracing international capital, they got to enrich themselves while leaving the proletariat to the dogs. It was a coup d'etat masked by "popular reform."
James Moore
I don't think anyone in the west who does not live a life of absolute poverty can really claim that life is harsh.
Bentley Price
Yes, but things got a lot worse in former soviet republics.
Michael Miller
I don't think any of those countries is "western" by the standard of life of common Boris. Especially outside of cities.
Lincoln Butler
Why has no one actually answered the main question yet?
How did the SU fall with hardly a complaint? Why does it seem like people just went along with it, why are people still going along with it?
At least the fascists can blame the Allies for ruining their system, but the Communists just gave up out of nowhere and switched back to capitalism.
Everyone talks about insurrection this and revolution that. But what the hell will be the point of it all if people are just going to quit because they let corrupt assholes arbitrarily change thing's?
Michael Robinson
One day they were communists the next they were capitalists what gives????
Michael Taylor
There was a coup attempt but it failed, haven't really seen a good reason for why they didn't back up their threat of force with actual force though. Xijn knows quite a lot about the dissolution of the USSR, he'll probably explain if he sees this thread.
