Every Dictator of the Soviet Union Explained 

It’s more or less true. He and Reagan both coming to power when they did was incredibly lucky for the US and the rest of the world. The problem with a person like Gorbachev leading a country like the Soviet Union is that a person like Gorbachev can’t tolerate the inherent level of corruption and dysfunction in Soviet government institutions. Once he’s put in charge one will inevitably destroy the other, even if unintentionally. And due to the decline already in motion when Gorbachev took power, and the vast amount of power vested in Soviet leaders, the Soviet Union was much more vulnerable to destruction than Gorbachev himself was. It’s probably more useful to view the whole Soviet/Russian government as a vast criminal enterprise that is forced to begrudgingly perform the duties of a government to cover the corruption and exploitation. A criminal enterprise that has fully captured a super-nation’s worth of economic activity (thanks to socialist revolution), and only cares about maintaining the grift. There was no way for Gorbachev to destroy the corruption and dysfunction without destroying the institutions of government themselves. In Russia they are one and the same.

Want some "dark secrets"? Gorbachev shouldn't have gotten to such high ranks of the communist party as his 2 grandfathers were repressed, he managed to screw things up several times during his career and it's somewhat a mystery how did he make it out unpunished. Hence, there is a theory that he has caused the collapse of the USSR intentionally and was supported by some "external" powers. It was Gorbachev's rule time when we have learnt the words "deficit", "organized crime", "racket" and so on. Anti-alcohol campaign has destroyed winery industry. It was during his rule when national conflicts broke out and went unpunished by the central power (Karabakh and others lesser known conflicts in Soviet Asia republics). And you may not imagine this, but at the end of 1980s illegal "customs" between republics and cities were introduced by local authorities to prevent ordinary people from smuggling goods out of places where they were present to where they were not - all w/o any actions by the central powers. "Coupons" were introduced for such basic things as sugar and maybe something else (I was a kid at that time and lived in Kiev - a capital city of Ukrainian SSR). Queues for everything appeared together with natural exchange of goods... Vodka became a universal currency - just like caps in Fallout game series :). I had tens of vodka and brandy bottles stored under my table - in my life I tasted maybe 5 of them (somehow we managed to keep several brandy bottles - last one was gifted in 2022, one bottle of vodka was opened in 2020 and tasted as water with minor alcohol smell :), brandy was OK at that time), others went to pay for variety of goods&services during 1990's, including a stay in the hospital (consider it as an "endorsement" or "gratitude" to a doctor).

@@JohnMaxGriffin Yes, we had corruption - but it was not that much about money as about power and influence which were not as easily transformable into cash. After all - there was no "light years" difference between a factory director and a worker of the same factory - they lived in the same apartments, used the same transportation (ok, director could have a car and a driver assigned to him), their wages were comparable (a good worker could make more buck than any of his superiors and not have the headache of responsibility). But a factory director could make a call to someone and have his problems sorted out while a worker typically had much less possibilities of doing the same. What kind of problems? Well - any, though doing something completely illegal was a risk for all the parties involved. Destruction of USSR has allowed "big bosses" to transform their power into cash and business ownership, though many of them had no idea how hard will it be to deal with that. Just as nobody imagined the troubles they'll get into (and a long time to get out of them) after voting for independence.

The Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, and was formed through the annexation and occupation of nearly all of Russia's neighbouring countries. The basis of the entire formation of this nuclear superstate was colonial imperialism. The nations of the "prison of peoples" wanted to be free, and used the opportunity to do so between 1989-1991.

@@mardus_ee Which "neighboring countries" were occupied and became a part of USSR? "Colonial imperialism" - what were the colonies? You do know, that Hawaii is still officially occupied by the USA (there was monarchy before it has happened)? Each influential European country had colonies right until WWII end and some even after (e.g. France). "The prison of peoples"? OK - maybe, but with the end of USSR it turned out to be a blood bath of peoples with ethnic conflicts happening all over xUSSR - with just a handful exceptions - Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine (minor tensions with Tatars in Crimea were not about ethnicity but about getting space to live). It was not about getting "freedom" in 1991, it was about getting something to eat and hopes for a bright and prosperous future (as usual) for "ordinary folk" and getting a hold of industrial, real estate and financial resources for "elites". Almost every leader in Ukraine who is over 50 - was a member of Communist party or Comsomol, not mentioning pioneer organization (you may be surprised - but there were people who knowingly avoided even this "everybody was" thing). And I don't think the situation was different anywhere else. The fcking "bright future" is visible in my salary of $250/month paid by the government where deputies are rising their salaries at their own will during the war while cutting income even for soldiers.