What problem led to the collapse of the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

The breakdown of the Soviet Union was mainly due to lack of funding (for the military, that is), as well as the coming of the post-WWII generation, which was much more rebellious and liberal than its predecessors. The American government had purposefully overextended its military throughout the 1980s in an effort to scare the Soviet government into building up ITS military in turn; using hindsight, we can see that it worked.

Answer 2

The problem that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union was its currency. The Soviets didn't allow their money to trade freely on the world market.

To understand this, look at trading with the West Germans. The Germans make very good machinery. If you want to buy some, you need money the manufacturer will accept. Because West German marks trade freely on the open market, you have two options: if the manufacturer will accept dollars he can use to buy things from the US you can pay in dollars; otherwise, you buy some Deutschmarks from a bank. (I am using terms from the Soviet era because we are discussing Soviets; today you would use Euro to do the same thing.)

The Soviets also made good machinery. (Their consumer products were generally terrible but their industrial stuff was okay.) Because the Soviet government didn't allow its money to be sold on the open market you had to set up a barter arrangement and trade a good made in the West for one made in the Soyuz. The company in the USSR that you traded with would then have to sell the product it received to Soviets. You can do this once, but it's not a good thing to set up ongoing contracts on a barter basis.

Now, look at China: it's also a communist country but because they were smart and allowed free trade, their system will last forever.

Answer 3

The collapse of the Soviet Union has been the subject of many debates. It's clear there are more than one or two reasons. The Soviet economy was built around central government planning. As with most such governments, they have found that this has caused severe economic problems. Another reason that has been offered was that the totalitarian form of it's government, began to seed rebellions against it even within the government itself. It became clear that the Soviet system was not working, it's surprising it lasted as long as it did. New Soviet leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev was liberal compared to previous Soviet leaders. In a sense, he was a progressive and wanted to change the old Soviet system. That he did and it helped to end the old USSR as it once existed.

Answer 4

Gorbachev...he basically screwed the soviet union when he implemented glasnost and perestroika.

Boris Yelstien messed up the government to go back to democracy

Answer 5

People died and everyone learned how to read.