What are the main factors responsible for the disintegration of the Soviet Union?

Answer

one very big factor was the economy or lack of one, the cold war was a full fledged war between the united states and russia, but rather than killing each other it was a war of weapons and development. we build a new rocket and they would try to build a better one to try to keep ahead, they send a man in orbit. we send one to the moon, they build a bigger bomber we build a faster one, etc.etc.etc.... this is a very expensive process on both sides, soon russia just could not keep up financialy any more. this was just one factor.

Answer

Russia fell primarily because the Great God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob caused it to fall. For more than 60 years Godless communism had enslaved and murdered people all over the globe and espoused that the state was God. It is humorous that He also used the false religion on Islam to break up the Soviet Union. Afganistan was the first chink in the mighty soviet armour. Then the other "stans" broke away. All those soviet vassel states with great numbers of muslems broke away and the communist lost control of their empire. Mainly God allowed thousands of Jews to return to return to Israel from Russia. The great red bully of the world was shaken to the core and split up when God decided that enough was enough!

Answer

The Soviet's command-economy was not able to compete with the free-market economy of the US and its allies. In almost every area of competition - excepting only nuclear armaments - the Soviet system fell behind. One example of this can be found in the production of Soviet steel. Around and after WWII, the Soviet system was behind the US in steel production. Since they used a command economy, this was a factor that had to be settled not via supply and demand but rather through the Soviet government's use of limited resources and time (e.g. currency and time). By the 1990s, Soviet steel production surpassed that of the US. Unfortunately for the Soviets, by this time there was a plethora of steel traded on the open markets. So while they did indeed begin to produce more steel than the US, it was more expensive for them to produce steel domestically than it was for the US to import it. This left the US with resources to spend on other "projects" - such as computer technology. This phenomenon was to repeat itself in a variety of other manners as well.

First answer by RoyR. Last edit by RoyR. Contributor trust: 3832 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 162 [recommend question]