The collapse of the USSR: an external influence or an internal plot?

Officially, the collapse of the USSR, the date of which fell on December 8, 1991, was issued on the territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, and more specifically - in Viskuli Manor. Then the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian leaders put their signatures under the Agreement, according to which the Commonwealth of Independent States was created . A little later, on December 21, they were joined by eight other former republics. Thus, the collapse of the USSR occurred 69 years after its foundation.

There is no unanimous opinion on the main reasons for the collapse of the Union . Some suggest that this was facilitated by the drop in the cost of oil on world markets, which was initiated by the US government. Others believe that this led to the betrayal of Mikhail Gorbachev. Still others believe that what happened is the result of the people's discontent with the authoritarian method of government in the country and the protracted social and economic crisis. It is also widely believed that the collapse of the USSR was due to a number of man-made disasters and military and political defeats of the state. There are other assumptions.

The conspiracy theory today is very widespread. According to her, the disintegration of one of the most powerful countries in the world occurred as a result of the consistent and continued work of the intelligentsia, which was opposed to the state. Supporters of another theory believe that it was the Americans who were provoked by the collapse of the USSR. Gorbachev played a significant role in it, providing them with a legitimate field for their "perestroika" activities. This process, according to their sincere conviction, was primarily intended to change ideological policy. Representatives of the domestic intelligentsia, acting as the front line of the whole new one, were radically oriented and oriented to Western states. In the mid-eighties of the last century these people in their activities sought to reconsider historical events, giving them a different meaning. For example, the socialist revolution of 1917 was called a coup. Many believed that they were right.

At the same time, many historians do not agree with the fact that the collapse of the USSR was initiated by external factors. Such a deduction is due to the fact that the Soviet political elite, beginning in the mid-sixties, increasingly believed in its official ideology and gradually turned into admirers of bourgeois values. Moreover, when addressing issues at various levels in all areas of activity, "telephone law", bribery and corruption flourished. Many citizens entered the Communist Party no longer for ideological reasons, as before, but only in order not to lose the opportunity to make a career. All this, together with the fall in the population's confidence in the socialist system of the state, could not but undermine it from within. So this version has the right to exist.

Thus, to state for certain that one of the above reasons is the one that caused the collapse of the USSR, it is very difficult. Undoubtedly, the answer to this question should be approached in a comprehensive manner. In other words, the combination of all these events most likely led to the disintegration of such a powerful state.