>>18144463 (OP)
Gorbachev got convinced by social-democracy and decided to open up to political critique. This instantly caused the soviet republics to go full nationalists. This followed years of economic liberalization that had been complete failures in the USSR and which has strained even more the nationalist tensions.
Then Yeltsin did an semi-official treaty disbanding the USSR behind Gorbachev's back.
>>18144950
He was retarded about his reforms. The major problem that the USSR faced was economic mismanagement, not a lack of liberalism. He could've went the route that Andropov had followed : modernize the feedback-loops with technology like the gosplan, create incentives for industry managers to perform well with bonuses and better metrics (campaign against corurption, more autonomy for managers, better metrics, campaign against absenteeism and alcoholism), allow for technocrats rather than ideologues to run the economy with a focus on performance etc.
The problem is that Gorby belonged to the leningrad school iirc which were basically neoliberals with ties to the CIA. When he got to power, he started privatizing the economy which caused it to worsen, and he allowed for political liberalization, which allowed for nationalist voices to be heard.
>>18144564
>>18144481
The USSR's failure was due to an inside coup (through gorbachev and yeltsin). Most people simply didn't think that the alternatives were better or thought that the system had to be readjusted rather than destroyed.
