Alexander Solzhenitsyn Set the Stage for Reagan and Walesa
Once other thing, and this is key: the Soviet Union did not exist before the collapse because the Russian people liked it, or didn’t mind it so much or any other such thing, they never had in say in what they liked or didn’t like, or much of a say in anything period. The decisions were made either by a lunatic dictator or by a small group of all-powerful Communist bosses. If the people didn’t like it, they knew where they could wind up. The entire regime was run by a psychotic, lying, vicious criminal caste and they held on to power through the liberal application of terror, not from some popular mandate.
The system fell apart for many reasons, but sheer exhaustion seems to be a big one; also, endemic corruption at all levels of society, a gradual contempt for Marxism, military defeats, and the economic and technological backwardness of the whole enterprise. And yes, economics, did matter; when you can’t grease the wheels around the world, you lose influence, and your proxy states up and leave. But throughout this is the constant pressure: military, economic, ideological, and psychological coming from the United States through 8 administrations (yes, even Carter, who was soft on communism, did his part, though I think the pressure from good Democrats like Scoop Jackson made most of the difference)
