Why did the Soviet Union collapse?

1the end

On Christmas Day 1991 the red flag came down over the Kremlin. A superpower with thousands of nuclear weapons simply ended, without a single battle. How?

2the myth

The popular story says America won, by forcing Moscow into an arms race it could not afford. Historians still argue about Washington's part, but many put the main causes inside the Soviet Union.

3stalled economy

Start with the economy. Central planning could build steel mills, but by the 1980s growth had stalled, shops ran short of goods, and the state leaned on oil exports for foreign money.

4oil crash

Then in 1986 the oil price crashed, from about thirty dollars a barrel to near ten. Foreign income shrank, and Moscow borrowed abroad and sold gold to cover the gap.

5Gorbachev's plan

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev took charge to repair it. Perestroika, meaning restructuring, would rebuild the economy. Glasnost, meaning openness, would let people criticize problems out loud.

6the catch

But openness has a catch. People used it to talk about Chernobyl in 1986, about the long Afghan war, about shortages. The party's grip loosened faster than the economy improved.

7republics push

Now the republics began to leave. Estonia claimed sovereignty in 1988, Lithuania declared independence in 1990, and in a March 1991 vote about seventy-eight percent backed a renewed union, though six republics boycotted.

8the last weeks

In August 1991 hardliners seized Gorbachev, hoping to stop a new union treaty. Their coup collapsed in three days. A week after Ukraine voted ninety-two percent for independence, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declared the Soviet Union over.

9the whole idea

So here is the whole picture. No single blow: a stalled economy hit by the oil crash, reforms that loosened the grip, and republics that chose to leave.