USSR: From Emergence to Collapse of the Great Power

Abstract

The article presents the actual historiographical situation on the problem of determining the causes and factors of the death of the USSR. The presentation of a diverse palette of views on the causes and fac-tors of the USSR demise is accompanied by arguments and author's judgments on the correctness of the available assessments of historians and social scientists. At the same time, the aim of the article is to show the fundamental causes of the imbalance of the socio-economic system of real socialism. The fundamental reasons for the non-viability of the socio-economic system of real socialism, designed to eliminate the “flaws” of capitalism, was the level of development of productive forces insufficient to overcome the “rarity of goods.” Even today, humanity is at the very beginning of the path of achieving economic progress capable of ensuring universal satisfaction of needs. The lack of a sufficient material basis for overcoming the imperfection of distribution was the cause of another structural “ailment” - low motivation of social labor and increasing alienation of workers from public property. In turn, the replacement of market mechanisms with administrative and command principles of eco-nomic management caused a chronic shortage of consumption and manifested social apathy. Diverse political, ideological and other “man-made” factors only intensified the processes of systemic failure and gave the centrifugal forces that initiated secession an irreversible and total character.