Why did Soviet Union break up? What exactly went wrong?
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The Soviet Union was bad. It industrialized under Stalin, but this also involved massive repression and murder (which wasn’t required – it just happened because Stalin wanted to eliminate all threats), along with a massive slave-labor economy (the gulag). After Stalin died, the next generation of leaders were not as repressive, but after a brief bit of relaxation led to internal dissent, clamped down again (although with far less violence). In the late 60s, Brezhnev came to power. He had zero desire to reform or progress (unlike Khrushchev, the leader he replaced). He focused on the glorification of the past – specifically, the military victory in world war II. And then relied economically on the high price of oil that started in the 70s. His time was one of stagnation and corruption. You didn’t need to believe in Soviet ideas, just to agree not to dissent or make noise (in the 20s and 30s, there were a lot of true revolutionary believers!).
The old generation gave way in the mid 80s (by dying), while oil prices were collapsing . Gorbachev took over. He was faced with a state that was hollowed out by 20 years of corruption that had been propped up by oil money, and that oil money was gone. So he tried to reform. Some of that included more “openness” in society – which led people to learn more about all the crimes of Stalin and the founding members of the USSR, as well as the current levels of corruption.
Gorbachev also allowed the end of communism in Eastern Europe (meaning: no invasions to prop up unpopular regimes). All this change angered the old guard that had been aligned with Brezhnev, they didn’t want change. So they tried a coup against Gobachev. It failed, in part due to another group of politicians led by Yeltsin, who was president of Russia – a soviet state (union of soviet socialist republics). Yeltsin realized that he had a chance to sideline the USSR and concentrate power in his hands if the USSR was sidelined in favor of the individual Republics.
Also, some of the Republics were basically conquered by Stalin in 1940 and had wanted to go free for years. So there was a strong desire in some republics for independence, as well as a desire by many local power leaders to gain control free from Moscow to rule their own countries. So suddenly a major chunk of the elite saw a benefit to stepping around the USSR and having their own states.
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