«Rebel» Yeltsin versus «Grandmaster» Gorbachev

The article is devoted to the analysis of the book by the British historian V. M. Zubok "Collapse. The death of the Soviet Union." Based on a lot of factual material, V. M. Zubok's interesting and instructive monograph presents an original view on the cause of the collapse of Soviet statehood. According to the author, the inability of the Soviet leadership to decide on radical and effective economic reforms pushed the republics in their quest for independence and became one of the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the author stipulates that the collapse of the USSR was the result of the combination of a number of factors multiplied by the mistakes of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.