The Soviet Union had become stagnant in an administrative and political sense as well. The Communist Party that had ruled the Soviet Union for over 70 years was not accountable to the people. Ordinary people were alienated by slow and stifling administration, rampant corruption, the inability of the system to correct mistakes it had made, the unwillingness to allow more openness in government, and the centralisation of authority in a vast land. Worse still, the party bureaucrats gained more privileges than ordinary citizens. People did not identify with the system and with the rulers, and the government increasingly lost popular backing. Gorbachev’s reforms promised to deal with these problems. Gorbachev promised to reform the economy, catch up with the West, and loosen the administrative system.

Why did the collapse of the Soviet Union occur despite Gorbachev's reforms?

1) Gorbachev's reforms were not accurate in diagnosing the problems.
2) Forces and expectations set in motion by Gorbachev's reforms were unpredictable and uncontrollable.
3) Gorbachev's reforms were widely successful.
4) Future historians supported Gorbachev's reforms.

2

The collapse of the Soviet Union was due to the unpredictable and uncontrollable forces and expectations unleashed by Gorbachev's reforms.

Gorbachev’s reforms promised to deal with these problems. Gorbachev promised to reform the economy, catch up with the West, and loosen the administrative system. One may wonder why the Soviet Union collapsed in spite of Gorbachev’s accurate diagnosis of the problem and his attempt to implement reforms. The most basic answer seems to be that when Gorbachev carried out his reforms and loosened the system, he set in motion forces and expectations that few could have predicted and became virtually impossible to control. There were sections of Soviet society which felt that Gorbachev should have moved much faster and were disappointed and impatient with his methods. They did not benefit in the way they had hoped, or they benefited too slowly. Others, especially members of the Communist Party and those who were served by the system took exactly the opposite view. They felt that their power and privileges were eroding and Gorbachev was moving too quickly. In this ‘tug of war’, Gorbachev lost support on all sides and divided public opinion. Even those who were with him became disillusioned as they felt that he did not adequately defend his own policies. All this might not have led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.