Revisiting the Collapse of the USSR.

The article discusses the factors involved in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Topics include economic and national factors such as the Soviet war in Afghanistan, which ended in 1988 to 1989, the expense of dealing with the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and decentralization of the Soviet Union; international relations between the Soviet Union and the rest of the world, and discussion of the factors related to the rise of national republics, the coup d'état of August 19-21, 1991, and the struggle between Russian leaders Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.