Russian history rhymes - from Soviet collapse to Putin's folly

Last spring, I was putting the final touches to my book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union. I argued that the Soviet world’s collapse had been neither inevitable nor predictable, much like most of the game changing events of history. I did not expect that my message would soon receive a thundering confirmation. A major theme in the book is one of human agency: reformist zeal, nationalist aspirations, illusions and delusions, anger, impatience, and sheer folly.

The Soviet Union, I thought, was a huge monstrosity held together by iron and blood. Yet this immense country also displayed surprising continuity and resilience. Its glue was the Communist Party, yet also the habits and convictions of millions of Soviet people who lived inside the bubble. Those who lived outside, as anthropologist Alexei Yurchak described, did not represent a threat to the status quo. Ironically, the decisive blow to the Soviet system was delivered by Soviet idealists and patriots, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, the educated and reform-minded head of the party. In 1987-88, Gorbachev convinced himself he should steer the Soviet Union from a unitary party-state to a voluntary federation of republics, without breaking it up. It is easy to say in retrospect that it was an impossible task.
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