I posted a review of a book titled “Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse on August 24th and this book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (unavailable on Amazon, but I obtained a book from the local library) gives another view of what caused the collapse. The two books agree on some of the underlying causes, but Solzhenitsyn adds that a primary cause was that the Soviets put materialism ahead of religion. The book is only 135 pages long, but presents the history of Russia going back several hundred years preceding the Bolshevik revolution that explains the complex nature of the massive country, its diverse peoples, and the events that Solzhenitsyn believed had major influences on the character of the country. He presents the opinion that, “Our history appears to be lost to us today, but with the proper efforts of our will…We will build a moral Russia or none at all.” Return readers of this site will note that quotes are used much more extensively in this review than in previous reviews. The reason is that I believe Solzhenitsyn without question presents his ideas much better than anything I could write in summary.
Solzhenitsyn believes that the end of the USSR came because of Gorbachev’s “hypocritical and irresponsible perestroika.” “There existed several reasonable paths for a gradual, careful way out of the Bolshevik rubble. Gorbachev chose the most insincere and chaotic path. Insincere because he searched for ways to protect Communism…Chaotic because…he put forward the slogan of acceleration, impossible and ruinous in light of the worn-out infrastructure…” Then, with glasnost “…he was flinging the doors wide open for all the nationalists…The Communist Soviet Union was historically doomed, for it was founded on false ideas…It hung on for seventy years by the fetters of an unprecedented dictatorship, but when the inside grows decrepit fetters fall useless.” He makes the ominous prediction that, “In the twenty-first century, the Muslim world, growing rapidly in numbers, will doubtless undertake ambitious tasks.”
Predictions for the future are not optimistic, because of continued ethnic pressures. For example, Ukrainian military officers taking their oath are asked specifically whether they are prepared to go to war with Russia, despite the fact that 22 percent of Ukrainians are of Russian decent. Solzhenitsyn was not impressed that President Bush “…tactlessly (interfered) before the Ukrainian referendum, expressing sympathy for the separation of Ukraine along her Leninist borders.” He also predicts the immediate moves to establish democracies will be a mockery, because they remain “…under the foot of the same local bosses from Communist circles.” He writes of the problems caused by shrinking population from increasing death rate and decreasing birth rate and the substantial increase in crime and corruption. He also feared that the explosion of materialism, this time under Capitalism, “…threatens all religions.
In an address to the International Academy of Philosophy in 1993, Solzhenitsyn stated (simplistically interpreted) that Communism collapsed because it ignored the religious needs of the people by putting materialism ahead of God. He also credits the Communist collapse to their failed attempt to keep up militarily with the United States when President Reagan put them into a “…spiraling and ultimately unbearable arms race.”