Why and how did communism fail in the USSR?
It wasn’t technically communism, it was socialism, in which the state owned and controlled everything. Some socialist governments do rather well (or rather, governments that have some socialist elements) but others, like in the USSR, catered to a decrepit elite that controlled goods and services and left the workers (those who supposedly the revolution was fought for) out in the cold. This is never a good mix, either in a capitalist system or socialist system. So when Gorbachev came to power in 1985 (or 84?), he wanted to reform the socialist system. Glasnost (opening) and perestroika (restructuring) were essential elements to reform the old system. The problem with perestroika was that it would create economic growing pains (which it did) and because of glasnost (opening), people’s frustrations were out there in the open. There were lots of critiques of society in the 1980s, but not all against the USSR. There were many posters created that asked the younger generation to remember the
