ABSTRACT
The collapse of the Soviet Union’s international position is in fact a direct consequence of the internal crisis of the Soviet system, a crisis brought into being by the efforts of Mikhail Gorbachev to save the system through sweeping internal reforms. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it tries to reform itself. Such has been the experience of Mikhail Gorbachev, as it is precisely his attempted reforms that plunged the Soviet empire first into political and economic chaos and into a confederal transmutation that has put an end to the historical unitary Soviet party-state. In essence, in attempting to reform what he and his closest colleagues at the time recognized to be a failing economic, political, and social system, Gorbachev unleashed powerful forces that were intended to support his reform efforts.
