ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book deals with what actually happened in the USSR, especially after 1982, to produce the collapse of the system. It covers the role of long-term social and intellectual modernization; economic stagnation; the accident of Gorbachev's leadership; communist "political culture" or tradition; pressure from the public; and pressure from the West. It deals with why we were so surprised by the communist collapse. This necessarily involves a critique of our Sovietology. The book deals more with social science interpretations of the USSR, Conquest and Pipes more with historians' interpretations of Soviet history. It assesses social science "from the inside," as practicing social scientists, while Malia and Conquest critique it from the outside. The book discusses communism in relation to the intellectuals in the West.
