>The Soviet ruble was still worthless on the international market
Who controls the currency controls the country. A government forced to barter its warships so a multinational company would continue delivering its soft-drink to its citizens. I wonder if the deliberate sabotage of the Ruble helped usher in collapse.
Actually the Soviet Union was indirectly brought down by the humble FAX machine.
The AFL-CIO from Detroit got friendly with the Polish Solidarity union. During protests the government would shut down communications.
They told the AFL-CIO what they really could use were FAX machines. AFL people and priests smuggled in the FAX machines in their suitcases and with it an alternative communications network was established. During protests they could quickly send information country wide and they hoped the government wouldn't catch on and it worked.
Without the absolute control over information one country after another fell.
Poland was the domino and after it got its freedom one after another the rest of the countries in Eastern Europe gained their independence.
This put immense pressure on the Soviet Union after people in some of its republics like Georgia and the Ukraine decided that they wanted their freedom too.
The military panicked and staged a coup against Gorbachev. It then dawned on the Russians that they could have their freedom as well.
Ehm. I think you should refresh your knowledge about the fall of the USSR.
The Orange revolution in Ukraine and the Rose revolution in Georgia heppened years after USSR felt apart.
In reality the Baltic states were the first to declare independance from the Soviet Union. And it had little to do with Poland.
Source: citizen of Lithuania, the first one to break away.
I grew up in USSR and lived through its disintegration. That's not quite how it went, and it decidedly had nothing to do with fax machines. The bloc disintegration was the consequence of USSR losing control and rotting from inside, not vice versa.
Who controls the currency controls the country. A government forced to barter its warships so a multinational company would continue delivering its soft-drink to its citizens. I wonder if the deliberate sabotage of the Ruble helped usher in collapse.