[steverino62]

Regarding the last paragraph of this article: those who argue that internal Soviet factors caused the collapse of the Soviet Union often ignore the dynamic interplay between external and domestic variables. One cannot objectively read Gorbachev's central committee and party congress speeches, for instance, without concluding that Gorbachev intended for glasnost and perestroika to reverse Soviet economic decline precisely because that decline adversely impacted Soviet security and foreign policies. In reality, these so-called internal sources of causation were strongly, perhaps decisively, shaped by external considerations.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

But the Left is trying to make lemonade.