DECLINE OF THE SOVIET UNION ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REASONS FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE: CONSEQUENCES OF A NEW POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ORDER

History cannot be reminded, but it is worth studying for what we can learn from it and apply to the present and the future. Russia is one of history’s great survivors. She has existed for more than a thousand year, and for part of that time she has been one of the largest powers on our planet. Today she is one of the most formidable powers in Eurasia, and it will remain so. This book is an attempt to seek the roots of our ambivalence, toward Russia and of Russians’ ambivalence toward their own country. It focuses on the variety of identities; which Russia has assumed over the centuries. The aim of this book is to provide a basis for analyzing and understanding the particular aspects of existence of Soviet Union, the reasons of her collapse and the perspectives that Russia has today. The disintegration of Soviet Union has left Russia searching for a new basis for its security policy and grappling with the question of whether Russia is a superpower or ‘just’ a regional great power. In some ways this question is academic This book also explores several lines of thought in respect to Georgia’s independence, both its frustrated attempt in 1918, and its recent successful transition to independence, as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nothing said here is intended as a definitive judgment. The purpose of the book is to stimulate discussion, debate and reflection.