The final days of the Soviet Union

Such a painful sight to watch. Also proves how much of a punk Gorbachev is, with Yeltsin coming up to him like that. Were people this fed up with Gorbachev, the USSR, and perestroika in other republics during the final days of the USSR?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns3CaGE0 ... annel_page

There is an outstanding book about the Gorbachev period called Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny.

I've heard of the book a lot. Though I was hoping on stories from the people who were in the USSR at the time or stories from family, etc., links. But thank you. I'll check out a book description and see if it appeals to me.

I find it important to mention that during the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were masses of people in the street and they weren't paid to be there.... By the mid 80's it's hard to argue "The USSR had some problems" vs "The USSR was broken". One could point out the several foreign policy victories the USSR had, especially during the 70's but I challenge one person on this forum to make an argument that from 1970-1985 that the USSR was marching towards global communism.

Basically my main point is to ask if anyone here honestly believes that the Brezhnev doctrine (totally leaving Khruschev out of this) was indeed an ideological return to Marxist-Leninism.

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Basically my main point is to ask if anyone here honestly believes that the Brezhnev doctrine (totally leaving Khruschev out of this) was indeed an ideological return to Marxist-Leninism.

Skeptical to me, but I'd love to hear the opinions of the others. The Eastern Bloc was turning more and more into crap. We won Vietnam, Ethiopia, half of Yemen, Laos, Nicaragua, the Mujahideen. But they weren't significant enough to spread about socialism, as the U.S. always had a pawn countering the Soviet sphere of influence. Zaire and South Africa to Angola, the Sandanistas, the Khmer Rouge, Pinochet, the Grenada invasion.