Academician Nigmatulin listed the reasons for the collapse of the USSR

The collapse of the USSR is linked to three main factors, including censorship and envy of life in Europe. This was announced on May 19 by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Robert Nigmatulin.

"The Soviet Union collapsed under the influence of several factors. The first factor is economic," he said in an interview with RTVI.

In addition, he noted the envy of the Soviet people for the European standard of living and the desire to be there.

"Having been there [in Europe], we bought some video recorders and carried them. <...> We, the winners of the war, began to envy Germany, which we defeated," the academician explained.

He called the brutality of the regime, censorship and the desire for change the third factor.

"Nothing has changed. This also caused discontent. After all, people want to live in a freer country," Nigmatulin concluded.

"I consider it necessary to preserve": how did the people speak out for the preservation of the USSR

Why couldn't the referendum decision be implemented?

On March 17, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), based on data from a survey dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the referendum on the preservation of the USSR, reported that 57% of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union and believe that it could have been avoided. According to the results of the study, 79% of representatives of the "thaw generation" (born in 1947 and older) and 78% of the "stagnation generation" (1948-1967) regret the collapse of the country. While among the "digit generation" (those born after 2001), this figure is 33%.