Title: History of the Soviet Union
Content:  oil in 1985 and 1986 profoundly influenced actions of the Soviet leadership. Nikolai Tikhonov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was succeeded by Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Vasili Kuznetsov, the acting Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was succeeded by Andrei Gromyko, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Several Soviet Socialist Republics began resisting central control, and increasing democratization led to a weakening of the central government. The USSR's trade gap progressively emptied the coffers of the union, leading to eventual bankruptcy. The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded Gorbachev.
Title: State collapse
Content:  communist regime. The dramatic drop of the price of oil in 1985 and 1986 profoundly influenced actions of the Soviet leadership. The Reagan administration in the 1980s placed Pershing II missiles in western Europe in order to escalate the Cold War, overstretch the USSR economy and bring about its downfall because "they can't sustain military spending the way we can". The dissolution of the Soviet Union took several years, starting with Mikhail Gorbachev's attempt at revitalization through libralization, followed by revolutions and independence of various republics, a failed coup, and eventual dissolution into component republics, with Russia as the rump successor 
Title: History of the Soviet Union
Content:  The history of the Soviet Union from 1982 through 1991, spans the period from Leonid Brezhnev's death and funeral until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Due to the years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth stagnated. Failed attempts at reform, a standstill economy, and the success of the United States against the Soviet Union's forces in the war in Afghanistan led to a general feeling of discontent, especially in the Baltic republics and Eastern Europe. Greater political and social freedoms, instituted by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, created an atmosphere of open criticism of the Soviet government. The dramatic drop of the price 
Title: History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)
Content:  The dissolution of the Soviet Union' was a process of systematic disintegration, which occurred in the economy, social structure and political structure. It resulted in the abolition of the Soviet Federal Government ("the Union center") and independence of the USSR's republics on 26 December 1991. The process was caused by a weakening of the Soviet government, which led to disintegration and took place from about 19 January 1990 to 26 December 1991. The process was characterized by many of the republics of the Soviet Union declaring their independence and being recognized as sovereign nation-states. Andrei Grachev, the Deputy Head of the Intelligence Department of the Central Committee, summed up the denouement of the downfall quite cogently: "Gorbachev actually put the sort of final blow to the resistance of the Soviet Union by killing the fear of the people. It was still that this country was governed and kept together, as a structure, as a government structure, by the fear from Stalinist times."
Title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Content:  The dissolution of the Soviet Union (1988–1991) was the process of internal political, economic and ethnic disintegration within the USSR as an unintended result of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort of reform of the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation, which resulted in the end of its existence as a sovereign state. In late 1991, the leaders of three of the Union’s founding and largest republics (the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR) declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed, and 11 more republics joined them shortly thereafter. Gorbachev had to first retire as leader of the Communist Party since it 
Title: Hungarian Soviet Republic
Content:  and food supply. Unable to apply them, the soviet republic had already lost the support of the majority of the population between June and July, which led, together with military defeats, to its inexorable ruin. The failure of internal reform was joined by that of foreign policy; the political and economic isolation of the Triple Entente, the military failure in the face of neighboring countries and the impossibility of joining forces with the Red Army units contributed to the collapse of the soviet republic. The Socialist–Communist government was succeeded by an exclusively Socialist one on 1 August; the Communists left Budapest and went abroad,
Title: History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)
Content:  atmosphere of open criticism of the communist regime, and also perestroika. The dramatic drop of the price of oil in 1985 and 1986 profoundly influenced actions of the Soviet leadership. Nikolai Tikhonov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was succeeded by Nikolai Ryzhkov, and Vasili Kuznetsov, the acting Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was succeeded by Andrei Gromyko, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Several republics began resisting central control, and increasing democratization led to a weakening of the central government. The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded Gorbachev.
Title: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Content:  Soviet Union; it never functioned properly, though Ivan Silayev de facto took the post through the Committee on the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy and the Inter-Republican Economic Committee and tried to form a government, though with rapidly shrinking powers. The Soviet Union collapsed with dramatic speed in the last quarter of 1991. Ukraine was the first of 10 republics to secede from the Union between August and December, largely out of fear of another coup. By the end of September, Gorbachev no longer had the ability to influence events outside of Moscow. He was challenged even there by Yeltsin, who had begun taking over 
Title: History of the Soviet Union (1982–1991)
Content:  In addition to the flailing economy, the prolonged war in Afghanistan, often referred to as the Soviet Union's "Vietnam War", led to increased public dissatisfaction with the Communist regime. Also, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 added motive force to Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, which eventually spiraled out of control and caused the Soviet system to collapse.
Title: Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Content:  There were few, if any, who believed that the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse by 1985. The economy was stagnating, but stable enough for the Soviet Union to continue into the 21st century. The political situation was calm because of twenty years of systematic repression against any threat to the country and one-party rule, and the Soviet Union was in its peak of influence in world affairs. The immediate causes for the Soviet Union's dissolution were the policies and thoughts of Mikhail Gorbachev, the CPSU General Secretary. His policies of perestroika and glasnost tried to revitalize the Soviet economy and the social and political culture 

Question: what made the soviet union fall?
Answer: Cold War.