What key factor played a role in the collapse of the soviet union?

on december 26th, 1991, the soviet union was officially dissolved into fifteen independent republics after six years of political-economic crises. this unanticipated collapse of a super-power that had once shaped the foreign policies of east and west took the international community off-guard. since the collapse, scholars have attempted to provide insight into the reasons behind the demise of the soviet state. in 1998 richard sakwa published soviet politics in perspective, which categorised the three main approaches adopted by scholars in the study of the collapse of the union of soviet socialist republics (ussr). these were the ontological, decisional and conjunctural approaches and will be the foci of this investigation. ultimately, my aim is to prove that none of these approaches can thoroughly explain the collapse when viewed individually.

instead, i will advance that all three are vital in order to acquire a thorough understanding of the soviet collapse. to prove this, i will be analysing how each approach covers different angles of the fall, but before being able to answer this question of validity, i must begin by arranging each scholar i scrutinize into sakwa’s three approaches. in my research i have discovered that the vast majority of scholars have no notion of such schools of thought, which increases the possibility of bias in secondary sources and makes my investigation all the more challenging. once a solid theoretical basis is set i will then move onto investigating the legitimacy of each approach when considering historical events.

i think it is the byzantine empire