Problems facing the USSR in the 1980s

• Afghanistan had become "Russia's Vietnam".
• Russia could not afford the arms race.
• The Soviet economy was backwards - factories and mines were decrepit and out of date.
• Backward industry was causing increasing environmental problems - eg pollution, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion of 1986, and the Aral Sea dried up.
• Many people were much poorer than the poorest people in the capitalist West - unrest about shortages was growing.
• Crime, alcoholism and drugs were out of control in Soviet towns.
• The Soviet system had become corrupt and out of date - instead of dealing with problems, the government just covered them up (eg Chernobyl, 1986).
• Many people were dissatisfied with the Soviet police state and censorship.