The problems of the socialist system are well-researched and the processes that led to the collapse are well-documented. For example, Andrew Walder lists the following determinants of the collapse of the Soviet Union: economic stagnation
and consumer deprivation, deeply eroded commitment to official ideology and the growth of widespread cynicism, corruption and the weakening of the apparatus of rule, and the gradual enlargement of autonomous, self-organized spheres of social and intellectual life (Walder 1994).