Crisis in the Development of the CPSU (1980 - early 1990s): Content and Socio-Political Consequences (to the 30th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Soviet Union)
The author's interpretation of the notion "crisis of the development of the CPSU" is proposed. Based on an analysis of real processes in party and state building in the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as literature on the problem, the authors come to the conclusion that the Soviet political system and its key component, the CPSU, contained opportunities for their own reform. The ruling party violated the principles of internal party life, there were no self-purification mechanisms. The overwhelming majority in the CPSU were patriots, but the relations that had developed in the party pushed them aside by the ruling layer of the party. The generations of party leaders that emerged after 1917 were worse than the previous ones. Social scientists, instead of analyzing the real contradictions of socialism, the development of the theoretical foundations of party life and socialist construction, often engaged in dogmatic apologetics for what had been achieved. Overcoming the party's crisis was late. Objectively, this process was in demand already in the 1960s. In the mid-1980s, a successful "cure" for the party was unlikely. Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts ultimately led to the collapse of the CPSU. The crisis of the party, given that the CPSU was the core of the political system of Soviet society, inevitably created the prerequisites for the destruction of the Soviet state. As a result, the destruction of the USSR was the result of mistakes, as well as criminal actions of a number of leaders of the union level, and party and state leaders of the former union republics.