Alrighty, let's do this.
1. Perestroika and Glasnost
Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the last leader of the Soviet Union, wanted to lead his nations under the ideas of perestroika and glasnost. Perestroika was the idea of moving towards a Communist-Capitalist system (similar to China's). Glasnost was the idea of giving personal freedoms to the Soviet people, such as the right to free speech and press. By giving so much freedom to the Soviet people, the government was eventually deemed vulnerable and weak. The Soviet people used their freedoms to successfully end Soviet rule in 1991.
2. Western Aggression
It began with Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, as he began to be a vocal opponent of such an "evil empire." He attacked the Soviet Union with military spending and crushed their economy as well; this is how the Soviet Union began to fall.
3. Nationalist Movements
The Soviet Union was composed of 15 different republics, and many started to form nationalist movements that would soon spread to various areas across Eastern Europe. One by one, these Soviet republics began to break away and seek their own independence, eventually leading to a fatal weakness in the power of the central state.
Hope this helps!
