DISCUSSIONS ABOUT CAUSES OF DISSOLUTION OF THE USSR IN MODERN AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE

Alexander Pogorelsky¹, Larisa Maslikhova², Olga Radugina³

¹Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Voronezh State Technical University, 20 years of October street, 84, Voronezh, Russia, E-mail: pogorelsky@mail.ru
²Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Voronezh State Technical University, 20 years of October street, 84,Voronezh, Russia, E-mail: maslikhova@vgasu.vrn.ru
³Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Voronezh State Technical University, 20 years of October street, 84, Voronezh, Russia, E-mail: radugina@yandex.ru

Abstract

This article analyzes the causes of dissolution of the Soviet Union in the publications of American political scientists. More than twenty-five years have passed since dissolution of the USSR, the most important event in world history in the end of the 20th century. Despite the past years, among historians, political scientists and current politicians, disputes about causes that have led to this epoch-making event do not cease. For some, dissolution of the Soviet Union seems to be a triumph of Western democratic values and a market economy, while for others it is ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century’. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the causes of dissolution of the USSR in American political science. After analyzing the various approaches to the problem of dissolution of the USSR, which have become firmly established in American political science, the authors come to the conclusion that, despite the years that have passed since this event, there was no consensus in the US scientific community with regard to causes of the tectonic shift in the global policy represented by the dissolution of the second superpower.

Keywords: political science, scientific community, dissolution of the Soviet Union, Cold War, socialist system.