Vladislav Zubok, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in his book “Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union” examines the causes and consequences of the dissolution of the USSR, assesses how this event influenced the course of world history, and refutes established myths—above all the myth of the inevitability of the Union’s collapse. “Collapse” is a detailed analysis of events from 1983 to 1991, the result of the author’s years of research, his work with primary participants and researchers of this phenomenon, and his work with documents in archives in the United States and Russia. It depicts the political and economic problems of the state, the intellectual helplessness and unwillingness of the elite to act. All this clearly supports the author’s argument that the Soviet Union’s collapse was a direct result of counterproductive reforms that accelerated the republics’ path to independence.