Reality or myth. but the West announced in 1991, and everyone in Russia believed that the United States had defeated the USSR in the Cold War. Today we are increasingly convinced that that victory was Pyrrhic. However, the Soviet Union really collapsed then, and Russia inherited a destroyed economy and huge debts. There is still no clear official answer as to what destroyed the USSR. On the path of collapse, the Soviet Union passed several points, at each of which it was possible to stop and return to the path of creative development of the country. What were these points of no return, was it possible to prevent the disaster. who is to blame for it? Valery Pirogov’s next book tries to answer these questions.