Soviet collapse was elite-driven, not a product of mass protest

Evidence

At the beginning of the reform process, elites encouraged nationalist sentiment in order to undermine the nomenklatura. The former was far more successful than anyone planned, and the latter didn’t happen at all. In many republics practically no popular demonstrations took place. The mass protests that did occur largely happened after the system was already falling apart, and Moscow could have easily put them down if it wished. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 109

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the book’s own thesis comparing mass protest decades; the Soviet case challenges the volume’s premise by showing regime change without mass popular movement. — connects to: The USSR collapsed from an elite top-down process, not mass uprising — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 107; The Soviet Union fell chiefly from within, not from Western pressure — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 105; Elite inexperience and conservative dominance blocked Czechoslovak communist reform — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 494 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-Soviet ‘convergence’ of sorts happened only via dismantling the Soviet state #expands (0.73) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1544
• Elite inexperience and conservative dominance blocked Czechoslovak communist reform #expands (0.72) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 494