Speaking of Yeltsin, I believe everyone is familiar with him, after all, he is the first president of Russia, in fact, he is famous not only because of his presidential status, but also because many people think that the collapse of the Soviet Union is inseparable from him. Yeltsin and Gorbachev were Soviet contemporaries, and it was entirely possible for Yeltsin to become the president of the Soviet Union according to Yeltsin's ability at that time. So why did Yeltsin bring down the Soviet Union, and was it not better to be the president of the Soviet Union than to be the president of Russia?
It all started with the October Revolution, when the various ethnic groups in Russia established their own independent regimes, and then the civil war broke out and the various ethnic groups unanimously decided to unite in order to defeat the enemy. In this way, the various nationalities came together for a common purpose, but as the domestic situation gradually stabilized, the Communist Party of the Soviet Republic put forward the idea of unity, and the Soviet Union was formed against this background.
After careful consideration by all nationalities, on the evening of December 30, 1922, Stalin announced the formal establishment of the Soviet Union, at which time all nationalities unanimously elected Lenin as the honorary president at that time. Later, Stalin succeeded Lenin as the new leader, so Stalin began drastic reforms, especially the implementation of the five-year plan, which directly led the Soviet Union to vigorously implement industrialization. Thanks to Stalin's aggressive reforms, the Soviet Union soon became the largest military and industrial power in Europe at the time, and the second largest in the world economically.
It was precisely because Stalin attached too much importance to industrialization that he neglected the development of agriculture. You must know that agriculture is the foundation of a country, and if the value of agricultural production in a country continues to decline, then the consequences will inevitably be very serious. And it soon proved that this was not long enough, as an unprecedented famine soon ensued in Ukraine. With the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union gradually began to lose the hearts and minds of the people because of its various mispractices.
Although the Soviet Union signed a treaty with Germany during World War II, the Soviet Union did not settle down because of this, but invaded and carved up Poland for its own selfish interests, which undoubtedly accelerated the neighboring countries to move closer to fascism. As the saying goes, whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world, and the Soviet Union's approach at that time did not put the people's hearts in an important position at all, so this also laid a hidden danger for the later disintegration. Later, with the continuous rise of the Soviet Union, the United States felt pressure, so the United States linked Western countries to jointly restrain the Soviet Union, which is known as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Later, with the death of Stalin, the originally inconspicuous Khrushchev broke out of the encirclement and became the new leader of the Soviet Union. After Khrushchev came to power, he not only attached great importance to the development of science and technology, but also attached great importance to the cultivation of scientific and technological personnel. It is precisely for this reason that during Khrushchev's tenure as leader of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union reached a point of envy in science and technology that was the envy of all countries in the world. However, after Khrushchev gained a firm foothold, he began to completely repudiate Stalin and proposed de-Stalinization, and this overkill attitude also caused a shock in socialism in Eastern Europe, which led to political conflicts between the Soviet Union and many countries, and the Soviet Union became even more unpopular.
Although the Soviet Union later changed several leaders one after another, it failed to fundamentally solve the problems that arose in the Soviet Union. You must know that the development of society is like a boat sailing against the current, and if you do not advance, you will retreat, and the Soviet Union has always been in a rigid situation, which is actually equivalent to going backwards. However, the terrible thing is that the Soviet Union's military spending has always been very large, which has made the basic life of the people also problematic.
Later, Yeltsin, who was eager to save the country, directly wanted to copy the Western system to save his country, but he did not take into account the basic national conditions of the Soviet Union. In Yeltsin's view, if we want to quickly solve the current problems of the Soviet Union, we should directly and completely Westernize, so that the people can quickly live the same happy life as the people of Western countries. Moreover, in order to Westernize the country as soon as possible, Yeltsin even went to Western countries for help, and his behavior not only betrayed the Soviet Union, but also accelerated the disintegration of the Soviet Union, so later generations believed that Yeltsin brought down the Soviet Union.