On November 28, 2011, Study Times, a journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article analyzing what caused the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The writer, Prof. Zuo Fengrong of the Party School, responded to a question as to why neither the Soviet people nor the Soviet Communist Party members stood up to defend the Soviet Union. The professor stated, “The fundamental reason was that the Soviet Communist Party departed from Marxist principles and goals and failed to establish a political system that secured ordinary people’s (social) status.”
He concluded, “Since the people had no right to elect and monitor cadres, they were disconnected from state power. Cadres made all the decisions and the people were just cogs in the gigantic socialist machine. Although the USSR’s Constitution offered the right of citizenship to its citizens in the literal sense, the principle of the citizens’ rights was not implemented until Gorbachev began his reforms. However, the citizens of the Soviet Union did not have long-term training in democracy and did not know how to use their rights, so they became an important force in advancing the nation’s disintegration under Yeltsin’s propaganda.”
Source: Study Times, November 28, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/11/28/02/02_35.htm