As the title says. This is something that has always confused me, but why was it so easy to dismantle the Soviet Union? The blame is usually put in Gorbachev and Yeltsin, but the Union wasn’t governed by just a single man. The whole CPSU was responsible for the government’s actions. How was it, that these opportunists managed to get in there and just tear the country apart?
Also, how was it impossible to restore the previous order? So Yeltsin, a liberal sell out, is in power and nothing can be done to remove him and restore socialism? Why were the protests to bring back socialism not enough?
Chinese scholars argue that at the base of it was Historical Nihilism (slandering Stalin, Lenin, and the Party and distortion of history) leading to the undermining of CPSU’s political legitimacy and loss public trust in socialism. There are many articles about this topic, like this one: https://interpret.csis.org/translations/the-symptoms-damages-and-lessons-of-historical-nihilism-in-the-communist-party-of-the-soviet-union/
There’s even a long documentary produced by CPC on the topic: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8R-uen6FfFw02bDeh625OKEJ0i5ZS_u8