The collapse of the Soviet Union has indeed had some pretty terrible consequences, most especially for many (most?) of the people living there. Poverty, violence, corruption, exploitataion, economic devastation, civil war - and if the nuclear technology falls into the wrong hands, which it easily could, the consequences for us all could indeed be catastrophic.

It is in many ways tragic that there could not have been a successful reform of the USSR along the lines of Gorbachev's dreams of perestroika and glasnost, aimed at turning the country into one with a social democratic system, more analogous to that which has been developed in many parts of Europe.

During the Cold War period, western politicians were always saying how their quarrel with the Soviet Union was because it was a repressive regime. When the Prague Spring took place in Czechoslovakia, and then crushed, it was widely seen as a pity that "Socialism with a Human Face" was aborted by outside agents.

But when Socialism with a Human Face was on the agenda a generation later, the efforts of the West were consistently directed towards destroying it. Any kind of aid or investment or assistance had to be linked towards establishing a predatory capitalist model of society, which in practice meant transferring the wealth of society to robber barions and mafiosi.

Democracy? That wasn't what it was about at all, it was about making money. And that is why China, where they did it the other way round and kept the all-powerful Party and State, but welcomed in the capitalists, have had such an easy ride of it.