What would you say was/were the biggest economic downfalls of the Soviet Union?

[cheisgreat]

Not sure this is in the right place.

I'm doing on an essay on the Soviet union specifically Gorbachev and the the end of the Cold War. But I want to talk about how bad economically things were for sometime. There is sooooo much detail out there in terms of books. And I'm so bad at summarizing and deciding what was the most significant events were.

So as the title asks what was the biggest event(s) in terms of the economy which marked the end of Soviet Union?

Also can anyone recommend a specific book which is best for this? As there's so many Cold War books out there.

Sorry if my question seems stupid, I'm no expert. If anyone has any other tips/advice I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

[ComradeOm]

Alexander Nove is the man you want for analysis on the Soviet economy. I'm not sure if he ever wrote about its demise (he died in '94) but his books on the subject are very authorative. Ellman's "Socialist Planning" is also worth checking out. Be warned though, they are not easy reads

You might find this thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/command-economy-t62485/index.html?t=62485) useful. I'll try and get more later

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

Arabian oil, in no small degree.

edit: I'll go on to say that this may have been Reagan's only real contribution to the fall, increasing production from the Middle East by millions of barrels annually in the wake of the 1970s oil embargo. Probably played at least as big a role as the mujahideen.

[cheisgreat]

ComradeOm: Thank-you so much for that, I really appreciate that seriously. Yet again I have left another essay to the last minute. Consider that your good deed done for the day.

[ComradeOm]

No trouble. Two more posts of interest might be this (http://www.revleft.com/vb/central-economic-planning-t91179/index.html?p=1254978&highlight=inflation#post1254978) and this (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1399396&postcount=11), on the role of inflation and technology respectively. The latter is particularly important in my mind because if I was forced to pick a single reason for the collapse of the Soviet economy I'd go with the sheer computational burden of planning a mature economy