``..the dissolution of the Union were top-down phenomena. 80% of the population of the Soviet Union was opposed to its dissolution (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia not participating) and virtually everybody in Russia is anti-capitalist. This is hardly the model of a populist revolution.'' Chris Doss
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I thought I was fairly careful not to say the Soviet Union was toppled from below---but destablized by events in eastern europe.
In any event, the real point was that here, in the US we've had every body and their son in power claiming credit for both the collapse of eastern european governments and the former Soviet Union. I just wanted to put in a plug for the people nobody ever heard of.
Chuck Grimes