> It would have been decades before system collapsed of its own accord.
> But that spectre was quite [apparent?] to them. So change was already
> forced. If not from Gorby, it would have come from someone else.
This just isn't true. It would really require a rewriting of history to say that the CPSU leadership in 1985 or 1986 believed their system was in anything like a terminal crisis. They thought there were problems that should be dealt with - but certainly not in any way that risked putting the system itself in the slightest jeopardy.
SA