I agree with you there, because of the inefficiencies of the system they were in, they were bound to make a fatal mistake. Once they had, these two problems made the collapse inevitable, no matter what Garbachov or the counter revolutionaries did. I find the inevitability of the fall very interesting. Reminds me a little of Hari Seldon's psychohistory from his Foundation Series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series