Again and again, I think that hacker news cant be a place for spreading false anti-russian (anti-any country) propaganda that was proved to be false a long ago. If you read a references section of "penal military unit" - you will not able to find it in his books.
Ah, good old cold-war-like hysteria about "evil" russians. But ussr doesn't exist for 30 years and russia does not have ANYTHING close to what Snowden revealed exist in USA.
Well, actually it was a choice of bureaucracy to destroy USSR, without active resistance from other side of government. People voted to keep USSR, but bureaucracy wanted to have private property.
> most people would say it dissolved
Thats what propaganda told us, because you need somehow legitimate your property ;)
FYI After USSR was destroyed many factories were selled as a scrap metal (you know - fast money), but it`s had some side effect - many cities were built around and for that factories. So people there slowly dying without any reason to live. Also I know something similar happened in USA when factories were moved to Asia. But this game show some post-soviet specific.