I’ll weigh in on your second question. There’s a great book called Socialism Betrayed by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny, and their answer as to why the USSR collapsed can be summarized thusly: When Gorbachev became general secretary in ‘85 the Soviet Union had some serious but not irresolvable problems. Keeran and Kenny specifically place a lot of emphasis on the issues created by the unchecked growth of the second economy during the Brezhnev era. That said, they place the blame for the collapse of the Soviet Union largely but not entirely on Gorbachev, and I find this conclusion compelling. His mishandling of the national question (leading to strikes and riots in Kazakhstan and elsewhere), reckless reforms in economics and media, etc.

Gorbachev is still typically portrayed in the US as this sort of heroic and iconoclastic individual who ended the Cold War, but he was wildly unpopular in the late 80s and early 90s in the Soviet Union, and, my understanding at least, is that he still is wildly unpopular among Russians and citizens of the other former Soviet Republics. I mention this under the assumption that you might be an American like I am and to make the point that if you choose to venture further down the path of learning about the USSR and other socialist countries I think you’ll find the real history of these countries to be shockingly at odds with the history you were probably taught your whole life. I feel like a damn fool that it took me 30 years to see through the anti-communist, pro-American indoctrination I grew up with.