It’s the failure of the Soviet education system. If we can characterize the Soviet people, it is that they are far too naive.
Eh. They were in a bad spot economically due to Saudi market manipulation at the behest of the west, a military defeat in Afghanistan, a space-race posturing/propaganda. They definitely could have held out longer but they were on the back-foot and were opting for a peaceful/graceful loss rather than forcing a military loss. This worked for the West also as they didn't want to involve their direct military which is why they extended a "peaceful" option for ending the cold war. The icing on the cake was Gorbachev was an intelligence asset (someone linked evidence for this here once, I lost the bookmark apparently; if he wasn't then he was the only truly naive Soviet citizen).
Eh. They were in a bad spot economically due to Saudi market manipulation at the behest of the west, a military defeat in Afghanistan, a space-race posturing/propaganda. They definitely could have held out longer but they were on the back-foot and were opting for a peaceful/graceful loss rather than forcing a military loss. This worked for the West also as they didn't want to involve their direct military which is why they extended a "peaceful" option for ending the cold war. The icing on the cake was Gorbachev was an intelligence asset (someone linked evidence for this here once, I lost the bookmark apparently; if he wasn't then he was the only truly naive Soviet citizen).