Gorbachev was also responsible because he implemented an end to the Brezhnev Doctrine in the satellite states and in Russia. This broke the bond of unison and ended the enforcement of communism. Gorbachev renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine.
Gorbachev was responsible for the collapse of the soviet empire because he increased press freedom and not only this, but allowed more freedom politically and socially. He refused to support pro-soviet puppet rulers in Eastern Europe.
Another reason why Gorbachev was responsible for the collapse of the soviet empire was because he encouraged independence and dismantled the command economy.
However Gorbachev was not responsible because even though he encouraged solidarity he did not start it. It was because of the oppression the people received from communism that they rebelled. The leaders were very hard lined which created discontent in the people. Gorbachev did not do anything to prevent Germany.
He was not responsible for the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 which showed that the communist government was band to collapse prior to the discontent and revolt between the communist people.
In fact, Gorbachev was not responsible as even though we lowered the arms expenditure, more money would be saved by the government, for example to improve industry and its products and besides there were already low morale and attitudes to work
Gorbachev was not responsible for causing the Berlin Wall to collapse; again it was due to the discontent people shared from Stalin's and Brezhnev's actions. He was also not responsible for the growing number of death rates in Russia due to alcoholism, which also led to a decline in industrial production.
In addition, the USSR needed to be more open as they need to do many things like trading with the West to get food as in USSR at the time had food shortages therefore it was easier to trade if the Soviet Union broke apart.
Furthermore, there were many new issues that were coming up in USSR like there were many new groups like the Islamic Fundamentalism which Gorbachev had to think about.
Moreover the Soviet empire was changing in political circumstances made buffer zone unnecessary as now no more land attacks would take place but instead use missiles e.g. ICBM's
Overall I do think that Gorbachev was responsible for the collapse of the Soviet empire, because if it was not for him, there would be few demonstrations and people would not have freedom of speech and expression and would still have been deprived of freedom to criticise the Government. It was due to the introduction of his reforms which cause the Soviet Union to collapse but on the other hand there were other reasons to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
