According to the law of "cause and effect" every happening has a cause. The collapse of the USSR is an event and of course it had its own reasons. Although the diplomatic mistakes, the wrongness of the economical system are focused, nationalism is one of the main reasons. Because nationalism was caused by the historical, environmental and political reasons so it is the effect (which occurred as a result of the effects which were mentioned above). These causes had increased the nationalist movements. It is clear that nationalism played a very important role in collapse of the Soviet Union. It caused the ties that bound the Soviet Union to weaken and in 1991 to collapse. Sunny stresses the development and creation of nationalism within the Soviet Union as the main cause of its collapse. This nationalism, he states, is built on common interests, imagined communities (loaned from Benedict Anderson), rituals, symbols, flags, songs, collective events and the expression of goals. Sunny claims that, "Especially under Lenin, the development of nationalism was encouraged in the Soviet Union which lead to inner conflict and desire for the new nations to break free from the Diets, from Russians' rule" (www.worldhistoryhub.com book review, Sunny, the Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union). The important points are Why did USSR had collapsed and USA did not if it is mostly related with nationalism? Which areas were the main problem areas? Why did these areas become problem areas? And today people wonder what should West do about those places where there are high risks of ethic conflicts and which lessons should be taken? The most important point about the collapse of the USSR is nationalism. Although nationalism exists in all countries, the wrong policies of nationalism (Russification) done by the USSR governments caused the whole Soviet Union to collapse.
