The collapse of the soviet Union

Christopher Jones writes: "I agree that the Soviet Union collapsed of its own weight. I noticed that when Ronald Reagan died, he suddenly "won the cold war" and "defeated the Soviet Union." This of course is as ridiculous as the Americans winning the Battle of Britain. Communism was overthrown because it lost touch with its power base: the workers. Reagan had nothing at all to do with it. Probably the two men who could be most credited with the downfall of the Communist empire in eastern Europe was Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa".