[whatshisface]

The Soviets stopped catching up to the west under Brezhnev, and never recovered from what Gorbachev called, "the era of stagnation."

[p1esk]

The Cold War was just one of many factors leading to the Soviet Union collapse. It was a lot more complex than “stopped catching up to the West”.

Source: I lived through it.

[whatshisface]

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it was the biggest external influence on the collapse of the Soviet Union.