[anovikov]

I'm not speaking about overall economic level. I'm speaking about inequality. Which was low in the Soviet Union and top 1% - which was also the most educated class and had the best access to information too - could not miss the fact that they were badly underpaid compared to their capitalist counterparts, even from poor capitalist countries. There was just not enough inequality.

And also, their lives were full of risks compared to capitalists who could at worst bankrupt their companies and walk away to their beachfront villas, Soviet elites that misstepped, ended up in Gulag.

Elites in the end, were the most intrinsically anti-Soviet part of the Soviet society: they had a lot to gain from the collapse of the System, and they indeed, did gain a lot when it happened.

One thing that Politburo could do to extend the life of the Soviet Union was to be softer on the elites by letting them freer access to foreign currency, facilitate their freedom of travel, owning foreign property and investments, and so on. They couldn't escape after all - they had no skills to make good money in the West.