The article studies the deep-root causes and the results of the collapse of the Soviet Union and, to some extent, Yugoslavia as models of real socialism, since this model developed in a refined form only in the USSR as a result of 70 years of its existence. More than 30 years have passed since the end of socialist experiment in the USSR. Volumes of publications devoted to the analysis of the prerequisites, causes, and lessons of these events could fill library collections. But the problem of the deep roots of such a phenomenon as socialism has not been sufficiently examined in the academic literature. The starting point of this research is to examine reasons for overcoming socialism, mainly based on the example of the USSR: declared federalism and the collapse of power, tools of the system known as socialism or, from the last third of 20th century, real socialism. These very constructs became the most important triggers for the collapse of the USSR and the SFRY, given the serious differences of the countries. The method of system analysis and historical-genetic method made possible to come to the conclusion that the Soviet Union and socialist Yugoslavia were unitary states. The focus of the study was to research such manifestation of the unitary state as the Article 6 of the 1977 Constitution, which established a non-subjective state of the population. The interaction of the Center with the leaders of the Union republics and countries of Eastern Europe led after the proclamation of Russia to the desire to maintain its leadership position in the post-Soviet space and in the zone of declared interests of the USSR. It caused many ethnic conflicts manifested along the perimeter of not only the post-Soviet space, but also the former Yugoslavia. Finally, the author takes a closer look at the transformations of socialism in the USSR and in Yugoslavia. The author concludes that socialism, real socialism was a manichaean model, combining the incompatible: the power of a new class and an imaginary community proposed as a real model of existence. It was these deep foundations of real socialism that have become the object of criticism by representatives of Eurocommunism since the mid-60s, when it arose, and especially in the 70s and 80s of 20th century, in sharp criticism of Emrico Berlinguer.
collapse of the USSR; collapse of Yugoslavia; ethnic nationalism; socialism; real socialism; socialist community; eurocommunism; federalism; new class; «imagined society».