The new union treaty should have been stopped based on the results of the referendum, which overwhelmingly supported the maintaining of the current federal system.
Soviet Union had a single referendum and it immediately caused a coup and destruction of the whole Union. No wonder they didn’t want to have them before lel
The soviet union was constantly under siege since its infancy. Its latter years were marked with reforms which took power away from the local level of federated democracy and liberalized many aspects of their society. At the end capitalist viewpoints were being printed and published in state run and paid for media. It died a death of a thousand cuts since ww2 killed so many of their rank and file best-disrupting their lower level democracy-, and Stalin's re-democratization efforts were cut short by his assassination.
I never made that argument though. Are you here to shadowbox or talk?