I am Russian and I am often told things about how it was "back in the day". But I did not really try to learn history deeper than what I learned from school history classes. When I think about it, some things just don't make sense. USSR had a lot of resources at its disposal. Even though it suffered from WW2, soviet industry was the greatest in the world (maybe except the US). And at some point things just started falling apart.
As I see it, it was a history of wrong decisions. Being centralised in many aspects, USSR relied heavily on it's leader. Some leaders made mistakes that had consequences on the whole country, while others just lacked the initiative to do something. But again, it doesn't seem likely that USSR was just ran by a bunch of stupid people. That's not how any government should work.
Also I'm interested to know how opinions on this matter in Europe and US are different from what I often hear and read in Russia.
I do hope you get some high-quality answers. The FAQ replies are often a lot of assertions without much context or source.
Mentioning previous answers is not intended to discourage follow-on questions, information, or debate.
The FAQ (link in the sidebar / Community Info) has a section for "The end of the Soviet Union" at https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/ussr#wiki_the_end_of_the_soviet_union . The first four questions have titles that deal with this issue:
"Collapse of the Soviet Union", https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/tu2be/collapse_of_the_soviet_union/ : older and not quite up to current standards. /u/Fjosnisse talks about the satellite states of central Europe and the run-up to the end, /u/avolainen5 talks about the end of the Soviet Union.
"How to research what led to the collapse of the USSR?", https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/16muau/how_to_research_what_led_to_the_collapse_of_the/ : as the title indicates, it's a few answers on historiography. /u/facepoundr recommended David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb.
"What really caused the break up of the USSR?", https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/17r210/what_really_caused_the_break_up_of_the_ussr/ : older and not quite up to current standards. MomentOfArt mentions the drop in the price of oil and cites Gaidar, The Collapse of the Soviet Empire: A story of grain and oil; Davezter is more general; SurfKTizzle expands on Lenin's Tomb. But mostly it's a lot of assertions and not a lot of sourced data.
"How did the Soviet War in Afghanistan contribute to the fall of USSR?", https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/10ui5q/how_did_the_soviet_war_in_afghanistan_contribute/ : also old. Spokowma has some assertions.
Also one below that tangentially related: "Soviet ability for Intervention in the late Soviet Era", https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2qzik2/soviet_ability_for_intervention_in_the_late/ : kieslowskifan, with sourced comments on the question of Polish intervention in 1980/