I kinda boggles me that so many Russians still see Gorbachev as a traitor. I understand that after his reforms once powerful empire suddenly collapsed and the people lived through hell in the 90s.
But was this truly because of his reforms and if so what could he had done. Or was this inevitable since Soviet old model of economy could not compete anymore and devastated people who were kept in the dark about the economy had to found someone to blame?
Thank you
You might be interested in checking out this answer I wrote previously on the role Gorbachev played in the dissolution of the USSR.
In summary, Gorbachev's reforms are ultimately responsible for the Soviet collapse, and ironically much of the argument that the Soviet economy needed change to avoid collapse came directly from him - the phrase "Era of Stagnation" is actually a piece of Gorbachev's rhetoric.
However there seems to be a strong case (made by Stephen Kotkin in Armageddon Averted), that while the Soviet economy was growing at ever slower rates, and increasingly unable to close the ever-present gap in living standards between the USSR and the West, probably could have continued to muddle on - there was no imminent danger of political and economic collapse in 1985.
It's also important to note that Gorbachev's reforms did not cause the collapse of the USSR on purpose, and Gorbachev was always committed to maintaining the union in some reformed shape under an economic system that was still socialist. However, his reforms both began to pick apart the centralized economy without really creating new institutions, which caused severe economic disruptions, and his political reforms unleashed new political movements outside his control, while all of these reforms antagonized more hardline members of the nomenklatura (party establishment). Ultimately he lost control of the situation.