"The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl was perhaps the true cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union." This was apparently said by Mikhail Gorbachev in 2006, as stated at the end of episode 5 in HBO's miniseries, based on the nuclear meltdown which happened in 1986.
How accurate this is? What are some of the arguments for and against this? Did the nuclear meltdown cause some form of long term effect on the Soviet Union that caused the collapse?
While there is room for more discussion, this question was asked and answered a couple of weeks ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bwshem/mikhail_gorbachev_wrote_in_2006_the_nuclear/