The Soviet Union had become stagnant in an administrative and political sense as well. The Communist Party that had ruled the Soviet Union for over 70 years was not accountable to the people. Ordinary people were alienated by slow and stifling administration, rampant corruption, the inability of the system to correct mistakes it had made, the unwillingness to allow more openness in government, and the centralisation of authority in a vast land. Worse still, the party bureaucrats gained more privileges than ordinary citizens. People did not identify with the system and with the rulers, and the government increasingly lost popular backing. Gorbachev’s reforms promised to deal with these problems. Gorbachev promised to reform the economy, catch up with the West, and loosen the administrative system.

Assertion: The rise of nationalism and sovereignty aspirations in various Soviet republics was the most immediate cause of the disintegration of the USSR.
Reason: Nationalist urges were always present in the history of the Soviet Union.

Choose the correct option:

1) Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.
2) Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct but the Reason is not the correct explanation of the Assertion.
3) The Assertion is incorrect but the Reason is correct.
4) The Assertion is correct but the Reason is incorrect.

2