A major strength of the Soviet economy was its enormous supply of oil and gas, which became💴 much more valuable as exports after the world price of oil skyrocketed in the 1970s. As Daniel Yergin notes, the💴 Soviet economy in its final decades was "heavily dependent on vast natural resources oil and gas in particular".

The decline of the💴 Soviet economy is sometimes explained by exoge- nous shocks, like the troubles in the oil industry, the coal strike in💴 the first quarter of 1990, the collapse of trade with Eastern Europe following its liberation, the plant shutdowns for environmental💴 reasons, and the regional frictions in the USSR.