What was it like when the USSR fell?

What were the steps that the USSR went through before it gave up the ghost? Could you relate each of the stages to some human psychological state? What were the factors that made the transition not turn into a civil war? Can any of the lessons that were observed during the fall of the USSR be used to ease the transition of the eventual fall of North Korea?

It seems, North Korea has started to tighten it's belt in an attempt to keep power.

"In the face of growing cracks in the system, North Korea amended its criminal code last year increasing penalties for expressing criticism of the government and other "anti-state" crimes. The revision, the fifth since 1950, also calls for tougher regulation on new crimes caused by infiltration of outside information."

North Korea cannot isolate their selves anymore (They may never have been able to as far as i know). They are surrounded by rapidly growing areas and are unable to produce their most basic supplies which would make them self sufficient. They have to send people outside to the country to bring items in.

"The North's authorities have also banned the use of mobile phones and confiscate them to prevent information from being leaked to the outside world."

I think we should air drop hundreds of thousands of cellphone\PDA combos with satellite uplinks. The government would get many of them, but some would be hidden and used by the people to communicate. We could load the phones up with lots of random valid numbers for news organizations. Or even detailed directions on how to start a blog. I do not know if the North Korean government can track the signals, but if they cannot, this idea would probably work.

"How to maintain the closure of the society in this globalization world community? This is a huge dilemma for North Korea to keep the hermit kingdom afloat."

The writer almost makes it sound like nice place.

cube