Aim. To identify trends characteristic of the latest Russian literature devoted to the causes, dynamics, and consequences of the collapse of the USSR. Methodology. The research was conducted on the basis of the principles of scientific objectivity, historicism, comprehensive study involving classification, periodization, comparative and problem-chronological methods. The procedure for selecting the analyzed literature was based on the need to ensure the representativeness of the findings. Results. A number of trends in the study of the problem characteristic of modern historiography is revealed: activation of attempts to objectively study the topic while maintaining a high emotional intensity; understanding of the need for a comprehensive multifactorial approach to study the causes of the collapse of the USSR; preservation of the desire to find specific culprits of what happened both inside the USSR and outside it. Research implications. The theoretical significance of the article is that the prospects for further scientific understanding of the problem are outlined, in particular, by improving the methodology of studying the topic. The practical result consists in the author’s desire to prove that simple answers in this case lead the consciousness of Russians away from the idea of the multidimensionality of the social process and form a request for solving urgent problems in terms of ensuring the state unity of Russia through primitive solutions.