The article is written in the context of studying the reasons for the termination of the existence of the Soviet Union and, in contrast to the well-known explanations of a conspiracy nature, it examines the questions of whether there was an economic possibility of preserving the Soviet state at that time. As an alternative, the author analyzes the model of the gold industrialist V. Tumanov, unclaimed by the Soviet and post-Soviet authorities, who created the largest prospecting artels in the country, which, in addition to gold mining, laid thousands of kilometers of roads, created industrial facilities, airfields, and built residential settlements in the taiga. The reasons for the lack of demand for such a model by the Authorities are also analyzed, which contradict the then accepted voucher privatization of "nationwide" socialist property. The problem is also being discussed in connection with the radically changed geopolitical conditions and the now armed opposition of the West to Russia's efforts to ensure its security and independence.

The general methodological basis of the study was the basic provisions of the methodology of criminal law science, first of all, the historical and legal method of legal doctrine, which involves the study and research (including in the theory of criminal law) of criminal law institutions, categories and norms in their historical development, as well as taking into account the dialectical method of cognition of phenomena involving the study of constant development, close relationship and interdependence. In addition, general scientific (socio-statistical, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction), as well as private scientific (formal-logical, system-structural) methods were used.