The collapse of the Soviet economy and the triumph of capitalism

The title is intentionally facetious, rhetorical and to be taken cum grano salis. For certain ones prone to confusing fact with fancy, the events in the USSR of 1989 and the appearance of John Paul II's Centesimus Annus on the heels thereof respectively sounded the death-knell for Marx's system and signaled papal acquisence in the axiom that what wins out is better. The object of the present study is to give the lie to, or otherwise radically temper, both perceptions. In a word or two, Marx's system is not doomed for the tomb with him; while John Paul II has neither conceded nor welcomed such a systemic "triumph". Wherein resides the truth in all of this? The paper essays to bring us a stride closer.