Kulturkampf

[Nintex]

As I recall from the Adam Curtis documentary part of why the USSR collapsed was the "Intensification 90" program. It was a new policy that replaced the prediction work that had mostly been done with pen and paper with computed calculations. They would feed the computer all the data on floppy disks and it would provide the optimal numbers (or so the theory was).

One example he gave was a laundromat that had replaced all their machines which had yielded an x-amount of scrap metal but that was also its most efficient year in terms of results that they measured. After analyzing the data the computer concluded that from that point forward the laundromat had to produce the same scrap metal every year to yield the best results. 
So the laundromat had to purchase and store lots of scrap metal to meet those targets. 

Computers were also used at a lower level to "optimize production" but of course only the central planners had the best equipment. Combined with the policy of perestroika desperate Soviets running the factories and production lines eventually started selling valuable Russian property in exchange for dollars on international markets, so they could buy faster foreign computers to make better predictions and calculations.