Khrushchev's Removal Of The Soviet Union

The competition and increasing awareness on democratic rights did force the Soviets to stand back and make some major policy changes in 1980s. The Soviet Premier of the time Gorbachev tried to set some political and social reforms in the soviet society in order to ease the pressure and help Soviets to continue to survive in the international arena. Moreover, the Soviets did not only make shifts in their internal policies but also in their foreign policy understanding as well. For instance withdrawal from Afghanistan, signing of various nuclear deterrence agreements with multi parties including the US are some of the key changes that occurred in the 1980s. However, the reforms of Gorbachev did not prevent the Soviets to stop its collapse and eventually after a series of events in 1991 the Soviet Union formally announced its dissolution[7].

Stalin’s early promises compromised of socialism and a life free from exploitation in regards to his social policies. However, he soon realised his error and reverted to a more conservative form of rule, whereby the interest of the state was given priority. Many describe his soviet social policy during the 1930s as a ‘Great Retreat’, it was named this as his policies saw a return to earlier social policies under the Tsar and former leaders. It is debatable as to how far his actions were a retraction of previous decisions…and the areas impacted were women, family, and education. A common theme of the great retreat was the gender role in society.

Reagan became president in 1981, which means that he was president of the U.S. during a time in which the Cold War began to draw to a close. (Fischer, 1997, p.477). Whereas his predecessors used détente, a more relaxed approach in order to reduce tension between the U.S. and USSR, Reagan and his advisers rejected this strategy (Authors, People and a Nation, p.833). This led to a turning point in the Cold War. Even though the Cold War ended in 1991, two years after Reagan’s presidency, Reagan is still known to have made a huge influence on ending the Cold War. This essay will investigate his actions and how they might have influenced the ending of the Cold War, by looking at how Reagan expressed his distrust toward the Soviet Union and communism, the ways in which Reagan expanded the arms race in order to bankrupt the USSR and other ways in which he tried to sabotage the Soviet economy, but also

One of Reagan’s main concerns was the Soviet Union. Reagan stated, “The march of freedom and democracy...will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history ...”12 All through his term he worked to collapse the Union, to end the Cold War, and to tear down the Berlin Wall. Margaret Thatcher commented that “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot”.10 Reagan set up the collapse of the Soviet Union in a couple of ways. First, he put more funds into the U.S. military, forcing the Soviets to do the same.11 second, he was confident that the U.S.S.R was crumbling and failing even when those around him believed that Communism was strong. Third, he was not intimidated by the Soviets and, while he respectfully met and listened to Gorbachev, he was not wavering and was determined. Even though many factors contributed to the fall of Communism, Reagan sped the process up and the Union officially fell apart in

After Nikita Khrushchev was dismissed in 1964, the Soviets faced mounting economic crisis which pushed the new Soviet leader, Brezhnev to consider detente. The U.S.S.R found it difficult to maintain an adequate rate of growth in the industrial sector

Under the pressures of the Soviet regime's plans for economic development, the Russian people were worn down. Subsequently, the willingness of these people to do further work for the Soviet cause was wavering. The transfer of power within the Communist Party also provided a source of instability within the USSR. Infighting over potential leadership changes provided a very real force of upheaval within Russia. These weaknesses showed that the USSR may bring about its own downfall.

The primary goal of the Ronald Reagan administration’s foreign policy of was winning the Cold War against Communism—which was achieved in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War grew out of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted for much of the second half of the 20th century resulted in mutual suspicions, heightened tensions and a series of international incidents that brought the world’s superpowers to the brink of disaster. The Cold War was won through a strategy of "peace through strength” and a warming of relations with the Soviet Union, 1981-89. These foreign policies became known as the "Reagan Doctrine,” the United States also offered financial and logistics support to the anti-communist opposition in central Europe and took an increasingly hard line against socialist and communist governments in Afghanistan, Angola, and Nicaragua. Reagan also increase the size of the military, spent billions on national defense, to fight Communists throughout the

As one of the leaders of the Soviet Union, Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a canny and careful Communist Party functionary who sought to make his country the military equal of the United States and promote its political influence around the world through the policy of detente. While Nikita Khrushchev another leader of the Soviet Union during the climax of the cold, largely pursued a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, he instigated the Cuban Missile Crisis by placing nuclear weapons 90 miles from Florida. At home, he initiated a process of “de-Stalinization” that made Soviet society less repressive. I think it would have been a good idea to keep Khrushchev in power. Because, although he played major roles in things that could of lead to a global tragedies like the Cuban missile crisis or the berlin wall. Khrushchev was the first of the Soviet leaders who begin the trend of liberalization that ultimately peaked with Gorbachev. He also ended the "socialist primitive accumulation" that spanned all of Stalin 's rule. He also abandoned the concept of class struggle. In actual fact, while “revisionistically" breaking from the industrialization-and-purge era of 1929-1941, he ensured continuity with the immediate post-war era of 1946-1953. In 1966, China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what became known as the Cultural Revolution, in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current Communist leaders were taking the party, and China

. President Reagan had an agenda regarding the USSR and the Cold War; he developed a strategy that the Soviet Union could not keep up with. (Shultz, 2104). He used the media to spread his view of the Soviet Union; furthermore, he reinstated the production of the military’s arsenals and expanded missile productions. Financially, the Soviet Union did not the resources to keep pace with America’s developing defense. In conclusion, the Cold War ended with rather high costs for all parties involved. America’s economic struggles continued, the Soviet Union pulling out of Afghanistan allowed the immergence of the Taliban, and the discovery of American weapons being sold to our enemy became the main

In conclusion, although Khrushchev made efforts to reform the Soviet Union through his policy of Stalinisation, it can be debated as to what extent he succeeded in his efforts. For example, although he made investments into agriculture, he was criticized for not focusing on seemingly more rewarding areas such as the military and space explorations. In terms of agriculture, although some improvement had been made, Khrushchev attempted to experiment with other grains such as maize, thus encountering a problem as many areas such as Kazakhstan had unsuitable soil. By 1963, the USSR had to import 20 million tonnes of grain from the USA and

The many long-term internal causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union centralized around weaknesses in their economy. They had an inflexible central planning system, the inability to modernize, and the inefficiency in their agriculture production. Sometime around the 1970's the computer and automation revolution had emerged. This revolution took over the West, but practically missed the Soviet Union, except in the military sector (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev's goal in economic restructuring was to create a separation between the economic and the political. The major changes began with the legalization of private farming and business co-operatives, and the allowing of foreign company ownership over Soviet enterprises (Baylis &Smith, 2001) All of Gorbachev's ideas on economic restructuring backfired on him since the price levels were inconsistent, and a sense of social confusion about the future of their state was created.

Furthermore, external factors derived from the Cold War catalysed the fall of the USSR. The Reagan Doctrine, a strategy implemented under the Reagan Administration which determined the US’s foreign policy towards the USSR, worsened the USSR’s decline. With Reagan’s appointment as US president in 1981 came a much tougher stance taken by the US against the USSR and its communist ideals. This can be seen when the policy of containment was dropped and that of rollback was adopted instead. Effectively, this means that the US aimed to eradicate communism, rather than prevent its spread. Some examples of how the policy of rollback as part of the doctrine took shape were the US’ covert intervention in the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan,

Declining economy and diminishing legitimacy of the Soviet system at domestic level did play a crucial role, however, many realist believe that it was the US especially President Regan’s policies (Regan Doctrine) which concluded the Cold War contest with victory for the west. Kegley believes that by engaging Moscow in an arm race, the Soviet Union was dragged into a competition which exhausted their already fragile economy leading them initially into retrenchment and ultimately out of the contest. (13) Peterson notes the argument of Patrick Glynn that Gorbachev’s radical reforms of perestroika and glasnost which accelerated the demise of Cold War were actually in response to President Regan’s rhetorical and psychological attack on the Soviet Union. While perestroika was an effort to reduce the economic gap between the two countries, glasnost, the liberalization of politics was in response to Regan’s statement that democracy would be the future global political system. Supporters of Regan see his personality and policy of “peace through strength” as a key factor in ending of Cold War. Through Regan Doctrine, the USA showed a resolve to confront Communist forces in the Third World. This commitment did show off in Afghanistan where, the US support to Mujahideens raised the cost of Soviet occupation and accelerated their defeat.

This investigation focuses on the impact that President Ronald Reagan had on ending the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union during the 1980’s. The use of historian argumentation, primary sources, such as Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security, and analytical essays by well known professors, such as John Gaddis’s excerpt from Major Problems in American History Since 1945 – titled “Ronald Reagan’s Cold War Victory” – will be utilized. The origins, purposes, values,

Joseph Stalin was one of the most important leaders that presided over the USSR in the 20th Century. There are a number of similar images of Stalin including but not limited to a leader of the Soviet Union, a ruthless tyrant whose policies led to the annihilation of millions, and a shrewd political leader. But his ability to raise the Soviet Union from a very poor economic environment to a booming industrialized nation in his first two years is often overlooked. Another positive achievement is the unprecedented liberation in social circles. Men and women were educated