Mother Russia And The Annexation Of Crimea. Mallory K Hylton.

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

This essay will prove how the end of the cold war was caused by Gorbachev and his policies to a large extent. The end of the Cold war was also due to President Reagan and the collapse of The Soviet Union to a smaller extent. Gorbachevs policies were Glasnost and perestroika. Perestroika translates to “restructuring” and this was the restructuring of the economy from the state, and the social and political restructuring. Glasnost translates to “openness” and this was the freedom of the press. Glasnost and Perestroika were ultimately the cause of the fall of Gorbachev. President Reagan was Anti-Soviet and called communists “Good Marxist Leninists. The end of the cold war was in 1991. This was the same year that the Soviet Union collapsed. This

Mikhail Gorbachev is a foreign leader who worked with Reagan and also wanted to eliminate communism. If the Soviet Union collapsed, then all influences of communism would stop, which is what Reagan and Gorbachev wanted (Marsico, 84). The nation as a whole agreed that they did not want communism to spread beyond the borders of East Germany and seep into their culture. During the span of 1985-1988 five meetings between the Americans and the Communists negotiated issues of diplomacy. By the early 1980’s the Soviets had built up weaponry which was almost comparable to America’s weaponry, but as the decade went on the Soviets were unable to keep up (Marsico, 84). This inferiority pleased the American people. By 1991 the cold war had concluded. on June 12, 1987, Reagan asked Gorbachev helped to eliminate the oppressive influence that communism had outside of the soviet union (Marsico 85-86). He wanted to stop the influences so that communism would not spread any further than it already had. Standing beside the berlin wall, which separated East and West Germany, Reagan gave a speech which reminded every one of the differences between the two sides. General Secretary Gorbachev” Reagan challenged him, “if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the soviet union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!”

Forty-four years (1947-1991) of the “Cold War”, also known as communism, was overpowering many of the nations from Russia, Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia and South Africa – just to name a few places. Communism was a very powerful issue in 1981. During this time, Reagan was taking his stand as the 40th President of the United States. During this time, Russia was under the leadership of Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko.

The final conclusion of the Cold war has created dubiety in historians which they have stayed with their doubt on viewing the perspective if president Ronald Reagan actually won the Cold War. Some historians have came upon to conclude that it was Reagan’s policies help with the war.While on the other hand, historians may say that it was the actions of Gorbachev that held lead to the end of the Cold War. During 1940-1991 the Soviet Union was already facing economic problems, in which once Reagan raised the amount of money for the arms race, the Soviet union began to struggle.Not only that but, “The conflict was a geopolitical and ideological struggle, which not only involved armies and resources, but ideas and values”(Gurney pg.1).The Cold

What came with the selection of Mikhael Gorbachev as the new Soviet Leader for the USSR was the start of the turning point in the Cold War. This was as well met by the likes of Ronald Reagan, who at first carried an anti-communist rhetoric, progressively displaced his initial feeling for the Soviet Union and begun to change his perceptions of his foes to the east. A compromising negotiation was the overall goal of Gorbachev, which would hope to lead to reduce the risk of nuclear war. Very different from his predecessors, Gorbachev resiliently worked with Reagan in order to successfully come to peaceful relations. Although Ronald Regan had a role in the changing dynamics of the cold war that had taken place, more of the accolades must go to Mikhail Gorbachev as he played a greater role in the improved relations between the USSR and the United States of America. Due to Gorbachev’s revolutionary new thinking, Reagan’s reluctance but eventual actions that led and followed the INF treaty, and Gorbachev’s final actions after

However, Russia refused to acknowledge the new leadership stating that it came into power through unconstitutional means and armed insurrection. This was cited as the major excuse for Russia to deploy troops in Crimea to protect the majority Russian residents from extreme right forces.

Another problem for the Soviet’s was that a series of droughts, heavy rains, and early frosts forced the Soviet’s to buy grains from the West, particularly the United States. Nonetheless, by the 1970s, a ruling system that depended on patronage as a major avenue of advancement was created by the Soviet’s. Ten years later the system did not work as a declining economy led to an increase in mortality rates, a surge in alcoholism, and a deterioration in working conditions. Within the Communist Party there was a group of individuals who understood the real condition of the Soviet Union. Yuri Andropov was a member of this group who understood the condition of the Soviet Union, however with his deteriorating health, party leaders chose Gorbachev as the Party Secretary in 1985. His appointing of Gorbachev, allowed for a new era to begin.

In the beginning of his reign, Gorbachev focused his efforts on the need for Uskorienie or acceleration of the economy. After noticing his first trivial changes had little effect, Gorbachev decided to initiate deeper reforms in the Soviet Union’s economic and political systems.

Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet official, the secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 to 1991, and he was also a Soviet Union president in 1990-1991. His plans for democratizing his country’s political system and to decentralize the economy as well, led to the downfall of communism and the Soviet Union’s breakup in 1991. In 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in part because he had ended the Soviet Union’s postwar domination of eastern Europe.

Mikhail Gorbachev stepped onto to the Russian political scene in 1985 as Leader of the Soviet Union. He was very different from the other leaders who had come before him because of their lust and hunger for power. Gorbachev felt that it was more important to promote peace throughout the world than to get what he and the leaders who came before him desired. This desire in Gorbachev's heart eventually led to the tearing down of the Berlin wall, the end of Communism in several European countries, and eventually to the end of the Cold War in 1991. Gorbachev decided that he wasn’t going to force his ideals upon the European nations, and because of that Communism quickly fell.

The focus of this investigation will be the question of “What made Gorbachev 's leadership and negotiations successful with the US in ending the Cold War compared to past Soviet Leaders?” and will analyze his actions during his leadership of the Soviet Union. This investigation will focus solely on his actions, policies, and negotiations with the U.S., and differences between Gorbachev’s terms as leader compared to pass Soviet leaders. My first source will be a primary source, Gorbachev, Mikhail. Gorbachev Letter to Reagan. Letter to Ronald Reagan. 28 Oct. 1987. MS. N.p., which is a letter written from Gorbachev to Reagan. The second source will be History.com Staff. Perestroika and Glasnost. History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 31 May 2016., which is a secondary source created by History.com, which discuss Perestroika and Glasnost.

Mikhail Gorbachev has gained adequate fame because he was the last and the first founding president of the USSR republic. As a leader, he acted in a new era of history without the need for past theoretical support. As the first president of USSR, Gorbachev transformed the Soviet Union from socialism to another political regime. He transitioned the economy of USSR from a planned centralized economic system towards a free market economy leading to increased competitive trade. In the history of the Soviet Union, no political leader had dealt with such turmoil. The country was headed towards an uncertain future. Studies indicate that Gorbachev was essential in both domestic and global affairs (Gorbachev, 19b).

Under Mikhail Gorbachev the Soviet Union underwent massive social, political and economic reform that drifted away from communist ideology and this ultimately lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and failure of communism in Eastern Europe. This essay will focus on how the Perestroika reform and Glasnost policy programs as well as other external and internal pressures contributed to the failure of communism under Gorbachev. The aim of the Perestroika and Glasnost reforms was to restructure and strengthen the Soviet political and economic system and provide more freedom and democracy within the Soviet Union while strengthening Communism. However, these changes had achieved exactly what they aimed to prevent when they were first elaborated and led to the failure of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. While focusing on the policies this essay will also focus on the major increase in nationalism that occurred in the Soviet Republics as a result of the Glasnost. External pressure from the western world was also a factor and the role that the United States and the Ronald Reagan administration played in the downfall of communism under Gorbachev will be examined. The essay will also discuss how the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the 1991 Coup d’état led to the failure of the policies and failure of communism.

While the Crimean question remained subdued for a long time, in September 2008 it was brought back into the forefront of global politics when the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population in the Crimea and described it as a "real problem" given Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect Russian citizens.