On The Last Day Of 1991, The Official And Unanimous Decision

The Soviet Union was at one time one of the two most powerful countries in the world, and yet the Soviet Union is not longer in exists. How did this come to be? They were on the winning side of World War II, with the United States. They were growing in size, and they were spreading communism to other countries. They were on pace to be as powerful and influential as the United States. While there are many reasons as to why the Soviet Union collapsed, the main reason is the Cold War. There were also two very important people that contributed to the fall Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Cold War is over, but the influence of the Soviet Union is not. The Soviet Union grew out of the Bolshevik Revolution and Civil War in 1917. Eight leaders and 74 years later the Soviet Union fell in 1991. The story of those 74 years leaves much to tell. However, three areas are most necessary to understand: its cultural achievements, its military strength, and its political oppression.

The collapse of the communist Soviet Union ultimately led to the end of the cold war. The dissolution of the USSR in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. Thus highlighting the inferiority of communism and the superiority of western capitalism. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, however, was a result of both domestic and international factors including policies established by both the US and the Soviet leaders, most importantly Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’ reforms combined with the hard-line approach of Ronald Reagan. It has also been argued that the collapse of communism in eastern Europe was inevitable due to its moral bankruptcy, as well as the growing economic pressures which ultimately forced the Soviet Union to

In 1989, the world saw the fall of the United Soviet Socialist Republic (U.S.S.R.), which was also known as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a block of 15 Communist Eastern European states that was ruled by one government with various puppet governments located throughout the states. Its collapse brought about new issues that the world had never had to deal with before. The fall of such a large block of Soviet states created many problems and some of the solutions that were used to solve these problems, as well as many of the tensions that were created during this time, still affect the world today. Some of the ramifications resulting from the Soviet Union’s collapse are still being felt; however, many problems have been solved

Founded in December of 1922 after five years of Civil War, the Soviet Union was a collection of countries united by communism. It lasted 69 years before collapsing from numerous internal issues and outside influence. Some of the numerous causes of its collapse include the introduction of western ideas, stagnation of the economy following the invasion of Afghanistan, loss of the Eastern Satellite states of Poland and East Germany, and reforms that opened up the country to outside influence. The Fall of the Soviet Union has had many effects, including establishing the United States as the sole superpower, the rise of Vladimir Putin, the collapse of the Russian Economy and Putin’s rise to power, the Gulf

Former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the disintegration of a country based on an uncompromising ideological dogma, the unlikely inheritor of Marxist/Leninist communist philosophy. The Soviet Union’s unwieldy economic superstructure left it vulnerable to Ronald Reagan’s aggressive economic/military policy, an approach based on the belief that a military build-up would force the Soviets to spend to keep pace, an effective strategy because it pushed the Soviet economy over the edge into ruin. The subsequent implosion ended communist domination in Eastern Europe and opened the way for democratic elements that radically altered the political landscape in Moscow. When the Soviet Union officially came to an end in 1993, it briefly recalled the end of tsarist rule in 1917, with the potential for the kind of chaos and violence that turned the Russian Revolution into a bloodbath. President Boris Yeltsin used the military to disband parliament but his call for new elections moved the country toward a more open, democratic form of government. Lacking any real background in representative government, Russia ultimately proved incapable of fulfilling the promise of democratic government and descended into a form of anarchy riddled by increasingly strong criminal elements. In recent years, the rise of Boris Putin, a new strongman in Moscow, helped restore a sense of order and allowed the resurgence of communist elements. The government that now holds power, and which

Moscow, U.S.S.R. 19 September, 2020. Instead of in our world when it collapsed in 1989, the Soviet Union managed to pull through the tough time, but now it couldn’t. Rioters crowded the streets, attempting to penetrate the defenses of the buildings holding state officials. Only the KGB remained loyal to its government, while the U.S.S.R.’s enemies watched smugly, and the Warsaw Pact Nations defected to NATO. A civil war in Cuba ended communism there, and Anti-Communist factions in all nations were at strong points.

The Zbigniew Brzezinski defined a Soviet victory as entailing “the submissive neutralization of both Western Europe (through the dismantling of NATO) and Japan, and the withdrawal of U.S. political military presence across the oceans. Moreover, victory was also defined as attaining the worldwide economic supremacy of communism over capitalism” . Part of this view is corroborated in the infamous Long Telegram by American diplomat George F. Kennan, which, among other things, claimed that the USSR wanted to further socialism at the cost of Western capitalism. . From both sources, one can assume the terms of victory for the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and, consequently, these can be compared with the actual events of the Cold War to determine how large a defeat the Soviet Union suffered. It is indeed true that the Western capitalism emerged victorious in the end. Western Europe wasn’t “neutralised”; in fact, it was Eastern Europe that submitted to Western politics as the USSR collapsed. Similarly, by the end of the Cold War it was the USSR’s political presence - rather than the US’ - that had collapsed, leaving the US seemingly unopposed as the leading global superpower. In each of these cases, it appears that the Soviet Union suffered a total defeat far removed from any conditions of victory. However, while this paper will begin by examining these areas of defeat, it will then go on to argue that the defeat was not necessarily total. Finally, it will argue that survival and

The Soviet Union did a few things that are notable of mentioning as positive aspects of the Cold War and of the USSR’s mindset. One example of something positive yielded from

In December of 1991, the Soviet Union separated into fifteen distinctive countries. Its collapse was enthusiastically greeted by the west as a triumph for freedom. This is a victory of democracy over totalitarianism. The US celebrated as its dreadful enemy defeated, thereafter ending the Cold War, which had fought between two superpowers, America and Soviet Union, since the end of World War II. Cory Booker says, “If you look at great human civilizations, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, you will see that most do not fail simply due to external threats but because of internal weakness, corruption, or a failure to manifest the values and ideals they espouse”. In reality, the disintegration of the Soviet Union

Now, however, all former fifteen USSR republics are enduring the aftermath of a huge climax in the national tensions. Consequently, the erosion of Soviet patriotism became aggravated with the weakening policies on travel and curiosity of what is behind the iron curtain. Image of an intellectually superior communist citizen started to fade. Gorbachev’s mistake was in trusting mass Soviet propaganda and starting the process of democratic liberation and beginning of new socialistic movement before resolving national tensions (Gaidar, 2010; Zubok, 2009). Thought he was a man of “great intelligence, but weak spirit”, and was faced with tensions and lies in his own office, but despite that was strong enough to face the Cold War with more courage

Throughout years of self proclaimed domination spanning from the time after the second world war, The Soviet Union entered the final stage of its’ existence after the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1985. The election of the new Soviet leader would be the catalyst for change not only in the crumbling Soviet Union, but also in the rest of rebellious Eastern Europe. It was the beginning of a new era and there was no more glorious revolution that occurred under Lenin or harsh dictatorship that was harbored by Stalin. Mikhail Gorbachev

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the crown jewel of the communist movement from 1922 to 1991. The USSR was known for its strength and unwavering beliefs, but it worked tirelessly to keep one very significant issue tightly under wraps. During the development of the Soviet nuclear program, the USSR disregarded even the most basic of health and safety standards when testing and developing nuclear weapons, desperate to keep up in the arms race with the United States. This left the region plagued with radioactivity and sickness, obliterated ecosystems, and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1991 marked the fall of communism. Built with the idea of utopic society in mind, communism was supposed to be the end of inequality and despair for the Soviet’s. In theory, communism promises to provide more for the people and create a more prosperous economy than the capitalistic economies that exist in the US. Although seemingly a superior concept the Soviet’s soon discovered that a communistic economy has its faults. With a lack of incentives for businesses, and inefficient use of resources the Soviet’s soon realized they had a lower standard of living compared to capitalist economies, which led to the adoption of the market based economy you see in Russia today.

Russia’s Return as a Superpower. There are concerns that Russia may once again “reassert itself militarily” (Wood 7). After the original fall of communism in 1991, Russia seemed to be on a path to democracy. Currently the notion of a democratic Russia seems to be fading as Russia “has been centralizing more and more power in the Kremlin” (Putin 2). Regional governors, who were once elected by the people, are now being appointed by Moscow.