Russia's Economic Woes Essay

Russia’s economy is very complex and also very terrible at the same time. Many other economy’s are also like this but Russia’s is a very interesting thing to learn about. Russia’s economy has many things wrong with it that in the long run could probably affected it in a negative way. But it also has many positive things about it.The negatives and the positives are, in my opinion, are equal in Russia economy.

Socialism offered an ‘ideal’ and classless society in which the state controlled everything, yet the people utilized the practice of controlling politics. He formed a highly centralized government, which was furthered to totalitarian goals by his successor, Joseph Stalin. Stalin focused on military and industrial gains which, by his death in 1953, had “crippled the Soviet state” because his successors could not make any reforms without undermining the CPSU—the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (367). A heavy reliance on secret police and a militarized economy was already in place when Mikhail Gorbachev came on the scene. He was elected General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985 when the USSR was in middle of continually diminishing economic productivity; it became stagnant. With his powers as secretary, he saw room for reform to change the USSR drastically. He planned to do this through instituting glastnost, or openness, in society, which he believed would ameliorate levels of corruption. Corruption was a detriment to democratization, which he believed would heal the economy. He brought back the first contested elections in many years. With democratic procedures in place, Gorbachev lost his power to Yeltsin. Notwithstanding the amended constitution, Yeltsin took liberty to control parliament to “cope with the country’s economic problems” (369). Yeltsin’s successor was chosen as Vladimir Putin who has severely radicalized the

No government lasts forever. The Soviet Union was a communist country and one of the two world superpowers during the Cold War. Joseph Stalin was one famous leader during this time period. The Soviet Union’s government officially ended on December 25, 1991, when the Soviet flag was lowered for the last time in Kremlin and replaced by the Russian flag. The collapse of the Soviet Union was due to the political change caused by conflicts with the government’s political power and its authority on the nation’s social, political, and economical affairs.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the winter of 1991 sparked various reactions among Soviet citizens, government officials, Western onlookers and the rest of the world. The Soviet Union was once one of the most powerful military empires in the world suddenly saw itself crumble to the ground. Mikhail Gorbachev, the dynamic leader at the helm of the Communist Party of the United Soviet Socialists Republic, (USSR), at the time, was a key contributor to its demise. Gorbachev, born into a poor family in an agricultural community, emerged through the rankings of Soviet leadership, finding himself at the top of the Communist Party. He established a new era and a new beginning of reform. Although former Soviet leaders left problems with the government that set the stage for a collapse, Mikhail Gorbachev was responsible for the final dissolution of the USSR, due to his reforms in foreign policy, domestic policy, society and the economy of Russia.

Russia had many complications before Mikhail Gorbachev came into power for the Soviet Union. During 1939 through 1945, Russian took part in World War II heavily and were led by Dictator Joseph Stalin. Following the war, Russia was in a nuclear arms race with America, riding on everyone’s fear of there being a World War III and a nuclear war. Post World War II Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union had very poor living conditions due to the mass of poverty. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, which was also known as the October Crisis. This was when American President John F. Kennedy was informed that there were Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba where he then made a deal with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev where America would not invade Cuba as long as the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles. Following this was the Brezhnev Era, Soviet Union circa 1964 through 1982, in the Soviet Union.

In June of 1991, Yeltsin won the presidential election in Russia. He became the first Russian leader to stand in a legitimate election. Yeltsin inspired mass demonstrations against the 1991 attempt to overthrow Gorbachev’s, the president before him, government (“The Fall of the Soviet Union”). This brought him popularity. Yeltsin decided to capitalize on his popularity by going forward with radical reform policies. After doing things like banning the CPSU, confiscating CPSU’s assets, and distributing the state’s assets to the populace. So, it did not take Yeltsin much time at all to start to dismantle the Soviet Union (“The Fall of the Soviet Union”).

After World War II, while the Soviet Union celebrated victory over the fascist regime in the west, their country was in shambles. Roads were crumbled, buildings were leveled, homes destroyed, the entire western front of Russia was nothing but the remnants of the whirlwinds of harsh battles. Millions of Soviets were killed in battle, leaving broken families for themselves. Millions of citizens also suffered during the war. Widespread famine and lack of supplies brought many to their unfortunate deaths as a result of supplying the war effort. The economy was destroyed, and industries were also left to rot. Agriculture dropped off marginally, as well as manufacturing. Luckily, they were able to obtain aid from foreign nations to assist in rebuilding

One very general problem was the lack of incentives for productivity. There were more immediate causes for the collapse. In the middle 1980s about seventy percent of the industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military. There were severe shortages of industrial goods for the rest of the economy. To maintain parity with the U.S developments would have required an even larger share of industrial output going to the military. The planners and decision makers had to face the fact that it was economically impossible for the Soviet Union to increase the share of its output going to the

The socioeconomic conditions that provided the catalyst for the French Revolution and the conditions that existed in19th century imperial Russia, are strikingly similar. Both societies for better or worse functioned under the authority of an absolute monarchy with an inherent structural inequality between the ruling class, and a majority disenfranchised agrarian peasantry. Russia and France differed significantly in economically due to the fact that both revolutions were separated by more than a century of industrial development. However and interestingly both events have as a foundational basis the oppression and reaction of a lower class to spark revolutionary upheaval.

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 collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 marked the beginning of Russia’s transition from a communist system to a market-based economy and democratic political system. Russia, despite being a nation rich with natural resources such as oil, fell into a state of economic instability and continued to weaken throughout the 1990s. The situation escalated until the point of financial collapse on August 17, 1998, resulting in a 90-day suspension on payment to foreign creditors, a default on domestic debt, the devaluation of the ruble and as a consequence, an increase in all debts denominated in foreign currencies. The primary causes of Post-Communist Russia’s economic crisis of the 1990s can be identified as the corporate elite’s influence on parliamentary economic agenda, foreign influence and pressure, the government’s ineffective integration into the global market and its presentation to the international community, as well as the government’s inadequate macroeconomic preparation and management. These causes significantly weakened the power of the state and the government’s ability to effectively instigate economic reform; leading to a large drop in investor confidence and consequently, a devaluation of the ruble, which resulted in the August 1998 economic crisis.

When the USSR collapsed the Cold War was ended, along with the spread of communism. In the year 1991, the USSR lost control of several Baltic States. Harsh living conditions and oppressive policies stirred rebellion in the people. Russian President Gorbachev tried in vain to restore power by first withholding, “vital supplies like oil and raw materials from the Baltic States, or even used force…where hundreds of people were killed” (Paxton 651). When deprivation and violence failed, Gorbachev persuaded member republics of the USSR to sign a “new union treaty establishing a looser federation of ‘sovereign states’” (Paxton 651). Although, he had meant to strengthen communism, Gorbachev’s bloody tactics lost support of progressives, as well as, conservatives. The final signature of the union treaty was blocked by a coup led by Boris Yeltsin, later he would become president of the Russian Federation. Secession movements brought civil war to Russia. On September sixth 1991, the Baltic States declared full independence with heartland regions similarly minded. Now considered obsolete, the USSR was replaced with a new Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev resigned and Yeltsin assumed control. The Soviet Union no longer existed.

On the last day of 1991, the official and unanimous decision of the UN declared the USSR dissolved, five days prior to the UN’s decision the USSR voted and dissolved itself. The USSR was a superpower for almost 75 years and its fate had many signs before its actual dissolution in 1991. The fall of the Soviet Union was not the first time a major power had fallen in Russia. Many documentaries and in-depth looks have been made upon the subjects from both views on the matter. However, the view that this discussion will be focusing on is the Discovery Channel’s and other sources; to discuss the fall of one of the world’s greatest superpowers.

Yet when the Soviet Union’s end finally came, it was not with a bang but

The period 1995 to mid-1997 was boom time for Russia’s financial markets. The value of the Russian bonds and stocks soared, with the participation of foreigners in these asset markets increasing rapidly. International investors’ optimism about the country’s future was lifted by stabilization policy that followed the advice of Western institutions.