Essay on The Break up of Union of Soviet Socialist Republic

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].

The democratization, economic liberalization, and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union is commonly attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms during the period of 1985-1991. This purpose of these reforms is still a trenchant question as the countries of the old Soviet Union, particular Russia, are being pressured to further liberalize their economies.

The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government

The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 left many Eastern European countries in disarray. One such country was Czechoslovakia. It separated from the Soviet Union December 26, 1991. A few years after Czechoslovakia broke away from the Soviet Union it broke apart, in January 1, 1993. The two countries are now The Czech Republic and Slovakia. When the two countries split, it was done peacefully, without a fight or war. The Soviet Union broke up because Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from being the president of the Soviet Union. This started many conflicts and confusion. The Soviet Union could no longer keep the union together.

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.

Instead of increasing economic growth, Mikhail Gorbachev’s economic reform policies created the adverse effect, paving the road to economic crisis and series of events that would end with the Soviet Union dissolving. After attaining power in 1985, Gorbachev instituted, “perestroika, or “restructuring,” efforts to force the pace of growth combined with minor steps to redesign the administrative system” (Treisman, p. 16). The goal was to

Since he first came into power, Mikhail Gorbachev had set into motion the most aggressive economic agenda since the Khrushchev era; 1. A modernization of the country’s stock and equipment, and a revitalization of management and planning to rid the Soviet bureaucracy of incompetence and put more operational control of enterprises in the hands of managers on the scene. All of Gorbachev’s agendas were aimed to raise productivity and efficiency throughout the economy by matching more and better equipment with a motivated work force. However, Gorbachev came to realize that his early economic and disciplinary measures offered no basic solution. In Lenn’s Tomb, David Remnick delivers a captivating story of different episodes pertaining to Gorbachev’s

His reforms were argued that they were not in the best interest for the Soviet Union. Gorbachev had barely skimmed the service of the ongoing issues with the economy. His intention was to improve the economic model of the USSR and not to try to turn it into a liberal government. His goals were to dismantle the Soviet Union appalling government and help the collapsing economy. It was not in his plan to destroy Russia. The citizens did not know how to respond to freedom. The country has been under Stalin’s totalitarian state for so long that they don’t know how else to act. People were scared because all they have ever known was to be watched and told what to do. Now the citizens have freedom to speak freely on what they think about the government and they don’t know how to do this. The reform had become more complicated than he anticipated as Gorbachev addressed in his speech. He was able to accomplish the elimination of a totalitarian system and pushed the Russian government into a better country. It did not happen overnight and it was hard work but the ultimate goal was to make peace with the surrounding nations, free the people, help the economy get back on their feet. Gorbachev’s reforms were a positive push in the right direction for the Russian government and people. It was his push and openness to change the way USSR felt about the West and the West to feel better about the USSR. It was his powerful leadership

A continuous trend of decline in the economy in the 1980’s threatened an even worse economic performance in the future, shown by example of the continued decline in capital and labour productivity (Bunce, 223). Consequentially, Mikhail Gorbachev’s ‘new thinking’ focus was on reforming Soviet agriculture and the domestic economy (Suri, 78). Gorbachev instituted two programs: ‘perestroika’ (‘restructuring’ of economic management) and ‘glasnost’ (‘openness’) early in his time as leader, which aimed to put the Soviet Union on par with the economies of the capitalist countries such as Germany and the United States by decentralizing economic controls, and to allow open discussions relating to social and political issues (Encyclopædia Britannica). However, ‘perestroika’ “generally lacked precise goals and any coherent framework of application” (Shearman, 129). Through the ‘glasnost’ program, the power of the Communist Party was reduced paving the way for an elected form of government. Gorbachev began to democratize the Soviet economy, initiated competition and profit incentives as well as linking wages to productivity (van der Veen, 122). At the time of Gorbachev’s ‘new thinking’ approach, many Western observers were divided on whether Gorbachev was instituting genuine change, or

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, came into power in 1985. The economy that he acquired made further damage just about impossible. Because of this problematic economy and the growing political fever, he introduced two new reforms. One of these reforms was glasnost, or political openness, which made such effects as banishing ever present secret police. The second reform was perestroika, or economic reconstruction, which permitted individuals and cooperatives to own businesses and other allowances such as this. However, these reforms didn’t make the Soviet Union stronger, because the old system was quick to

In the late 1980’s, the Soviet Union had a struggling economy. Gorbachev did attempt reforms as he felt the government losing legitimacy with the people and even the party as people lost confidence in the communism. Two reforms are glasnost (the openness of public debate) and perestroika (institution reforms). However, they went snowballed, moving faster and expanding more than planned as people used these reforms to weaken communist control.

Gorbachev's goal was to revive the Russian economy and elevate the country's standard of living. Gorbachev reduced the size and value of the centralized economic ministries, and by 1990, the Marxist principles abandoned. Gorbachev advocate private ownership of property and liberalization of the economy toward free market mechanisms, and despite their, determination the Soviet economy remained stagnated, and Gorbachev's policies failed.

During the later years of the Cold War and after 1991 especially this narrative of failure began to change. Textbooks like David Saunders’ published in 1992 Russia in the Age of Reaction and Reform 1801-1881 presented students with a much more complex narrative of the reforms. He postulated that the reforms were not an isolated incident, but rather a part of the greater narrative of government reform. The Great Reforms in Saunders’ book are less noticeable as a delineation in Russian history. Saunders does not use the term “Great Reforms” until the very end of his discussion to emphasize this point. Rather reforms were orchestrated by many different parts of society that had been influencing the tsar for almost a century. These reforms were

Gorbachev reforms were attempts to open the country, not to end communism. However, the soft power of communist promises had failed, coupled with the brutality of the state, and economic decline meant the loss of faith in communism. In attempting to reform, the state lost control of the reforming elite, who were working very hard to eliminate communism (Truman). The soft power had failed as it lacked the convention to convince the middle class, even with the reforms, that their lives were going to be better, as communism promised. Importantly, the government had many failed promised and the people lacked faith in communism to continue living in the Soviet Union. For the middle class, dictatorship seems strong, but a dictatorship's heavy-handedness is brittle and will crack under sufficient stress such as political and economic revolution from the bottom up. (the reason why the cold war ended). The long-term decay of the Soviet institutions had left the country in internal decay, that ultimately could not survive the revolution from the bottom

Second, among the largest causes of the eventual collapse was Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost means openness and this policy allowed