The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Essay

In the period after World War II, from the late 1940’s up until the 1990’s, the United States and their allies were engaged in a “cold” war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Except for minor proxy wars between countries supported by the respective sides, no major wars were fought between the U.S. and the USSR. Nonetheless, tensions were extremely high for many years and the two superpowers constantly went back and forth trying to best the other. Likely the most well-known of these competitions was the Space Race. Battling for cosmic supremacy from the late 1950’s to 1969, the two countries traded many victories over the years and pushed each other to their technological apexes.

My cherished friend, I regret to inform you that our beloved Soviet society has ceased to exist. Our solid red flag with its magnificent gold emblem of the hammer and sickle flew above the Kremlin for the very last time on Christmas day, 1991. Prior to this gloomy day, eleven of the fifteenth Soviet republics that once made up the strong and prosperous Soviet Union, met in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, to announce that they would no longer partake in the Soviet Union, and had created a Commonwealth of independent states. Our Baltic brothers: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia were the first to break apart, while Georgia remained as the last republic in the Soviet Union. I have served the Soviet Union as Minister of Foreign Affairs

Blaming Gorbachev for the Collapse of the Soviet Union On December 5 1991 the Soviet Union was declared officially non-existent, radically changing the world’s economic and political environment. On the 10 February 1991 Heydar Aliyev spoke in Parliament warning of his anticipation that the Soviet Union was to collapse, “The Culprit to be blamed is Gorbachev”. There is no doubt Gorbachev played a prominent role in the fall of communism in the USSR and the collapse of the USSR itself, as well as acquiring the responsibility for ending the Cold War, a major post-war tension. What I will endeavour to conclude in this essay is the extent to which Gorbachev was responsible for the USSR’s downfall

The era that preceded the formation of the Soviet Union was earmarked with social unrest, famine, and failed governments. After many struggles, many smaller soviet republics joined to form a large conglomerate nation, known as the Soviet Union in 1922. Vladimir Lenin, leader at the time, replaced the failing capitalist government with a communist government. . At the end of WWII, most of Eastern and Central Europe’s countries were being occupied by the soviet army. They came to be controlled by the Soviet government and pulled back behind an “iron Curtain”. Winston Churchill’s famed Iron curtain remark refers to the countries that fell under the spell of the Soviet Union and shut out the western world ways of capitalism. The countries of

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 first feature “Basic feature of Post-War Soviet outlook” in which Kennan believed that the Soviet Union has international intentions he describes as “capitalist encirclement”. Kennan mentions that socialist centers will draw countries that are in favor of socialism and capitalist centers will draw countries that are in favor of capitalism. Kennan says “Battle between these two centers for command of world economy will decide fate of capitalism and of communism in entire world" (Kennan 1946). He believes the USSR is using any opportunity to gain strength and did not want to co-exist with a capitalist world. Capitalism and Communism are opposed to one another to the Soviet Union.

At the commencement of the Soviet Union, there was a grave of food shortages; to improve the agricultural productions; in 1921 Lenin instated the New Economic Plan (NEP). The New Economic Plan gave the opportunity for the farmers or peasants to produce their crops for profit; in the years that followed, some of these farmers were prosperous after the implementation of the NEP. Unfortunately, Stalin abandoned the NEP and replaced it with the Five Year Plan, he also justified the collectivization of Agriculture and lastly Stalin’s statism had an impact on Russian History.

The Cold War’s outcome defined the United States of America as the world’s leading power after a period of proxy wars against the USSR. The two nations employed opposing ideologies with different beliefs and policies, yet sharing the same aspirations for global influence. What ultimately toppled the Soviet Union was the onset of globalization as its isolationist regime made it laborious for the nation to evolve. As Kofi Annan said it during the 53rd DPI/NGO conference, “arguing against globalization is like arguing against the law of gravity”. It can be inferred that the essence of human nature is based on freedom and therefore people naturally seek liberty (Flew, 1991). Socialist policies were depriving Soviet citizens of (what the west would consider) their basic needs such as freedom of speech or freedom to roam. The US accentuated the need for a freer world by introducing the Marshall Plan and the Truman doctrine - compelling the world to follow suit. Indeed, the current global structure shows that most nations, including former socialist countries, have adopted US-style free market policies and democratic elections. In addition, treaties such as NATO were signed which united multiple countries yet weakened the Soviet Union, affecting its economy indirectly, eventually leading to its dissolution.

Communist rule was confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II.

Many political beliefs exist. Everyone has the right to chose what to believe in, what ideas to have, what to seek and how to achieve his goals. Political science is not very defined and strict. Specific rules saying that if one believes in a certain idea he should join a certain party do not exist. Certain things match certain group of people and other things this group of people would not accept. The same principle can be applied for countries. Communism appears to be successful for China, but it failed for Eastern European countries. It is very important the proper way of government to be found and used by the government of a country. The failure of the government can lead to failure in

Communism in the USSR was doomed from the onset. Communism was condemned due to lack of support from other nations, condemned due to corruption within its leadership, condemned due to the moral weakness of humanity, making what is perfect on paper, ineffective in the real world. The end of this system was very violent. It left one of the two most powerful nations in the world fearful of what was to come. <br><br>Communism can either be called a concept or system of society. In a society that follows the communist beliefs groups own the major resources and means of production, rather than a certain individual. In theory, Communism is to provide equal work, and benefits to all in a specific society. Communism is derived from many ancient

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in major shift in United States foreign policy. For years, the United States supported tyrannical dictators in return for stable anti-communist government receptive to United States interests. The Cold War resulted in a new world order with the United States as the lone global hegemonic power. In Eastern Europe in particular, the end of the Cold War ushered in an era of economic growth and a large increase in the number of liberal democracies. Although the world saw a large increase in liberal democracies, a new regime type referred to as competitive authoritarianism began to emerge. According to Levitsky and Way, “In competitive authoritarian regimes, formal

The command system, which is also described as Marxism, socialism, or communism, is both a political and economic philosophy. In a communist economy, the government owns most of the firms, subsequently controlling production and allocation of resources. One of the most well-known and well-documented cases of a communist government took place in the Soviet Union, beginning in 1917 and eventually falling in 1992. Idealistically, communism eliminates social classism and provides equal work for all in a particular society. The government appoints a central planning board to “determine production goals for each enterprise and to specify the amount of resources to be allocated to each enterprise so that it can reach its production goals.”

In December 30th, 1922 was born the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The intention behind the founding of this association was to achieve an egalitarian, socialist state and where humble workers, a majority community, were able to gain control over the so-called "capitalists" who sought to keep them at their mercy.