The Soviet Union Responsible For The Consolidation Of Communism

At the beginning of the Atomic Age, the Soviet Union was perhaps one of the greatest superpowers in the world. By 1991, it had completely collapsed, splitting into 15 independent states, each with their own unique national and cultural identities. There were a multitude of factors that led to the Soviet Union’s downfall. Economic stagnation, anti-communist sentiment, and nationalist movements finally brought the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union.

After World War II Stalin failed to give the European countries the right to choose their own government and their own way of life and instead had the U.S.S.R.’s communism forced upon them. Making these countries have communist governments whether the people wanted it or not, and restricting movement in or out of the “communist block” made this mass of people little more than slaves, creating an even bigger Soviet empire than that of before the

Firstly, background to the rise of the Soviet Union is examined. Keenan states that the Communists rose to power on ideas which denounced capitalism and

Before World War II, Soviet troops occupied most of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised to hold “free elections” in these Eastern European nations. Later he broke that promise. By 1948, Communists controlled the governments of every Eastern country except Yugoslavia. In each country the Soviets placed dictators.

The containment of the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the World War II was a main American policy (261). The Western European and North America allies saw the Soviet domination in the regions as a threat to their democracy. European countries struggled for the need for economic reconstruction, and during containment it became useful in the effort to aid recovery (260). Postwar Germany was a special problem (261) . There had been a division into U.S, Soviet Union, British, and French zones of occupation, with the former German capital of Berlin (itself divided into four zones), near the center of the Soviet zone (261). When consolidated federal state was created from their zones by the western powers, Stalin responded by Blockade of Berlin

In 1989, history in the West abruptly shifted course. The communist regimes in Eastern Europe fell, severing these nations’ ties to the Soviet Union and sparking unprecedented political and economic reforms. Two years later, the Soviet Union itself disintegrated. The Cold War ended along with it, a sharply defined historical era stretching back to 1914. The end of the Cold War renewed the commitment to democracy and capitalism in the West, accelerated the existing movement toward unification in Europe, and left the United States standing as the sole military superpower in the world. But the collapse of communism did not end all the anxieties present during the Cold War era. The transition in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union proved

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.

If these countries were to all fall into the system of capitalism and under the influence of America, then the Soviets would lose their ability to have a centrally planned economy with other blocs, it would also mean that America and it’s ideals would spread across Europe leaving little to no chance for Stalin and the Soviet Union to assert themselves as a true superpower with allies to back them up. But how would these countries accomplish their goals of advancing their ideals, capitalism and communism, into Europe? For the United States, this would be attained through the implementation of the Marshall Plan in April of 1948. (Lapsansky-Werner, 2011, 402).

After World War II, the Soviet Union wanted to create more communist nations, especially along their western border, to prevent themselves from being vulnerable to attack from the West again as they had been from Nazi Germany. Countries like the United States and Great Britain did not want the Soviet Union to spread communism but some Eastern European countries that had been victims of the Nazi regime saw communism as a good way to prevent another fascist regime from rising. Combined with the fact that most Eastern European had a history of unstable government systems and were in poor economic and political states, communism had a very large appeal to most Eastern Europeans. With the help of Soviet military intervention, communism quickly

Another component of the Stalinist Revolution was the idea of Socialism in One Country. After the fall of all other socialist regimes in Europe, Stalin came to the conclusion that the Soviet Union must strengthen itself internally and must push towards communism alone until other countries were ready for the Socialist Revolution. This idea that Stalin supported so vehemently was a large contributor to Stalin’s ability to further exercise his control over the nation and influence the economic policy of the Soviet Union, with such measures as the Five Year Plans and the removal of the New Economic Policy .

Communism is described as “ a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. “ In some countries this system worked, but what the Soviet Union failed to do was to instill the ideology of Communism into the heart and minds of its population, an anonymous Soviet citizen said, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work,” Showing the lack of motivation amongst the citizens, and lack of enthusiasm in the system. Not only was there no productivity, but also in the middle of the 1980’s approximately seventy percent of industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military, causing severe shortages of the industrial goods for the rest of the economy, and failing to meet the needs of the State resulting in acute poverty. In the end the Soviet people became more cynical about their government and only felt distrust towards them, this and the fact that the Soviet Union failed to produce a stable economy led to economic decline, eventually demanding the necessity to

The Soviet Union’s Sovietization of Eastern Europe was Joseph Stalin’s response to the betrayal of Great Britain in the “Percentages” Agreement and the failure of the Grand Alliance. Outside of those nations however, the Soviet Union began to promote self-sustaining economic freedom in the form of the Soviet economy. This heavily conflicted and disrupted with the “Trilateral” Empire’s attempts at constructing an economically controlled empire.

The collapse of both the Soviet Union and socialism was a ceremony, yet to others, it was a failure. To the everyday people who wanted rights to express, to live their life independent, and to vote, this was a great accomplishment. To the individuals who were with the power, who did not oppose to such policies, they remained oppressed by so a fall, especially communist bureaucrats. This large fall was the origin of the ending of the Cold War. That was an ending to multiple catastrophic incidents that got a point during, before, and later the Cold War. There are many cases to why the Soviet Union and socialism in East Europe fell. The three top reasons were, the first being the Soviet's economic decline from military spending, another being Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost methods, and the three being some neighboring nations of the Soviet Union were quickly facing socialism and taking fighting against their regime. All these matters slowly and eventually led to the crumbling of the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe.

Stalin started his aggressive policy in the domestic affairs of nearby states in order to consolidate influence over them. This was the start of his spread to socialism into eastern Europe,

In the Soviet Union, Stalin established a system of government with effective state control by hiring secret police. This enabled Stalin to establish communist dictatorships in other countries. Stalin started the cold war in 1945 because the Soviet Union wanted to establish other communist countries. (If you want to know more about the cold war go to the following link.) http://ac.acusdedu/history/20th/coldwar.html The United States issued NATO, a mutual defense pact, to help the smaller countries from becoming victims of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Stalin established a communist government in the smaller countries of Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in the late 1940's. The Soviet Union, after fighting for parts of Finland throughout the war, gained the Finnish territory after the war. Finland also had to pay reparations to the Soviet Union for siding with German throughout the war.