What Are The Reasons For The Fall Of Communism

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

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 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

Communism is a system of social organisation which formerly consumed almost a third of countries in the entire world, having originated in Russia. The first official communist state was founded during the Russian revolutions in 1917, due to the inaugural communist political party ‘Bolsheviks’ gaining primal power. Afterwards, the influence of communism spread to other countries with the likes of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany to name a few. These countries that were governed on communist principles were known as the ‘Eastern Bloc’. Even countries in Asia were persuaded into the theoretically human equality system such as China, Laos and Vietnam. Communism was gathering strength to strength every year in the mid 20th century, but eventually its impact was wiped off in the late 20th century when the Berlin War was knocked down in 1989, ending the barrier between the Eastern and Western blocs. Communism arguably was the most influential social experiment in history, but also the most flawed and its failure to change the world permanently will always remain significant in history.

Document B informs about that economical and social improvement of the Soviet union, which allows people to look at positive affects of the Soviet Union. In the literacy rate category of document B, Soviet Union had 25% literacy rate in 1915 and 99% literacy rate in 1980. This shows an enormous improvement in education. This also serves as an example that the formation of Soviet Union did not result in a complete negative outcome. Document B also states that in 1980 Soviet Union was the first or second in the world in the production of steel, cotton, wheat, sugar, aluminium, gold and oil. This shows a huge economical advancement both locally and internationally. The area category of the document also states that Soviet Union had 8649000 mi.² of land which portrays how big it actually was. Using that information, Soviet Union’s influence can be found. Therefore it is very important to include this information in textbook because it shows the growth of countries during the Soviets

On the other hand we had the USSR and their approach towards rebuilding Eastern Europe. “Modernization of production in the Soviet bloc opened new technical and bureaucratic careers, but economic development in satellite states remained slow because the USSR bought goods from these satellite states at bargain prices and sold to them exorbitant ones. Despite this inequity, peoples livelihoods

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

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

Victims of a new wave of political beliefs, namely collectivization were enforced by Stalin and his followers in the name of Communism.

The concoction of communist regime caused paranoia within the people which lead to riots. The history of the Soviet Union greatly contributed to this unjustified fear. During the nineteenth century, Karl Marx, a revolutionary socialist, wrote the “Communist Manifesto” which presented the idea of Communism. In this political ideal, property is publicly owned and workers are paid to extent of their abilities and needs. Nowhere does the theory state dictatorship or any type of totalitarian government. This revolutionary speculation remains as Russia’s greatest achievements in history and unforgotten. However when Vladimir Lenin took control of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1917,

The doctrine made it possible for the country to intervene in another socialist state (any Eastern Bloc nation), internal affairs when the state social system and the states' common interests were threatened. In early 1968 began the Czechoslovak Communist Party under the leadership of Alexander Dubček to introduce a series of reforms, including the abolition of censorship (Fordham.edu, 2014). In response to these efforts, the Soviet Union launched a policy to combat "anti-socialist forces" (Wilde, 2014). The doctrine was first used in 1968 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to end the “Prague Spring “(Fordham, 2014). The outcome of the invasion by the Soviet Union made Czechoslovakia go back to communist control, “even if it meant a third world war” (BBC, 2014). Mikhail Gorbachev's government denounced the Brezhnev doctrine in the late of Soviet Union’s life.

Another repercussion of the Soviet Union’s collapse was the failure of the economies of almost every new post-Soviet country. Most of the economies of the new Republics were left in shambles after the collapse. In Russia, people were not ready for the new economic freedom that resulted from the fall of Communism. Their unpreparedness led to inflation. “Inflation caused prices to go up three hundred percent in the first month, and 2,591 percent by the end of 1992.”( Russian Economy in the Aftermath of the Collapse of the Soviet Union) Just three years after the Soviet Union’s fall, Russia’s inflation rate had skyrocketed to 2591 percent, evidencing that Russians were not prepared for such a rapid evolution, going from a communist economy into a capitalist economy. All post-Soviet countries had the same economic fate as Russia, plunging into worse economic conditions than the United States suffered during its Great Depression. For example, in 1992, the Ukraine had almost a fifteen percent drop in its gross domestic production and Latvia suffered a 33 percent drop. (GDP growth) Many of these countries’ economies are still suffering as a result of the rapid evolution

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.

Communism was one of the political theories founded by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in the end of the 19th century . Both of these philosophers had the same point of view concerning the economic and political principles. Also, Communism brought up many changes to International Relations , and the body of the essay will describe the causes and results of Communism in Eastern and central Europe.