Why Did The Fall Of The Soviet Union Essay

During the 1900’s the Russian Government made it extremely hard for the Bolsheviks to progress which made them revolt against the government making this a prime matter for the start of the Revolution. The Czarist government was ostracized by the common people of Russia so Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown by the Provisional Government, whom later on were overthrown by Lenin and shortly after the Bolsheviks took control over Russia. Russia was hard to develop because of the major leaders who had control; Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privileged and class-divisions were to be eliminated, a new era of socialism

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.

Soviet Union also called the USSR, emerged from World War I as one of the most powerful nations in the world. For 3 decades Joseph Stalin was in control and changed Soviet Union as a world superpower. After the 1920s they were becoming one of the most feared nations. There were many marks the Soviet Union did during the 20th century, but the textbooks should emphasize on economy/geography, militarism, and Joseph Stalin.

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

Similar to other dictatorships, one of the momentous changes that happened under Stalin was the cultural change that was present in society. Importantly the peasantry ceased to be the national social unit as urbanisation took its effect. Urbanisation occurred due to the use of collective farming in agriculture sector and due to the rapid industrialisation of the cities. As the demand for workers increased many moved to the industrial heartland of the Soviet Union. Under Stalinism both industrial and agricultural industries began to be looked at as sing societal units. Urbanisation changed the way people lived their lives thus adding to the controls that Soviet policy was already introducing.

Under the pressures of the Soviet regime's plans for economic development, the Russian people were worn down. Subsequently, the willingness of these people to do further work for the Soviet cause was wavering. The transfer of power within the Communist Party also provided a source of instability within the USSR. Infighting over potential leadership changes provided a very real force of upheaval within Russia. These weaknesses showed that the USSR may bring about its own downfall.

Collectivisation had a big impact on Russia for both positive and negative reasons; it was a failure in the aspect that it caused ‘chaos in agriculture’ and due to the problems caused, millions died due to famine and poverty in the short term. ‘Grain harvests dropped dramatically’ during the early 1930s and took until the late 1930s for yield to rise again. However, in the long run, a food surplus was secured and so could be used to feed and pay for the industrial workforce needed for the 5-year plan. It was also incredibly significant in history as it showed how much control Stalin had over Soviet Russia and the fear that the peasants lived in; for example if they were caught stealing even just a few pieces of grain they could be executed or imprisoned for up to 10 years. The lasting impression that is received from the wide tolerance of this policy was how small and insignificant the few rebellions were that were organised. This further demonstrates the power and influence held over the peasants during this period of time.

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.

Before the nation of Russia became the international powerhouse that we knew as the USSR, it was first the small backwater country, whose economy ran on the use of serfs, Czar 's ruled every aspect, and the chance of growth was limited; however, once the year 1917 came along, the entire aspect of what was to be the Russia nation changed into a very strange and new one, called the United of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Soviet Union was, at one point, second only to the United States of America and had the power to destroy the entire planet with the single acknowledgement of their leader, because of their nuclear capabilities and their political power. The Russian country became the great Communist powerhouse after a great revolution in

After the end of World War 1 and the Russian Civil War, Russia was suffering major setbacks, especially economically. The Soviet Union was receiving threats from western countries which increased a need for faster industrialization. Vladimir Lenin, created a plan called the New Economic Policy, which was a plan to help rebuild the Russian economy, focusing more agrigculturally rather than industrially, over a longer period of time. After Lenin died, Joseph Stalin rose to power and created a demand on faster industrialization.

With many artists and scientists imprisoned, the country lacked any substantial cultural growth during the twentieth century. The Purge of the military weakened the army, and left nearly forty million Soviets dead in the wake of war. The intense focus on Industrialization and the Gulag system neglected agriculture stemming numerous famines which left many Soviets to starve. The Purges solidified Communists economic system, preventing growth which would ultimately lead to the economic collapse of the Empire. Culturally, people avoided their neighbors out of fear of being labeled an “anti-soviet”. The Purges left the people of the Soviet Union demoralized and scared, and it would take decades before the country could reach a state of

The country lost over 18% of its population and the majority of it was the male population. As a result, women and children had to do hard work at the factories and farms, but even they were not able to completely compensate the loss of the workforce. This obviously put a negative effect and slowed down production. Besides the loss of population, the government had to deal with almost three million people who lost their health during the war. Three million handicapped people who were not able to work, or work full-time, became another complication on the way of the full economic recovery. The Soviet Union government had to financially support physically disabled veterans, and that fact also have a negative impact on the weak economy. Additionally, lack of food and the quality of food itself during World War II and after affected the physical capabilities of the people for hard work. The people were tired and exhausted. Many of them could not work very well, so this, also, negatively changed the results of industrial and agricultural

Although Russia was still in fact in World War I; Lenin was ready to industrialize and make the country strong again. Going against all traditional ideals of the Czarist autocracy Lenin was able to get Russia to industrialize in major cities such as St. Petersburg and Moscow. The population and economy began to increase and look to be strong again; until overcrowding, unhealthy living conditions, and poverty was starting to show again, due to the underlying changes made by Lenin. The Bolsheviks had established a liberal program in which rights for freedom of speech, equality before laws, and rights of unions to organize and strike became controlled and restricted. This making Russia politically against violence and social revolution; which is not what the people of Russia wanted.

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