After the short mandate of Andropov and Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985. He understood that the problem of the regime had to be handled and took some important decisions. Thus, he launched huge reforms, “Glasnost” and “Perestroika”, to restore the Soviet economy and prestige, offering consumer goods to soviets and allowing more freedom of speech. Nevertheless, Gorbachev failed to address the fundamental flaws of the Soviet system. Moreover, the red army did not intervene in Eastern Europe where disputes increased and evacuated Afghanistan on 1989 after a disastrous and expensive war. In the year 1989, all communist governments of Eastern Europe resigned or were overthrow. In November the Berlin walls felt and the Germany was reunified in 1990 and communist threw out of East Germany. In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of Russia, and in august, a coup which wanted to restore the authoritarian regime failed. The 25th, the USSR was over and the “Commonwealth of Independent States” was created.
A lot of factors are responsible of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. First of all, the falling economy and the large military expenditure in relation to the GNP played an important role, according to Kennedy. Moreover, the command economy showed its limits, lead to stagnation, false statistics, corruption and grain dependence. Till the 70’, the country reaches a certain level of power also because of the free manpower of the Gulags. Finally the reforms undertaken by Gorbachev in order to modify the inflexible economy and to give access to consumer goods came too late and were unable to correct the system.
Second, Nationalism and ethnic pressures contributed also to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, a qualified exception to this argument is Russian elite separatist nationalism, led by Boris Yeltsin, which as also a direct impact on the Collapse. The Soviet Polity vis-à-vis nationalities, which in fact forced the Russian language, denied religions and led to a surge of Nationalism and ethnic pressure in 1988-1991 and weakened the state. Moreover, Mikhail Gorbachev failed to establish a viable compact between center and periphery during these years. Finally his unwilling to use decisive force to quell ethnic and nationalist challenges accelerates the separation of the Soviet Union.
Third, internal factors have happened. Soviet society changes profoundly in the 70’ and 80’ because of economic and demographic trends and led to spread of cynicism among the youth. The reform of Gorbachev to remedy the country’s ill and to rejuvenate the society failed. The youth, more westernised want to benefit the marketisation. Although society did not revolt against Reforms, in 1991, it no longer had much of a stake in the survival of the USSR. At the extreme end, the coup d’état in August 1991, signed the fall of Gorbachev and the ascension of Yeltsin as Russian leader. The Regime was going to fall early because the communist party, the secret police, (the KGB), the military-industrial complex, the Ministry of Defense were compromised in this coup.
Fourth, the Western governments and external factors played also a role in the end collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1983, American President Reagan challenged the Soviet Union with his SDI defense Program, the famous “Star Wars”. Moreover, intern dissent and economical chaos were magnified by Western countries. At the End of the 80’, the overthrow of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and Baltic states without any intervention, the entry of East Germany in the West side after the German reunification weakened totally Moscow.
A fifth argument is the personalities of different actors of this tragedy. Suri argues that the Collapse never happened without Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Reagan or Kohl. Gorbachev is sometimes seen as the grave-digger of the regime because of his reforms. It is in part true, but reforms were compulsory within the Soviet Union. Indeed, after years of repression and command economy, the USSR was out of breath. Yeltsin was also responsible, because “he wanted to stress Russian nationalism as way of asserting his power over Gorbachev”. Ronald Reagan, launching a new arm course, accelerates economic problems of the Soviet state. Finally, the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl accelerated the German reunification and won the elections in Eastern Germany.
Finally, a important event was forewarning of the Collapse of the Soviet Union, the War of Afghanistan, which is a good example of Soviet system’s failures. The beginning of the War in Afghanistan in 1979 in order to maintain a communist government in this country announced problems for the regime and the whole Eastern Bloc. This war was long, expensive in cost, men and moral and affects the prestige of the army and of the State. It shows the nationalism inside the Red Army and thus society; Indeed a Muslim soldier did not want to fight others Muslims. Moreover, the war prevented any armed intervention in Eastern Europe and Particularly in Poland. The US financed the resistance and, in 1989, All the Soviet Troops had evacuated the country and an Islamic government came to power. The defeat was total for the Soviet Union and the Communist regime.
The Breakup of USSR is inseparable with the End of the Cold War. Even though nobody predicted the Collapse the Soviet Union, it happened the twenty-fifth of December 1991, without resistance or counter-revolution. The Communist regime showed his inability to govern a multinational Empire and to compete with the United States. Gorbachev, by his reforms accelerated a process which was inevitable, after years of totalitarism. He puts an end to the Cold War, and by the way to the Soviet Union, giving up the supremacy to the United States. A last event totally finished to get the collapse inevitable, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986. The incapacity of the regime to react and the lies to hide the width of the disaster consumed the state’s credibility and its last chance to survive.
Bibliography
Books
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Fowkes B (1995), The Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 2nd Ed, London: MacMillan, 232p.
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Fowkes B (1997), the Disintegration of the Soviet Union, London: MacMillan, 273p.
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Hoskins Geoffrey (1992), A History of Soviet Union, London: FontanaPress.
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Kennedy P (1988) the Rise and fall of Great Powers: economic changes and military conflict from 1500 to 2000, London: FontanaPress
Articles
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Conner W (September 2003) Soviet Society, public Attitudes, and the Perils of Gorbachev’s Reforms : The Social Context of the End of the USSR, in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 43-80
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Dunlop J (January 2003) The August 1991 Coup and its impact on Soviet politics in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:1, 94-127
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Gaddis JL (winter 1992) International Relations theory and the end of the Cold War in International Security, 17:3, 5-58.
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Suri J (September 2002), Explaining the End of the Cold War, A New Historical Consensus? In Journal of Cold War Studies, 4:4, 60-92.
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Tuminez A (September 2003) Nationalism, Ethnic Pressures and the Breakup of the Soviet Union in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 81-136
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Wallander C (September 2003) Western Policy and the Demise of Soviet Union in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 137-177
Gaddis JL (winter 1992) International Relations theory and the end of the Cold War in International Security, 17;3, 5-58.
For the History of Soviet Union, see Hoskins Geoffrey (1992), A History of Soviet Union, London: FontanaPress.
According to The Brezhnev doctrine, “a socialist state was justified in interfering in the affairs of another in order to uphold socialism” Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary world history, Oxford: OUP, 2004
Kennedy P (1988) the Rise and fall of Great Powers: economic changes and military conflict from 1500 to 2000, London: FontanaPress.
“Glasnost (openness) was the central policy of Gorbachev which encouraged a more open debate about the state, the Soviet Union an its history. Opening the lid of decades of repression, it created a critical public(…).”
“Perestroika (restructuring) is the Gorbachev effort to reform Soviet economy and society. In Appreciation of the poor state of the Soviet Union’s economy, which was centrally planned by appointees of the Communist Party, He wanted to increase the efficiency of the economy and implicitly of the party.”
Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary world history, Oxford: OUP, 2004
Fowkes B (1997), The Disintegration of the Soviet Union, London: MacMillan
Tuminez A (September 2003) Nationalism, Ethnic Pressures and the Breakup of the Soviet Union in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 81-136
Conner W (September 2003) Soviet Society, public Attitudes, and the Perils of Gorbachev’s Reforms : The Social Context of the End of the USSR, in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 43-80
Dunlop J (January 2003) The August 1991 Coup and its impact on Soviet politics in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:1, 94-127.
Wallander C (September 2003) Western Policy and the Demise of Soviet Union in Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:4, 137-177
Fowkes B (1995), The Rise and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 2nd ed, London: MacMillan.
Suri J (September 2002), Explaining the End of the Cold War, A New Historical Consensus? In Journal of Cold War Studies, 4;4, 60-92.
Parr H, The Collapse of Soviet Union Lectures Notes Foreign Policy 1, Keele University, Keele