The Causes of the Collapse of the USSR

The Causes of the Collapse of the USSR Works Cited Not Included Although its demise occurred in the very latter part of the 20th

century, USSR could have just as easily imploded much earlier. Its

collapse did not occur due to immediate events changes, but rather,

its collapse was rooted within the fundamental constitiution of its

socialist system and the impossibility of ultimate success. The

implotion of communist Russia “was triggered not by military pressure

but by Communist ideology.” (2) It occurred due to the inheriate

incapibility of socialism to sufficiently maintain a productive and

prosperous economy in the face of a rapidly changing form of

capitalism. After WWII, the world saw a change in modern capitalism

that proved both successful and popular. In the face of this surgent

prosperity, USSR’s economy found itself unproductive and wholly

lagging western growth. Behind this backdrop occurred the realization

of the need to reform and revitalize socialism within USSR. The

attempt called for the allowance of liberal institutions and

participation within the free market, but only to the extent of not

compromising socialist principles. This paradoxical contradiction,

however, had dire consequences and proved to be the final undoing of

the Soviet Union, as the democritazion and liberalization of Soviet

society perpetuated the popularity and a...

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...d during the late 1980s and

early 1990s, it began down the road to dismemberment much earlier.

Although it struggled to win the “war” of world supremacy for several

decades, its downfall was not caused its enemies. Rather, the Soviet

Union imploded from the very fact that in a modern capitalistic

society, its socialist economy simply could not keep up. As its

economy began to lag and become outdated, the need for reform and

change became self evident. The changes necessary for successful

reform, however, required refutation of basic socialist principles.

Because of that inevitability, the Soviet Union, armed and able to

destroy the world, quietly and peacefully conceded defeat and gave up

its dream of a socially just and equal society and began down the

difficult road towards a free democratic capitalistic state.