Collapse of Leadership

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At one time there was a large majority of the Russian Empire that was tired of not having any goods while living in poverty. The Bolshevik Party however, promised many of the necessities that the Tsar would not provide. In 1917 the Bolshevik Party overthrew the Tsar and Russian Empire with the help of the peasants in promise to provide better living standards. Through the use of force the Soviet Union would be successful until the night of Joseph Stalin’s death. Then the Communist leaders would start to lean more away from their original ideals by allowing more freedom than the first two leaders. Through the use of reforms and more freedoms the Soviet Union would collapse not at the hands of Gorbachev, but every leader post Stalin by leaning further away from the original Communist plans.

The Revolution of 1917 was short-lived due to the fact that there were many people in opposition to the Bolshevik party. The only way that the Bolsheviks could achieve their goals were through policies consisting of force and collectivization as Stalin enforced during his Five-Year plans. Collectivization was part of the First Five-Year Plan and consisted of forcing people to move from urban areas to collective farms to produce more agricultural products. “By March 1930, less than three months into the campaign, almost 60 percent of the Soviet Union’s peasants-about 15 million households totaling 70 million people had been driven from their homesteads into collective farms (Kort 204).” Stalin had a way of making the economy move forward even though it was a challenge production in the Soviet Union had increased. Violent acts of terror against the public or the party was no problem because he sees it as a way of motivating the country. This wa...

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... reasons the Soviet Union Collapsed including but not limited to rise of corruption, communist leaders shift away from the original ideals, nationalism, and foreign influence. Post-Stalin era the industrialization output decreased at a steady pace and never reached near the time of Stalin’s Five year plans. The shift began with Khrushchev and Gorbachev had little to do with the collapse because it was already decided before he became general Secretary. If the leader’s post-Stalin would not have given the peasants so much freedom the Soviet Union would still rule today.

Works Cited

Dallin, Alexander. "Causes of the Collapse of the USSR." Post-Soviet affairs (1992): 279-302.

Kort, Michael. The Soviet Colossus. Armonk New York: M.E. Sharpe, INC, 2010. 202.

Malia, Martin. The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia 1917-1991. New York: Free Press, 1995.

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