How the Fall of the Soviet Union Has Affected The World

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In 1989 the Soviet Union fell. Along with his collapse came new issues that the world had never had to deal with before. Some of the ways these issues were dealt with affect the world even today. Many tensions were created during the fall of the Soviet Union that still exist today. Many problems have been created although many problems have been solved since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989.
The Soviet Union began to dismantle with the taking over of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985. When Mikhail Gorbachev took over his was left with an economy in shambles and a country in need of reform. To hope to allow for the economy to become prosperous he introduced two policies: Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost or “openness” allowed for freedom of the press, elections to parties other than the communist party, release of political prisoners, freedom of all Soviet peoples, dismantling of the secret police force, and the end of Stalinist repression. Perestroika or economic restructuring was designed to allow Soviet people to own businesses, unionize for better wages and work conditions, open up for Western countries to invest, and allow for new trade amongst western countries.(Fall of the Soviet Union) Soon after these two policies many countries that were part of the Soviet Union became distressed at the weakening of the power of the mighty Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev began to stop the arms race and remove troops from Afghanistan. First, beginning with Poland in 1989 a series of revolutions began in which all the former Soviet republics fell one by one. By November of 1989 the Berlin wall was taken down symbolizing to the rest of the world that communism was beginning to crumble in Europe. By 1991 the last country of the Soviet Union, Ge...

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...ocide in the Congo and Rwanda. The fall of the Soviet Union has led to many new problems.

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Cuny, Fredrick C. "Post-Cold War." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web.

"Fall of the Soviet Union." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Feb.2014

"GDP Growth (annual %)." Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

"Russian Economy in the Aftermath of the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Russian Economy in the Aftermath of the Collapse of the Soviet Union.
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"Timeline: Soviet Union." BBC News. BBC, 03 Mar. 2006. Web.

"Vyacheslav Nikonov: Six Consequences of the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Vyacheslav Nikonov: Six Consequences of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

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