Russia, officially known as the Russian Federation is an Eastern European country that was once under the control of the Soviet communist party in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, until its collapse in December 1991 as the nation started transitioning towards democracy. However, the transition from socialist to democratic for Russia proved to be severely fatal as there was direct military involvement along with public widespread protest during the Constitutional Crisis of 1993. Although it was a time in which former President Boris Yelstin (executive) was in a heated confrontation with the Russian Parliament (legislature formerly formed by the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet) on issues about the control and reframing the constitution of the government, it was actually a time in which the nation was entrenched with political instability as many political analyst would answer the question of, why has the nation had problems with political instability?
It all began to take root on early January of 1992 as Boris Yelstin, who was faced with “One of the most urgent challenges…for rescuing the sinking Russian economy” (Breslauer 2002: 153), decided to take an initiative to put into effect his economic reform policies to alleviate the economy. Consequently, it caused many industries to go out of business as prices soon began to skyrocket which caused spending to take a drastic downturn and taxes to escalate further. Soon afterwards Yelstin’s reform began to viewed as being too radical which caught the Parliament’s attention for his actions being somewhat “unconstitutional” because “He was an autocrat who, without regard to formal constraints…acted in unpredictable ways to achieve his goals” (Rose and Munro 2002: 41), namely he exercised his powers beyond constitutional norms to stabilize the economy. Furthermore, Yelstin who grew aware that his special power to issue decrees was about to terminate at the start of 1993, but demanded Parliament to revise or amend the constitution (since the Constitution of 1978 invested them with the authority to be able to do so) which would grant the president more power than he already had at the time through his decree being revived. On the contrary, Parliament decided to decline his request which led to series of clashes between both Yelstin and Parliament as “…Yelstin did not change his position concerned his relations with Parliament and the power of the presidency” (Breslauer 2002: 167), to illustrate Yelstin’s will and determination in exercising his powers so the nation can truly obtain democracy.
...oved to be singularly influential and daunting. This is, perhaps, the greatest obstacles to achieving true democracy in Russia—the authoritarian and repressive traditions that refuse to die out with the passage of time.
When recognised as being an ageing superpower by Alexander II it was inevitable that some sort of change would take place in Russia in the hope of modernisation. We can see that the changes were mostly political and economical. During Alexander III’s reign we can see that the changes were suppressive although it ultimately led to further change in the form of revolution in the future.
Sergei Witte was the Minister of Finance from 1892 to 1903, his aim was to modernise Russia’s economy to a level on par with other advanced western nations (such as England and France). To do such a great task Witte needed a plan of action, so he took the ideas of Western states and formed several economic policies. These policies are seen to be very successful in Russia’s economic reform, but to what extent.
At 7:32 p.m. December 25, 1991, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag, which symbolized the disintegration of Soviet Union. Early in the day, the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned his post, and Boris Yeltsin became the president of the newly independent Russian state. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the campaign between the Soviet Union and the United States ended. Nonetheless, although the end of the Cold War makes people around the world enter a peaceful time, until now both people in the past and historians are amazed why the previous powerful Soviet Union collapsed suddenly. Thereby, the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union is still an everlasting and popular topic in the world.
Since the 1970s, Venezuela has gone from being South America’s richest nation into a nouveau-poor society in search of an identity. Once known as the Saudis of the West, Venezuelans have seen their economic fortunes decline in exact proportion to the general fall in world oil prices. Even so, Venezuela’s many problems were hidden from view until relatively recently, when severity measures heralded the sort of economic crises so painfully familiar to other Latin American countries. Runaway inflation, currency devaluations and even food riots have marked this new phase in Venezuelan history, to which the country is still trying to adjust.
Russia lost many men in the battle which made them lose the war and they had to pay back. When they lost this caused the Russian economy to crash and by that caused the Russian revolution. The Russian Revolution began in 1917 after Russia lost many wars which made the economy weak. During the 1914 in World war 1 Russia had lost many supplies and military men and Russia lacked good leadership. Tsar Nicholas was in control of Russian government and the army and he refused to share his power with the masses. Then the Duma Parliament in the summer of 1915 demanded the government with democratic values and to show responsibility to the citizens in the country that needed help. However, later that year Nicholas eliminated the Duma and went to war. Tsar Nicholas left the country to be destroyed. Then the government was taken over by Tsarina Alexandra Nicholas wife. She attempted to rule absolutely in her husband’s absence by firing and electing officials of her
Russia, a vast country with a wealth of natural resources, a well, educated population, and diverse industrial base, continues to experience, formidable difficulties in moving from its old centrally planned economy to a modern market economy. President Yeltsin's government has made substantial strides in converting to a market economy since launching its economic reform program in January 1992 by freeing nearly all prices, slashing defense spending, eliminating the old centralized distribution system, completing an ambitious voucher privatization program, establishing private financial institutions, and decentralizing trade. Russia, however, has made little progress in a number of key areas that are needed to provide a solid foundation for the transition to a market economy.
Venezuela was one of the richest countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Ecuador). For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Current concerns include: a polarized political environment, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples.
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 needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse.
The Russian’s were wrong in having hope for a reformed government. Following the careless Czar came Lenin and Stalin, both continuing the reign of terror that the Czar had left behind. Instead of a Czarist gover...
Russia had been defeated in all except the war with Turkey and its government and economy had the scars to prove it. A severe lack of food and poor living conditions amongst the peasant population led firstly to strikes and quickly escalated to violent riots. Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia with an iron hand while much of Europe was moving away from the monarchical system of rule. All lands were owned by the Tsar’s family and Nobel land lords, while the factories and industrial complexes were owned by the capitalists’. There were no unions or labour laws and the justice system had made almost all other laws in favour of the ruling elite.
In 1917, two revolutions were involved in Russia, which terminated centuries of imperial ruling. The Russian revolution was made up of two revolutions, which the first one was in February, and the second one was in October.These revolutions started political, and social changes that lead to the creation of the Soviet Union. By March of 1917, Russia who became civil turned into turmoil, which caused constant food shortages.This turned into a revolt against Czar.By the year of 1917 lots of Russian citizens lost faith in their leader Czar Nicholas II. The citizens lost faith in Czar’s leadership due to the governments corruption, Russia’s economy, and Czar constantly affecting the success of the Duma ( the Russian legislative assembly established by Czar Nicholas II in 1905) .This impacted Russia in a disastrous way, which caused Czar Nicholas II to be overthrown.A few months later after Czar was overthrown, the new provisional government was overthrown by Bolsheviks. The first appearance of the Russian Revolution was in February 1917, due to the destructive involvement in World War I. The military and imperial side of Russia, could not compare to the industrialized Germany at the time. The costly war also made Russia’s economy decline in a major way. Word count: 207
known for decades: it pays to invest in Canada. There is a government commitment to attract foreign direct investment. Canada's government provides a competitive, welcoming climate for international business. It is committed to fiscal responsibility, deficit reduction and job creation.
The Russo-Chechen war that ended in 1996 should have given the Russian government a feel of things to come when they decided to attack in late September of last year. Triggered by security challenges to the State, Russia decided that the democracy would be in danger if they didn’t act. Russia was in a politically unstable situation right now with the resignation of Yeltsin, and the current Presidential elections looming. Also looming on the political horizon was the concern over rampant corruption in the government. If they had done nothing Yeltsin’s party would have stood to lose, yet Putin, (Yeltsin’s successor) succeeded in focusing the medias attention on the war rather that the domestic corruption.