The Breakup of The Soviet Union
In this essay I am going to talk about the breakup of the Soviet Union and all of the events that took place before, during, and after the split up. I will look into the C.I.S (Commonwealth of Independent States), the Government, economy and the conflicts of the former U.S.S.R.
In July of 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev and ten other Repulic leaders all met and signed a treaty giving each Republic more self-government. Five more leaders were to sign the treaty on August 20, but on the 19th of the month Communist leaders, led by Boris Yeltsin planned a coup against Gorbachev's Government. They trapped him and his family in their vacation home but he refused to give in to the demands. While this was going on, protesters held demonstrations and strikes broke out all over the country. The Commuist party was suspended in many republics, including the Russian Federation. A few days after the coup, Gorbacev resigned from the party leadership.
In September 1991 an interim government was set up until a new treaty could be worked out . This government included Gorbachev and the leaders of the other Republics.
On December 8th Russia proclaimed itself the Soviet Union's successor. Boris Yeltsin and the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus announced the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and that the U.S.S.R had no longer existed. The Commonwealth of Independent States was an association of nations that were formerly republics of the Soviet Union. They encouraged all others to join with them. On December 21, eleven republics joined, Armenia, Belarus. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Moldova, Russia, Tajistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia became a member in 1993. The headquarters were located in Minsk, Belarus. Only three republics have yet to join, they are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
The C.I.S was created for several reasons, the economies of the former republics were closely linked and most members wanted to keep some economic ties, each member also wanted to guarantee its own territory and Sovereinty, the members also sought to reassure the world that the nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union were under reliable control. The C.I.S was created to help out new and developing countries.
Although everything seemed to be all right, they did dispute some matters, they originally only wanted to have one military between all republics but it was changed and each had its own, Russia and Ukraine argued over who owned the Black Sea Fleet, another problem was that most of the members wanted to change the currency from the Ruble so each had to create its own.
The United States, led by President Truman, wanted to form democracies in Europe and create a capitalistic society to build economically strong nations that would complement the American economy through trade. In contrast, the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, wanted to rebuild itself and spread communism through Europe and Asia. In a desperate attempt to rebuild, many countries devastated by war fell under Soviet influence and resorted to communism. The Soviet Union called these nations satellite nations and hoped that they would serve as?buffers? nations, preventing invasion from the West.
Canada was not just a member of NATO only, but it was also part of NORAD. NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defence Command. It is a USA-Can...
During 1945 and early in 1946, the Soviet Union cut off nearly all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill warned that "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent" of Europe. He made popular the phrase Iron Curtain to refer to Soviet barriers against the West (Kennedy 1034). Behind these barriers, the U.S.S.R. steadily expanded its power. In 1946, the U.S.S.R. organized Communist governments in Bulgaria and Romania. In 1947, Communists took control of Hungary and Poland. Communists seized full power in Czechoslovakia early in 1948. These countries became Soviet satellite nations controlled by the U.S.S.R. Albania already had turned to Communism. Yugoslavia also joined the Communist bloc. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia had helped drive out the Germans near the end of the war. Communists led by Josip Broz Tito then took over the government (Cold War). East and West opposed each other in the United Nations. In 1946, the U.S.S.R. rejected a U.S. proposal for an international agency to control nuclear energy production and research. The Soviet Union believed the United States had a lead in nuclear weapons and would have a monopoly if controls were approved. The Soviet Union pictured itself as a defender of peace and accused the United States of planning a third world war.
There were many events that occurred during the Cold War along with increased tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that it seemed almost inevitable that these two nations would go to war with each other. Once enemies who fought against each other in World War II, the two remaining superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union, were now forced to work together to decide post-war Europe’s fate at the Yalta Conference in 1945. The Cold War, which began after the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was the long period of conflict between the West and the East. Tensions were already initiated at the Yalta Conference, where Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt disputed over the issues of dividing up Germany, ...
Throughout the time of the Revolution there was never just one individual revolution. There was a series of revolutions that were set in Russia in 1917. Some were crushed in the making and had no result but, others ended up being made a very big deal. These sequences of revolutions ended up dismantling the Tsarist autocracy which also resulted in the creation of the “Russian SFSR”. As a result of these revolutions “the emperor was forced to resign from his post and the old regime was replaced by a provisional government during the first revolution.”2
In conclusion, with the government change left and right, Russia went through a period of chaos and destruction. The government change also hurt Russia's economy and the alliances that Russia made in previous years. The government was also the main cause of the Cold War and because of the time period, Russia is a completely different time from when Russia was back in the 1900s.
To achieve their goal of “containment” the U.S. needed a central agency to gather and analyze intelligence on opposing governments. The outcome was the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The development of the CIA unified the intelligence community and became a major guide for U.S. policy makers during the complexities of the Cold War Era.
to assume the role of dictator. This was a phenomenon which was to become a
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 eventually emerged into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union crumbled during 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 cold war was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. The soviet unions president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstructering) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev’s basics for glasnost were the promotion of principles of freedom to criticize; the loosening of controls on media and publishing; and the freedom of worship. His essentials of perestroika were, a new legislature; creation of an executive presidency; ending of the ‘leading role’ of the communist party; allowing state enterprises to sell part of their product on the open market; lastly, allowing foreign companies to own Soviet enterprises (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Gorbachev believed his reforms would benefit his country, but the Soviet Union was ultimately held together by the soviet tradition he was trying to change. The Soviet Union was none the less held together by “…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force.
During this time, Russia became embroiled in a long, bloody civil war, fought between the Bolshevik Red Army, founded by Vladimir Lenin and lead by Leon Trotsky, and the White Army, the anti-Bolshevik forces. On December 30, 1922, the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR was signed, and in 1923, the Bolsheviks finally emerged victorious over the White Army.
Over the next few years, Russia went through a traumatic time of civil war and turmoil. The Bolsheviks’ Red Army fought the white army of farmers, etc. against Lenin and his ways. Lenin and the Bolsheviks won and began to wean Russia of non-conforming parties eventually banning all non-communist as well as removing an assembly elected shortly after the Bolshevik’s gain of power. Lenin’s strict government, however, was about to get a lot stricter with his death in 1924.
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...
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
The NATO and Warsaw Pact were formed. This war inevitably led to destructive conflicts like the Vietnam War and Korean War. The Soviet Union collapsed due to its economic weakness. Berlin was destroyed and the two German nations were unified. The Baltic States and some former Soviet Republics gained independence.