When Mikhail Gorbachev took the helm of the Soviet Union in March of 1985, he began the process of introducing reforms such as glasnost, perestroika, and democratization into the Soviet system. Glasnost, or openness, encouraged the free flow of ideas and information, but this flow came at the price of many people losing their fear of the Communist party. Perestroika, or economic restructuring, was designed to jumpstart the sagging Soviet economy by injecting a small amount of capitalism into the Soviet command economy; however, that small drop only served to destabilize the economy and create more stagnation. Finally, democratization pushed the U.S.S.R. in a more democratic direction by allowing for multi-candidate elections, but this shift to a new course eventually helped topple the Soviet government and power structure. Drawn together, these and other policy changes instituted by Gorbachev helped to bring on the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 1985, not long after taking office as the General Secretary of the Communist Party and leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev unveiled a policy known as glasnost, or openness. This policy was designed to encourage a greater flow of information and ideas within the Soviet Union in order to revive the dead Soviet society and rejuvenate the failing Soviet economy. This policy was born from Gorbachev’s belief that any meaningful social or economic reform could not take place in the Soviet totalitarian state that encouraged closed lips. The immediate goals of this policy were achieved without any serious problems, as demonstrated by the media beginning to scrutinize and even criticize public officials, the government starting to reveal some truths of Soviet history, and the people startin...
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...he government’s iron control over the Soviet people. With these and other factors working together inside and outside of the Soviet Union, the U.S.S.R. could do nothing but collapse, as it so spectacularly did in the early 1990’s.
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In conclusion, there were six long-term causes that were apparent during the preceding decades of the 1991 collapse. On the surface in the 1970s the Soviet Union seemed to be doing ok, but the underlying factors eventually played a large factor in the eventual demise of the Communist regime and the fall of the Soviet Union. In the year 1975 the Soviet Union’s power peaked and after that it was only downhill for the Soviet Union until it collapsed in 1991.
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The end of the Cold War was one of the most unexpected and important events in geopolitics in the 20th century. The end of the Cold War can be defined as the end of the bipolar power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had existed since the end of the World War II. The conclusion of the Cold War can be attributed to Gorbachev’s series of liberalizations in the 1980s, which exposed the underlying economic problems in the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc states that had developed in the 1960s and 70s and prevented the USSR from being able to compete with the US as a superpower. Nevertheless, Reagan’s policies of a renewed offensive against communism, Gorbachev’s rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine and the many nationalities
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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.
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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.