Why Did The Soviet Union Collapse Essay

People tend to prefer a simple answer to a more complex alternative. People also tend to explain away complex situations with hindsight that, in reality, could never have been explained as the events were unfolding. These two perfectly human tendencies have led to an inadequate public understanding of the collapse of the Soviet Union. When faced with the question: why did the Soviet Union collapse? We often fall back on the overly-simplistic explanation that the Soviet economy was doomed, Soviet leaders were too weak, and the Communist Party simply could not handle the rebellions and revolutions occurring in the Soviet satellite states and republics. Without a doubt, these factors influenced the dissolution of the USSR and perhaps explain how it happened, but they fail to capture why the Soviet Union collapsed and why the collapse occurred when it did. The fact of the matter is, historically, revolutions are caused by one thing: the want and need for the advancement of human dignity. In the following paper, I will argue that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was caused, at its roots, by the popular need for the development of human dignity. Without this underlying factor, the Soviet Union could arguably have survived the turmoil that occurred within its borders throughout the 1980s and early 90s.

Clearly, Gorbachev desired for a better, more moral Soviet Union. However, by setting out on such a noble quest, Gorbachev effectively condemned the very country that he was attempting to save. Through the reforms of glasnost and perestroika, Gorbachev was attempting to right the moral wrongs that had plagued the Soviet Union since the rise of Stalin. Instead, Gorbachev merely intensified the awareness of the immorality within the USSR. This intensifying frustration was the seed of what eventually grew into the revolutionary