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The collapse of communism in the ussr
The collapse of communism in the ussr
The collapse of communism in the ussr
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The Soviet Union (USSR): one of the most feared and powerful countries in the 20th century; a union known, largely, for its highly centralized government and, usually, its totalitarian rulers like Josef Stalin. The USSR remained a powerhouse republic through the Second World War and the Cold War; however its prosperity began to suffer as the turn of the century neared. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the USSR began its descent into what ultimately became the separation of the union and the independence of states such as Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, among others. Some scholars blame Stalin, known for his Draconian ruling tactics. Others lay the blame on Leonid Brezhnev for destroying the proven-right command-control economy set into place by Stalin and his regime. Lastly, Mikhail Gorbachev may be blamed for the collapse due to his attempted reversal to Stalinism by means of purging his possible successors out of office without attempting to fix the economy, along with his policies that encouraged public expression and freedom. When attempting to determine under whose power the USSR began to collapse, one much first determine under what principles the masses begin to seek revolution. Does revolution stem from unhappiness? If so, were Soviets truly unhappy when they were being oppressed by Stalin and his reign of terror, or under Brezhnev and his steadily failing economy? From a moral perspective, one would assume that the masses would be their unhappiest under a totalitarian, fear-mongering ruler, however, as can be seen in countries that were part of the Arab Spring, and, on the other side of the spectrum of economic wealth, in China, humans are truly unhappy when they are forced to endure a truly failing economy....
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...lution and sparked it altogether was indeed Gorbachev’s policy changes that he introduced shortly after entering office. There is no doubt that without not only perestroika, but possibly more importantly glasnost and demokratizatsiia, the revolution may not have happened. However, if it had occurred, there would have been more of a struggle to maintain power and a possible reversion to the brutality of Stalin.
Works Cited
Bacon, Edwin, and Mark Sandle. Brezhnev Reconsidered. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Kesselman. POLS 2313 Comparative Politics of Developing Areas. Comp. Mikhail Molchanov.
Toronto: Nelson Education, 2010. Print.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. New York: Knopf Group, 2006. Print.
White, Gregory L. "Putin Aide Cites Brezhnev as 'Plus' for Russia." The Wall Street Journal,
Europe 6 Oct. 2011.
Tucker, Robert C. "Stalinism as Revolution from Above". Stalinism. Edited by Robert C. Tucker. New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 1999.
Every state is based upon and driven by some ideology. Imperial Russia was based upon autocratic absolutism for over 400 years. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917, a new era dawned upon Russia. For the next 36 years she would be in the hands of two men that would attempt to apply a new, vastly different creed in ruling and transforming this country. Vladimir Ilich Lenin, as the leader of the Bolshevik party, ruled Russia from October 1917 till his death in January 1924. He was succeeded by Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, who also ruled until his death in March 1953. Both men claimed to ascribe to the broad ideology of Socialism and Marxism; both were to develop their own versions -- later to be called Leninism and Stalinism; both were to attempt to practically apply their respective ideologies whilst attempting to deal with a plethora of prevailing conditions such as internal resistance and civil war, economic collapse and foreign invasion. This paper will examine the similarities and differences between both the ideologies, and the actual economic and political practice, of Lenin and Stalin's beliefs.
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 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 Soviet Union and the United States ended. Nonetheless, although the end of cold war make people around the world enters a peaceful time, until now both people in the past and historians are amazed why previous powerful Soviet Union collapsed suddenly. Thereby, the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union
During 1950-1991 The Soviet Union was considered one of the most powerful countries in the world. Known during this time for its enormous military and the overtaking and enforcing total communist ruler over all the eastern block European countries.The conquering of these countries gained the Soviet Union useful resources such as oil, food, minerals,goods,and land which during this time was very useful to the Soviet Union. Even with all of these advantages the Soviet Union had several internal problems such as severe famine , poor economy,People working in horrible conditions in factories being payed minimum wage, and depending on rival countries for food and supplies. It got worse when Gorbachev took over and made several new reforms such as glasnost and perestroika and with all of the rapid changes in the S.U ( Soviet Union) government it caused social chaos and disorder and rebellion against Gorbachev. (GQ) Though which of the factors contributed more to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Economy or politics?.(Claim) During this time period Political factors seem more responsible to the collapse of the Soviet Union, because even though the Soviet Union had several food shortages it does not compare to how the Soviet Union lost several sources of income and resources such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, etc.(Significance) Countries like Poland which has plenty of
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.
When most people hear the name Joseph Stalin, they usually associate the name with a man who was part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He was willingly to do anything to improve the power of the Soviet Union’s economy and military, even if it meant executing tens of millions of innocent people (Frankforter, A. Daniel., and W. M. Spellman 655). In chapter three of Sheila Fitzpatrick’s book, Everyday Stalinism, she argues that since citizens believed the propaganda of “a radiant future” (67), they were able to be manipulated by the Party in the transformation of the Soviet Union. This allowed the Soviet government to expand its power, which ultimately was very disastrous for the people.
...eeded in putting communism on the political map of the world. Governments across Europe and Latin America emulated Stalin and instituted their own brands of communism within their respective countries. Yet, what was to be the permanent revolution, has infected and affected the world for almost an entire century. Every year since 1917 has seen people in revolt. Economics, austerity, and political corruption have been the common causes of popular uprisings across the world, and whether the revolutions have been peaceful or violent, the result has nearly always been a change in the political structure and the redrawing of boundary lines. The continued presence of Russian-backed revolutions combined with the cries of the European people for independence and security reflect the ongoing influence of the Russian Revolution on the whole of Europe and, possibly, the world.
One can argue that Stalin was a great leader of the 20th century. After all, he took an undeveloped country and molded it into one of the world’s greatest industrial and military forces. But, this transformation did not come at a small cost. Stalin was so paranoid that his Communist regime would be ‘crushed’ by one of the dominating Capitalist countries of the West that he became obsessed with the mass production of industrial and agricultural machinery, neglecting the production of basic goods needed to sustain human survival. In his mind, getting Russia’s industrial sector up to par was more important than producing adequate clothing and household goods. Setting completely absurd targets for increased production in agriculture, and of coal, pig iron, oil, and steel products in his three five-year plans did work well for Stalin, and other countries began to take notice. But, in history, very few leaders have forced their own people to make the kinds of sacrifices Stalin imposed on them.
Russia is generally apportioned the benefit of having introduced a political phenomenon that basically provided an alternative for capitalism; communism. Since this concept was only set in motion at the turn of the 20th century, we can therefore deduce that, to a large extent, Russia is, to most people, synonymous with leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev. This supposition is entirely based on the premise that the Russian revolution of 1914 inherently altered the socio-cultural and socio-political direction of the nation, bringing into birth a never before envisioned era where Russia was not ruled by the Tsars, but by simple men; men who spoke to and articulated the needs of the masses. To this extent, communism, therefore, is largely misconceived as having been the fulcrum of Russia’s civilization. Much of this misconception , as signaled earlier, is based on the growth and progression of the Russian society in the years after the revolution until 1990, when the Berlin wall fell, essentially bringing down with it decades of Soviet Union tradition based on communism.
Following the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, the harsh policies he implemented in not only the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but also its many satellite nations began to break down. There was a movement to distance all of the socialist nations from Stalin?s sadistic rule. In the Peoples? Republic of Hungary, there was much disillusionment with this Stalinist absolutism (Felkay 50). This disillusionment with the Soviet ideal of socialism lead the people of the fledgeling socialist state of Hungary to rise up in revolt, but ill-preparedness and the strength of the Soviet Red Army put down the insurrection within several days.
The purpose of this investigation is to assess how significant Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost, and Perestroika polices contribute to the collapse of the USSR. In order to understand how significant of a factor Gorbachev policies were to the collapse of the USSR, we will investigate from how significant were the reforms emplaced by Gorbachev, to how the USSR was doing economically from the time Gorbachev came into power. The main sources for this investigation range from an Excerpt from The cold war: The United States and the Soviet union by Ronald Powaski who states facts about both the economic and political issues of the time. Excerpts from “New political thinking” from perestroika by Gorbachev which states how he believes new political ideas are for the good for the USSR. Finally in The Dissolution of the Soviet Union by Myra Immell who goes over many of the factors of the USSR’s collapse.
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 most powerful communist country in history, the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, also known as the Soviet Union. Although being the biggest country the world has come to know, the country’s domestic struggles led to its downfall. Others suggest the Union’s desperation to outperform the United States of America in military and space flight led to excessive spending and in the end, stagnation. Moreover after decades of repressive communist rule, domestic attitudes towards the governments went to their all-time lows and led to the population’s unrest. Economic and political issues failed to get prioritized and continued to get ignored. Mikhal Gorbachev, the last leader of the USSR, introduced his plans, attempting to change the flaws of their government while keeping the same fundamentals of Communism. In the end, his plans backfired and the population used its new found freedom of speech, given to them by Gorbachev, against the communist government.
According to most historians, “history is told by the victors”, which would explain why most people equate communism with Vladimir Lenin. He was the backbone of Russia’s communist revolution, and the first leader of history’s largest communist government. It is not known, or discussed by most, that Lenin made many reforms to the original ideals possessed by many communists during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He revised Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles’ theories to fit the so-called ‘backwardness’ of the Russian Empire. Lenin’s reforms were necessary to carry out a socialist revolution in Russia, and the contributions he made drastically changed the course of history. It can be assumed that, the Soviet Union would not have been as powerful if it was not for Lenin’s initial advocacy of violence and tight organization.
In order to conclude the extent to which the Great Terror strengthened or weakened the USSR the question is essentially whether totalitarianism strengthened or weakened the Soviet Union? Perhaps under the circumstances of the 1930s in the approach to war a dictatorship may have benefited the country in some way through strong leadership, the unifying effect of reintroducing Russian nationalism and increased party obedience.