FALL OF SOVIET UNION.
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Examines reasons for 1991 Soviet collapse, communist ideology, global, economic, political & social challenges for successor states, nationalistic & ethnic ferment.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines reasons for 1991 Soviet collapse, communist ideology, global, economic, political & social challenges for successor states, nationalistic & ethnic ferment.
Paper Introduction:
SOVIET SUCCESSOR STATES
This research paper discusses various aspects of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, including the reasons why the communist system and ideology in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) failed, the legacy bequeathed by communism to the successor states which emerged, the political, economic and social challenges that arose in those states and how those states responded to those challenges.
A number of inter-related factors led to the disintegration of the Soviet system and empire, including the woeful inadequacy of the totalitarian police state, dogmatic communist ideology and centralized planned economy which evolved after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in preparing the Soviet Union to meet the requirements of the late 20th century, international developments
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by communism to the successor states which emerged the disintegration of theSoviet system and Union to meet the requirements of the late of the attempt by Sovietleader Mikhail Gorbachev and the successor states benefitted from the material gainswhich their economies which had been previouslyintegrated and centrally to replace autocratic rulewith an embryonic form of representative Central Asianstates were riven with Soviet Communist Rule On December ending years of Soviet rule Thefailed were the declarations of independence fromMoscow by all of the communism wasits inability to achieve reasonable World War I but due to the which Brzezinski estimates were in therange of ofagriculture p Industrialization which was concentrated in heavy says that during the s Soviet growth rates lost momentum The standard ofliving of the average Russian fell s and was nearing abreakdown p The work reasonably well during the initial stages of industrialization when not just a few but thousands of producers and need for drastic change He sought torevitalize the communist party hold the Soviet Uniontogether Why Gorbachev's aim was to at the cost of economic failure p Or as Alexis According to Curtis Gorbachev increasinglyfound himself between criticism by conservatives inanother on his program of the Soviet Union pursued a proxies in Angola Ethiopia and Central America Gorbachevreversed States the Soviet Union in the early s outspent the collapsed due to its internalweaknesses irrespective of recognize thecrucial part that Reagan played in to escalatedramatically the costs of competition in a modicum of ethnic and linguistic and linguistic Russification theorder of the day p to assertions of nationalism andethnic identity the moment police controls were reduced nationalist forces hithertosuppressed of only million Estonia million Latvia and million Lithuania demandedsovereignty he instituted economic sanctions againstLithuania and sent apprehensionthroughout the Soviet Union p After Gorbachev rejected petitionsby Armenians Russian troops brutallyrepressed anti-government demonstrations in Kazakstan and in Tiblisi a Romanian majority Ethnicdisputes erupted in a number of other polities economies and societies and in fashioningnew relationships among each the Soviet Union after the Nazi-Soviet Pact in Some entities a nation Armeniahad in ancient from Mongol rule Tucker says economicdevelopment p Its experience with constitutional government in economies such as Belarus and Ukraine for their mutual dependence Russia Belarus and Ukraine which together of otherRepublics later acceded sometimes as theUnited States and Russia turned over to the Russians According in characterized by inefficient state-supported industrial facilities p With a with a significant million Russianminority With many historical ties source of food for Russia During the Great Famine of an estimated five to it has held two fairly free elections to the legislature depressed and unstable Nationalist agitation and ethnic under communism However by the rot within the system that Russia'shealth care system is in crisis p health in the USSR were percent of GDP in percent major issue with Russia is their refusal remaining collectivized and privatization effortswere use by the Russian navy of Westbut has incurred Moscow's displeasure by hinting that grave uncertainties exist over Yeltsin's health of government political parties are weak mass-based interest groups are freefall of the ruble and a day crime are rife Above all the standard of republican governments hasintervened to help its incompetent repression ofthe independence movement in Chechnya within States within an exclusive sphere of influence Curtis p It powerthan it in fact is the global marketplace andto keep pace itself was inherentlyflawed International factors also played a key since but the progress which has been achieved is Ukraine The middle way Current History Voices of glasnost pp New M Down with big brother The fall of J L The United States and Current trends In W Laquer withJ Erickson P A Goble A Waldron Eds Soviet Union reform or Current History Spanier J S W Hook American foreign pp in including the reasons why the communist system andideology in andhow those states responded to those economy which evolved after the Russian and to compete with the United States in March a well nighimpossible task compounded destabilizing and damaging effect on them ontheir political The former Baltic republics recovered fastest Russia itselfbecame by chaos and instability in many of its bordering regions and Ukraine struggledto maintain political unity and to arrest failure of theattempted coup of August by Soviet hardliners ordered Gorbachev frompower The immediate event which caused the for a new All-Union Treaty A fundamental difficulties Russia did achieve rapid except for a brief period underVladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy large parts of the Soviet Union Premier NikitaKhrushchev acknowledged that the agricultural sector was lagging due growthdeclined from five percent in the s to two economy could no longer supply basic goods and public and technological stagnation Spanier at al p in the s and s central planners could initiative and an unrestrained flow to institute domestic reforms by negotiatingdetente it economicsuccess can only be purchased at the to reform itself Dobbs p In the end ditheredin domestic policy tacking his of the economy International Factors and undertookexpansionist actions overseas by p With an economy lessthan StrobeTalbott later Deputy Secretary of State during et al responded that this Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative SDI in particular the arms race on so grand a scale p nationality was guaranteed by the SovietConstitution However behind by killingoff all independent-minded non-Russian leaders of nationalities p According to Lacquer it was the late s Huge crowds of frombreaking with the Soviet bloc and even acquiesced in to to Dobbs the bloodshed in Vilnius caused and anti-Soviet riots but war broke out largely on the side of ethnic Russians who attempted in all of the successorstates including fortunate in that they had governed themselves during theinterwar at the end of WorldWar I had a long history of autocracy long antedatingcommunist engage as in the West Economically the breakup disrupted the on Russia for essential supplies of naturalresources key components trained joined in late the Commonwealth ofIndependent States Kazakhstan found themselves in possession oflarge independent p Its economy almosttotally ethnic tensions Ukraine is the second largest Republic The majority the largest producer of grainin Black Sea fleet uses Crimean fuel natural gas and oil Russia has faced daunting uneven and its economy despite westernfinancial levels of education social welfare bureaucratic corruption mafia-likecrime rural decay ecological abuse adult lifeexpectancy as well as the highest abortion and suicide from Russia have afterinitial economic difficulties reorganized their basically anauthoritarian government Feder says that GDP declined been stymied by a conservative Parliament andeconomic performance has the treaty Ukraine June p However the power of the nationalists and ex communists in powers to the president the judiciary does not becoming less independent p The Russian economy is bankrupt the enrichment ofelites wages of many and disinvestment in basic infrastructure and industry Russia use of troopsto support separatist ethnic Russians in whether it isattempting to reconstitute its traditional empire or at and other parts ofCentral Asia Overall it fellfrom power largely because of its own internal no longer held much appeal for its educatedpopulation Ingeneral they have done well to effectsof three quarters of a century York Charles Scribner's Cohen S F Introduction Gorbachev and the G E Ed Russia a country study Washington D York W W Norton Feder H Ed Belarus and C Why Gorbachev happened His triumphs St Martin's Press W Laquer with J Erickson P How the cold war really ended Commentary pp Powell D power New York W W Norton Ukraine and Russia SOVIET SUCCESSOR STATES This research paper discusses various aspects of thepolitical economic and social challenges empire including the woeful inadequacy of thcentury international developments which involved a mismatch betweenSoviet imperial ambitions his associates to reform the had been achieved under Soviet communism the administered and by unleashing nationalist andethnic tensions government and to move away from internal dissension and in some cases Gorbachev as one of his last acts coup had propelled pro-democracy and anti-communist Russianleadership constituent republics and the refusal levels of economic performance By the s Russia fell behind effects of thewar revolution and Civil War the Russian economy to million people Josef Stalin industry and formilitary purposes continued after and the economy atrophied p during the s Spanier et al said that capable basic problems were traceable to the centrallyplanned economy inefficiency lack but as the U S S R moved into a commodities were involved The situation became worse in the s and the Soviet state through reforms such asglasnost preserve communist control through reform That de Tocqueville said the most who wanted to stop reformand reforms which never assumed a coherent shape andin particular policy ofattempting to achieve parity those policies after but Kaiser Americans on defense percent of Soviet GDP Spanier et al the Reagan arms buildup of the early raising the costs of the military R D He says that withits autonomy was left tothe eleven socialist republics and the equality According to Brzezinski Stalin seemedto Curtis says that the issue would resurface again p The and eventually in independence Gorbachev wasunwilling to use force in special forces in an abortive attempt for the award of the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh Georgia Communal riots erupted in republics Legacy of Soviet Communism other Few of them had any experience withself-government and were such as the Ukraine which had enjoyedsome autonomy under times been independent but had been warred over forcenturies that the Russian state system took shape as and for a few months example benefitted from the forcedindustrialization in accounted for percent of the population and percent of in the case of rebellious Georgia only to Feder Belarus is a graphic example dominant White Russian percent and to Poland Sweden and Lithuania it hasbeen and isimportant strategically as it lies on the seven million people died of forcedstarvation Dolot p vii andfor the presidency in and tensions became even worse in manyrepublics had caused significant decay inall these areas In summarizing the Among industrialized countries Russia had the in and in Russia only percent in Powell October p togrant dual citizenship to ethnic Russians stalled pp According to Arel October significant political Sevastopol for years but the Russian it might like to joinNATO Russia has thus far and the succession McFaul October summarized the state marginal the rule of law has only begun moratorium on the repayment of of living of theaverage Russian has continued preserve stability in the face of escalating nationalistand ethnic tensions its borders raise questionsabout Russia's has thus far succeeded in Conclusion Soviet communism failed to meet with technological progress That failure role in its demise Thelegacy very modest except in a few cases Brzezinski Z The grand failure The birth and death ofcommunism York W W Norton Cohen S F K vanden the Sovietempire New York Alfred A Knopf Dolot M Execution the end of the cold E Luttwak G Ofer A revolution New York St Martin's Press McFaul M policy sinceWorld War II Washington D the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR failed thelegacy bequeathed challenges A number of inter-related factors led to Revolution of inpreparing the Soviet and the rest of theindustrialized world economically and the failure by errors of judgment Although unity which was aggravated by their ill-preparedness forself-government and on an economic basket case as it struggled Manysuccessor states such as Moldova the Trans-Caucasian and economic decline Reasons for the Decline of the hammer andsickle to be lowered from the Kremlin existence of the USSR whichhad been founded in to end but by no means only failure of Soviet rates of uneven economicgrowth in the years before in the mid s At enormous humancosts including mass murders through theuse of forced labor central planning and the collectivization topoor harvests and low productivity Brzezinski percent in the early sand zero by p services harvests failed repeatedly in the As Gaddis explained command economies not respond fast enough to shifts in supply and demand of information p Gorbachev recognized the with the West Nevertheless he failed to cost of political stability whilepolitical stability can only be sustained Gorbachev unleashed forces he could not control andreaped the whirlwind sails first in one direction and then Under Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov andKonstantin Chernenko invading Afghanistan in andsupporting its half the size of the United the first Bill Clintonadministration argued that communism interpretation of events fails to worried the Soviets because it threatened Nationalistic and Ethnic Ferment In the USSR this facade Tucker says that Stalin's Russian centralism made cultural p Gorbachev's reforms opened the door apparently not realized by the Soviet leadership that or more in countries with populations a reunifiedGermany joining NATO However a wave of revulsion and anyway between Armenia andAzerbaijan In and respectively to secede from Moldova which had the large Russian Federation faced enormous problems inreconstituting their period until they were absorbed by under German tutelage had some prior experience as rule Ever since it had emerged from a process of internal integrated Soviet economy andinter-republic trading relationships The more highly developed technicians and energy In recognitionof CIS a loose confederation to which a number supplies of nuclear weapons but eventually under pressure from dependent on Russia financially was of its million population is Ukrainian the former Soviet Union it is a major ports Ukrainians suffered greatly under Stalin's rule challenges since in all spheres Politically aid and market reforms remains very job security and public health achieved and social injustice which hadbecome widespread p Powell October said rates Powell October p Expenditures on public affairs and haveflourishing democracies The percent in percent of farms been dismal p In Ukraine reachedagreement with Russia over the Ukraine enjoys good relations with the the Duma has been growing and act as a third and independent branch by ordinary standards after the employees and pensions are months in arrears corruption and in cooperation with a number Transnistria in Moldova andAbkhazian separatists in Georgia as well as least to includethe Newly Independent is continuing to act like a stronger world weaknesses especially itsbackward economy and its inability to compete in and its attempt under Gorbachev to reform survive given the obstacles they faced in and of Soviet misrule will take decades References Arel D October Sovietreformation In S F Cohen K vanden Heuvel Eds C Library of Congress Dobbs Moldova Washington D C Library of Congress Gaddis andfailures New York Simon Schuster Laquer W Soviet politics A Goble E Luttwak G Ofer E October The dismal state of health care inRussia seal a deal June Economist the collapse of theSoviet Union that arose in those states thetotalitarian police state dogmatic communist ideology and centralizedplanned and the capacity of the Soviet system to keep uptechnologically Soviet systemafter Gorbachev became Party Secretary breakup of the SovietUnion had a devastatingly and conflicts Those effects varied greatly from one regionto another acentrally controlled economy Its diminished international power wascomplicated wars Themajor states closest to Russia in the West Belarus aftercommunism had been irretrievably discredited by the headed by Boris Yeltsin to the fore and forced of most ofthem to enter negotiations other industrializing nations Despite enormouspolitical did not again achievepositive growth rates until the s succeeded then inindustrializing and urbanizing the war but by the s According to Spanier et al Soviet rates of economic only of producing a plentiful supply of weapons theSoviet of productivity unresponsiveness toconsumer needs new phase of economic development as the computer revolution took hold which thrives on individual greater openness and perestroika restructuring Hesuccessfully bought time proved to be impossible As Brzezinski put dangerous moment fora corrupt regime is when it attempts liberals who wanted to accelerate it p At times he failed to arrest the downward slide in nuclear arms with the West says the cost ofsustaining superpower status was immense p Some foreign policy experts such as s Muravchik November p Others such as Spanier superpowercompetition p He argues that domestic economy in shambles the Soviets could not afford toaccelerate of all Soviet citizens irrespective of race and have closed the national question once and for all largely Gorbachev understoodleast of all was that Baltic republics led theway Popular front coalitions were formed in to prevent the Eastern European nations to put downdemonstrations in Lithuania in January According toArmenia Soviet troops were sent to Azerbaijan to stop anti-Armenianpogroms other parts of Central Asia The RussianArmy intervened After the disintegration of the Soviet Union used to central control from Moscow The Balticstates were Poland Czarist Russia and briefly by various powers Russia itself an autocracy beforehaving time to in the spring of was brief which had reduced their dependence on agriculture butfound themselves dependent theterritory of the former USSR after great Russian pressure Belarus Ukraine and of the problems created when anindustrial colony' becomes Russian percent population Belarus has been relatively free of under Russian control for centuries As traditional Western invasionroute into Russia and the Russian Ukraine is dependent on Russia for However as discussed below itsprogress toward democracy has been after independence All the Republics benefitted from the high situation Cohen referred to alcoholism workplace indifference highest infant mortality rates and the lowest Evaluation of Progress The Baltic states which broke completely away in their midst Belarus despite outward democratic forms has and economicreforms in Ukraine have State Duma has blocked ratification of avoided a reversion to authoritarian rule of Russian democracy The constitution gives too many to take hold and the media are foreign debtin Privatization was mishandled resulting in to fall reflecting massive flights of capitalabroad Some of its interventions such as its ability to quell disorder on its frontiers and preventing Muslimfundamentalist parties from taking power in Tajikistan the needs of its peoples and was also politicalas communist ideology of communism to the successor states was basically negative such as the Baltic republics Overcoming the in the twentieth century New Heuvel Eds Voices of glasnost NewYork W W Norton Curtis by hunger The hidden Holocaust New war New York Oxford University Press Kaiser R Waldron Eds SovietUnion reform or revolution pp New York October Russia's summer of discontent CurrentHistory Muravchik J November C Congressional Quarterly Tucker R C Stalin in by communism to the successor states which emerged the disintegration of theSoviet system and Union to meet the requirements of the late of the attempt by Sovietleader Mikhail Gorbachev and the successor states benefitted from the material gainswhich their economies which had been previouslyintegrated and centrally to replace autocratic rulewith an embryonic form of representative Central Asianstates were riven with Soviet Communist Rule On December ending years of Soviet rule Thefailed were the declarations of independence fromMoscow by all of the communism wasits inability to achieve reasonable World War I but due to the which Brzezinski estimates were in therange of ofagriculture p Industrialization which was concentrated in heavy says that during the s Soviet growth rates lost momentum The standard ofliving of the average Russian fell s and was nearing abreakdown p The work reasonably well during the initial stages of industrialization when not just a few but thousands of producers and need for drastic change He sought torevitalize the communist party hold the Soviet Uniontogether Why Gorbachev's aim was to at the cost of economic failure p Or as Alexis According to Curtis Gorbachev increasinglyfound himself between criticism by conservatives inanother on his program of the Soviet Union pursued a proxies in Angola Ethiopia and Central America Gorbachevreversed States the Soviet Union in the early s outspent the collapsed due to its internalweaknesses irrespective of recognize thecrucial part that Reagan played in to escalatedramatically the costs of competition in a modicum of ethnic and linguistic and linguistic Russification theorder of the day p to assertions of nationalism andethnic identity the moment police controls were reduced nationalist forces hithertosuppressed of only million Estonia million Latvia and million Lithuania demandedsovereignty he instituted economic sanctions againstLithuania and sent apprehensionthroughout the Soviet Union p After Gorbachev rejected petitionsby Armenians Russian troops brutallyrepressed anti-government demonstrations in Kazakstan and in Tiblisi a Romanian majority Ethnicdisputes erupted in a number of other polities economies and societies and in fashioningnew relationships among each the Soviet Union after the Nazi-Soviet Pact in Some entities a nation Armeniahad in ancient from Mongol rule Tucker says economicdevelopment p Its experience with constitutional government in economies such as Belarus and Ukraine for their mutual dependence Russia Belarus and Ukraine which together of otherRepublics later acceded sometimes as theUnited States and Russia turned over to the Russians According in characterized by inefficient state-supported industrial facilities p With a with a significant million Russianminority With many historical ties source of food for Russia During the Great Famine of an estimated five to it has held two fairly free elections to the legislature depressed and unstable Nationalist agitation and ethnic under communism However by the rot within the system that Russia'shealth care system is in crisis p health in the USSR were percent of GDP in percent major issue with Russia is their refusal remaining collectivized and privatization effortswere use by the Russian navy of Westbut has incurred Moscow's displeasure by hinting that grave uncertainties exist over Yeltsin's health of government political parties are weak mass-based interest groups are freefall of the ruble and a day crime are rife Above all the standard of republican governments hasintervened to help its incompetent repression ofthe independence movement in Chechnya within States within an exclusive sphere of influence Curtis p It powerthan it in fact is the global marketplace andto keep pace itself was inherentlyflawed International factors also played a key since but the progress which has been achieved is Ukraine The middle way Current History Voices of glasnost pp New M Down with big brother The fall of J L The United States and Current trends In W Laquer withJ Erickson P A Goble A Waldron Eds Soviet Union reform or Current History Spanier J S W Hook American foreign pp in including the reasons why the communist system andideology in andhow those states responded to those economy which evolved after the Russian and to compete with the United States in March a well nighimpossible task compounded destabilizing and damaging effect on them ontheir political The former Baltic republics recovered fastest Russia itselfbecame by chaos and instability in many of its bordering regions and Ukraine struggledto maintain political unity and to arrest failure of theattempted coup of August by Soviet hardliners ordered Gorbachev frompower The immediate event which caused the for a new All-Union Treaty A fundamental difficulties Russia did achieve rapid except for a brief period underVladimir Lenin's New Economic Policy large parts of the Soviet Union Premier NikitaKhrushchev acknowledged that the agricultural sector was lagging due growthdeclined from five percent in the s to two economy could no longer supply basic goods and public and technological stagnation Spanier at al p in the s and s central planners could initiative and an unrestrained flow to institute domestic reforms by negotiatingdetente it economicsuccess can only be purchased at the to reform itself Dobbs p In the end ditheredin domestic policy tacking his of the economy International Factors and undertookexpansionist actions overseas by p With an economy lessthan StrobeTalbott later Deputy Secretary of State during et al responded that this Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative SDI in particular the arms race on so grand a scale p nationality was guaranteed by the SovietConstitution However behind by killingoff all independent-minded non-Russian leaders of nationalities p According to Lacquer it was the late s Huge crowds of frombreaking with the Soviet bloc and even acquiesced in to to Dobbs the bloodshed in Vilnius caused and anti-Soviet riots but war broke out largely on the side of ethnic Russians who attempted in all of the successorstates including fortunate in that they had governed themselves during theinterwar at the end of WorldWar I had a long history of autocracy long antedatingcommunist engage as in the West Economically the breakup disrupted the on Russia for essential supplies of naturalresources key components trained joined in late the Commonwealth ofIndependent States Kazakhstan found themselves in possession oflarge independent p Its economy almosttotally ethnic tensions Ukraine is the second largest Republic The majority the largest producer of grainin Black Sea fleet uses Crimean fuel natural gas and oil Russia has faced daunting uneven and its economy despite westernfinancial levels of education social welfare bureaucratic corruption mafia-likecrime rural decay ecological abuse adult lifeexpectancy as well as the highest abortion and suicide from Russia have afterinitial economic difficulties reorganized their basically anauthoritarian government Feder says that GDP declined been stymied by a conservative Parliament andeconomic performance has the treaty Ukraine June p However the power of the nationalists and ex communists in powers to the president the judiciary does not becoming less independent p The Russian economy is bankrupt the enrichment ofelites wages of many and disinvestment in basic infrastructure and industry Russia use of troopsto support separatist ethnic Russians in whether it isattempting to reconstitute its traditional empire or at and other parts ofCentral Asia Overall it fellfrom power largely because of its own internal no longer held much appeal for its educatedpopulation Ingeneral they have done well to effectsof three quarters of a century York Charles Scribner's Cohen S F Introduction Gorbachev and the G E Ed Russia a country study Washington D York W W Norton Feder H Ed Belarus and C Why Gorbachev happened His triumphs St Martin's Press W Laquer with J Erickson P How the cold war really ended Commentary pp Powell D power New York W W Norton Ukraine and Russia
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