Collapse of the Soviet Union - Term Paper Example

Collapse of the Soviet Union Introduction Before its collapse, the Soviet Union was one of the two superpowers in the world, the first being the United States of America. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the end of communism as the Soviet Union was the pioneers of this system of government. The Soviet Union seen as the power ruling the world from the East was always at loggerheads with the United States, which was the power from the West and it was only the collapse of the Soviet Union that would make the US the only superpower in the world. This has made different countries to accuse the US of masterminding the fall of this great republic as it was only the fall of the Soviet Union that would have made the US the sole superpower in the world. The Soviet Union utterly rejected the cultures and values of the west as they were in full control of their lives and it was not until the collapse of the republic that the individual countries that constituted the old republic begin to accept some norms and values of the west. The Soviet Union also were also advanced in the art of warfare and they were technologically advanced during that period and it was only very few countries that could match up with its strength. Like any other collapse before or after it, there were different reasons behind the collapse of the Soviet Union and these causes shall be analyzed in this paper. The collapse of the Soviet was unarguably one of the most controversial events of the twentieth century and the collapse of the Soviet bloc still has far-reaching consequences in the world today and the impacts would continue to be felt in the years that follow. Countries of the former Soviet Union have been really affected by the collapse of the bloc, while some countries like Russia and Estonia have come out of the Soviet Union strong, some like Armenia and Azerbaijan have grown weaker. The effect of the collapse on the countries of the Soviet Union shall be highlighted in this paper and it would help us to know the countries that were greatly affected by the collapse and the ones that the collapse had little or no effect on. Though, the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, there had been cracks in the walls that held the republic together (Remnick 19). The collapse of the Soviet Union with its fortified walls shows that there is no great country, civilization or republic that cannot crumble and its fall is a lesson to other powers of the world, especially the superpower US. The Soviet Union looked so strong after the Second World War to the ninth decade of that century. The strength of the Soviet Union was made possible by the strong communist and totalitarian regime in the region at that time. Why did the collapse happen? The collapse of the Soviet Union happened due to the inability of Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 to effectively implement his Perestroika policy (Von Laue 92). Gorbachev had raised the hopes of the non-Russian citizens of the Soviet Union and his failure to effectively manage these aspirations ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The fact that the Perestroika failed to improve the economy of the republic and the fact that it created a sort of imbalance in the Soviet economic system played a part in bringing the republic to its end. Another thing that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union was the Glasnost policy that was introduced by Gorbachev in 1985. The Glasnost strengthened the economy of the individual countries of the Soviet Union and as a result reduced their dependence on the Soviet Union which ultimately brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 (Von Laue 78). The need for economic and political change in the Soviet Union made the Perestroika and the Glasnost to be introduced into the economy to strengthen the economy, reform the political system and improve the social system of the Soviet Union. But, the Perestroika and the Glasnost that were thought to be the lifelines of the Soviet Union ultimately led to its collapse (Carrère dEncausse). The policies that Gorbachev introduced into the Soviet Union political system took the traditional practices from the system but did not replace them entirely and this also played a part in the collapse of the republic as there was some sort of loopholes in the system. The standard pattern of living of the people of the Soviet Union was lost and Gorbachev did not fully replace these norms. There was now a sort of vacuum created in the Soviet Union political and social system and this anomaly resulted in a series of ethnic clashes, workers’ strike and an increase in the rate of crime in the Soviet Union. The individual nations of the Soviet Union did not have faith in the republic again and this made them seek for other alternatives and eventually secede from the republic. Several of the member states of the Socialist Republics started criticizing the central government and resisting their actions and thwarting their policy moves. As a result of this, the central government of the Soviet Union weakened and its collapse was not surprising as there were already some indications to this collapse. The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991 after Boris Yeltsin seized power after the failed coup to topple Mikhail Gorbachev from government (Matthews & Platt 684). Another program that Gorbachev introduced was uskorenive, which was a reform that was aimed at speeding up economic development. The uskorenive, glasnost and the peretroika all contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union as the economy suffered hidden and open inflation and there was shortage of supply which was caused by an ever increasing and open black market that incapacitated the formal economy. The Soviet Union now entered into a backward phase in their history and they could no longer match up with the technology of the western world and this made them thrive to improve their technology and adopt some of the practices of the western world and it was this process that also contributed to their downfall. The flexibility of the glasnost policies made the Communist party to lose their control of the media and this made the lapses of the Soviet Union to be exposed through the media. It was not too long after this that the media began to expose the many evils of the Soviet Union and problems that the authorities thought they had wisely concealed from the people were exposed. The citizens of the Soviet Union were intimated by the media on the social and economic problems that the Soviet Union was faced with. As a result of this, the people of the Soviet Union showed little or no confidence in the Soviet government as they learnt of different areas in the large republic that were faced with the problems of poor housing, drug abuse and alcoholism, pollution, dilapidated factories that were built during the regime of Stalin and corruption in the corridors of power. All these facts were not known to the public before as the official media was clever in concealing these facts from the people. The people started having a negative perspective about on the Soviet Union as they had been previously fed with everything that seemed good about the country and this was a tell-tale sign that the country was heading for the rocks. Though the motive behind Gorbachev’s changes were good as he wanted to revive the economy of the Soviet Union, strengthen its democracy and make the market of the Soviet Union open to all its citizen, but it was this same changes that eventually led to its collapse. The fact that the ruling bodies of the Soviet Union were not psychologically ready for these changes made the Soviet Union to eventually collapse as there was no real basis for these changes to operate upon as this made the individual states to gain power to the detriment of the Soviet government. What happened after the collapse? According to Matthews & Platt, “Elation quickly gave way to pessimism, as ethnic hatreds revived in the post-Communist world, leading to outbreaks of violence and localized wars.” (683). This was the fate of the individual countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union as the feeling of excitement that they could exist on their own and have their own country separate from the other countries of the Soviet Union inadvertently gave way to pessimism in the Soviet system and these resulted in communal clashes and ethnic strife amongst these countries as they now felt they could no longer exist together. The newly independent nations of the defunct Soviet Union had serious problems existing as a nation and there was a threat to their sovereignty. The fall of the Soviet Union resulted in the collapse of industries in the region and the breakdown of the combined farm system and the destruction of rural infrastructure in that region. There was an increase in the number of unemployment in the region as the lands of the satellites of Russia and member states of the Soviet Union were getting privatized. Jobs were no longer available in some of the member states of the defunct Soviet Union. There was an outbreak of poverty after the collapse as the financial walls that held the member states of the Soviet Union together ultimately collapsed with the republic. Women were now a tool that was used by traffickers to make quick money as they offered them juicy contracts in reward for their bodies. The future of the youths was not guaranteed as most of them took to the streets bearing firearms (Carrère dEncausse 79). It was not only unemployment and poverty that was the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the social system also gradually deteriorated. Before the collapse, the member states of the Soviet Union enjoyed some social amenities as the government provided medical facilities for preschool children and all citizens and qualitative education for all ages. As a result of the collapse, many day care centers closed down and the ones that still exist are not affordable to everyone as there was insufficient funding in the system. A vacuum was now created after the collapse as the social amenities were no longer there and this represented a dark time in the history of the Soviet Union. How this change the world at that moment and now. The collapse of the world affected the balance in the world as the power from the eastern hemisphere was brought down. The control of the Soviets in eastern and central Europe was ended and the power structure in Europe was rebalanced and this spread throughout the whole world considering the fact that Soviet Union was one of the two superpowers of the world. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled the end of hard core communism and made the United States of America the victors of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought about the creation of a new world order as the civilization and ideologies of the west began to thrive during this period of change. The United States of America seemed the country that benefited mostly from the collapse of the Soviet Union as the republic that was always competing in almost all areas had fallen, it should also be noted that other countries like Cuba that had good bilateral relationships with the Soviet Union suffered from their collapse. It is no doubt that the collapse of the Soviet Union ultimately changed the political and economic environment of the world, but the fact remains that it also had a great impact on the fifteen countries that made up the republic and some of the Soviet countries that were affected shall be discussed below. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia started experiencing some economic problems as their economy had been dependent on trade with other republics of the Soviet Union. Armenia was now isolated from the world economy as its strife with Azerbaijan and Turkey did its economy no good. The industries in Armenia depended on fuels imported from these countries and the embargo laid by these countries on the exportation of fuel to Armenia meant that the country would find it difficult existing as a nation and meeting the needs of its citizen. As a result of this, most industries in Armenia were forced to close down and the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by about sixty percent from 1991 to 1993 (Carrère dEncausse). Azerbaijan also felt the effect of the collapse of the Soviet Union as its economy was crippled in the first few years of the collapse. The ethnic conflict in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh worsened the economic situation of the infant nation as the government had to provide for about one million refugees. Inflation grew out of proportion and rose to an unbelievable 1,664 % in 1994 and this is enough to destroy even the strongest economy in the world. The currency of the country was also of no value as the value had seriously depreciated when compared to other currencies of the world. The living standard in Azerbaijan deteriorated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the country seemed to have really suffered the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Belarus also suffered the effect of the collapse of the Soviet Union as the standard of living of Belarusians drastically dropped. The income earned by the people did not match up with the ever-increasing standard of living. Even food was not affordable to the average citizens of Belarus and about half of the Belarusian population was stricken by poverty. The governments placed heavy taxation burden on the few companies that were in the country and this made the industries to either fold up or leave the country to other suitable regions. As a result of this, the few job opportunities provided by these companies were no longer available and the Belarusian people became more jobless. The health system was also affected as the rate of deaths amongst infants doubled that in the US and there was also a shortage of medical facilities and equipments. The people’s right to speak freely was denied as the government restricted the people and the media from exercising these fundamental rights since 1995. However, there were violent clashes between people that opposed the policies of the government, the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) and the guerillas. Estonia remains one of the few countries that has benefited from the collapse of the Soviet Union as its economy has been thriving since its secession from the republic. It engaged in a series of trade with the western economies, especially countries in the Nordic region. Estonia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999 and its economy is booming when compared to the other countries of the Soviet Union. Georgia was also affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union as the country suffered serious political and economic setbacks. There was an array of ethnic strife and an imbalance political system in the country shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country have however recovered from these setbacks as its foot are now solidly on the ground after the political wrangling reduced and the government introduced some economic reforms in the mid 1990s that really helped the country (Von Laue 91). Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare its independence and it was also faced with ethnic strife like most of the other countries that broke from the republic and in 1992, it all looked like the country was getting freed from the ethnic tensions that threatened its sovereignty as a nation (Von Laue 78). Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan also had a fair share of the ethnic and political upheavals. There was serious ethnic strife in the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. Latvia and Moldova suffered from environmental mismanagements, Lithuania faced economic depression. In Ukraine, the fall of the Soviet Union played a part in deteriorating an already shaky economy as President Kraychuk was not quick in implementing his reforms that were aimed at improving the economy of Ukraine (Von Laue 118). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia emerged the strongest independent nation of the Soviet Union, but the fact remains that almost all of the countries of the defunct Soviet Union suffered a very serious political and economical crisis. Russia for instance entered a difficult phase in their history as they needed to take very tough policies that would help move the country in the right direction. The president of Russia at that time faced serious criticism from the legislative arm of government as there was political chaos in the country. PresidentYeltsin was tackled at almost all fronts and this is just to show that the newly independent nation was finding it so hard to work together as a nation (Von Laue 89). The battles between President Yeltsin and the legislative were partially a power tussle as they fought him over who was truly in charge of the country. The battles were also centered on the policies of Yeltsin as the legislative argued that they were fighting in the interest of the country and in order to protect the national pride of the country. The fact that Russia was the strongest country to emerge from the Soviet Union does not mean they did not have their problems and issues to tackle as this has been plainly explained above. The domestic reforms of Gorbachev changed the course of history and played a part in the collapse of the centralized structure of the Soviet Union as some member states of the republic fought for their independence and some of the other member states gained control over their respective regions. The collapse of the Soviet Union has helped to spread capitalism across the world as its collapse brought an end to communism and perhaps played a part in reducing socialism giving room for the ideals of the United States to thrive. Works Cited Carrère dEncausse, Hélène. The End of the Soviet Empire: The Triumph of the Nations New York: Basic Books, 1992. Matthews, Roy & Platt, Dewitt. The Western Humanities 6th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. Remnick, David. Lenins Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire Massachusetts: Vintage Books, 1994. Von Laue, Theodore. Why Lenin? Why Stalin? Why Gorbachev?: The Rise and Fall of the Soviet System. 3rd ed. HarperCollins, 1992. Read More