The
Disintegration of
Soviet Union
HISTORY
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The Disintegration of Soviet Union
The Revolution of 1917 was the major event in World History with the birth of the USSR challenging capitalist
ideology. The newborn soviet socialist state was the influence on the oppressive countries, and the ideology
also showed the path of alternative to Capitalism. Though during the Second World War Both Russia and
America joined hands after the war, the tussle grew manyfold and led to the birth of the Cold War. But the
internal politics of Russia was not going well, Russia fell an iron curtain to its border, and its exploitation of the
states under the USSR grew an attraction to the Capitalist USA. Thus during the time of Gorbachev, the USSR
disintegrated, and all the states under the USSR announced their independence.
The problems of the second superpower were very different from those of the United States. Its economic
problems were of a different order of hopelessness, its society more corrupt, cruel, and inefficient, its very
existence as a state in question. The end of the Cold War was no ordinary capitulation. If in one sense a
military defeat was caused by the economic impossibility of continuing the war, the failure was also one which
permeated the political and social system, atrophied the nerve and spirit, and created a sense of doom.
Contents
Background of New Changes of Gorbachev
Gorbachev’s New Thinking
Changes in the Economy
Political Changes
The fault of Gorbachev’s Policies
Opposition from radicals and conservatives
The Poor Result of Economic Reform
Nationalist Pressure
Reason for Growth of Radicalism
Lithuania
Armenia
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Rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin
Coup of 1991
Result of the Coup
Conclusion
Practice Question for Mains
Fall of Soviet Union
Background of New Changes of Gorbachev
After Leonid Brezhnev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1964, he showed little taste for reform.
Innovations in the economic sector that his predecessor, Nikita Khrushchev, had introduced were quickly
shelved.
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Under Brezhnev, the Soviet Union entered a seventeen-year-long "era of stagnation" that only a
change in leadership could reverse.
In 1979, the Soviet Union's ministries ceased publishing statistics in order not to reveal the fact that the
country was falling further behind the West in productivity, health care, and the standard of living.
He had three successors in three years: Yuri Andropov, who died in 1984, Konstantin Chernenko, who
died in 1985 and Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom the long-awaited next generation, at last, reached the
top.
In March 1985, the Communist Party elected as general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, who immediately
took a number of highly publicized steps to transform the Soviet Union.
Gorbachev advocated a new openness, glasnost, giving Soviet citizens and officials alike the freedom to
discuss not only the strengths but also the weaknesses of society.
This approach was reflected in Pravda, the newspaper of the Communist Party, which began to cover
disasters such as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, floods, collisions between ships in the Black Sea,
corruption, cover-ups, shoddy workmanship, police abuse, Stalin's impact on society, and so on.
Motion pictures never before shown to the public played to sell-out crowds. The Gorbachev revolution
was on its way.
Gorbachev’s New Thinking
Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev – intelligent, courageous, and politically agile – embarked upon a course of economic and
political reforms under the twin banners of glasnost and perestroika: glasnost meaning openness and in
particular an end to the pervasive falsification of economic performance perestroika meaning the
restructuring of the economy in the broadest sense of that word.
When the Communist Party turned to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet public and the West knew little
about him, although in December 1984 he had made a successful appearance on the world stage during
his visit to London where he had behaved, unlike previous Soviet visitors.
Khrushchev's visit in 1955 had turned sour when he reminded his hosts ominously of his country's
potentially devastating nuclear arsenal.
Gorbachev spoke, instead, of the need to disarm and reminded the British of their wartime alliance
with the Soviet Union and their losses at Coventry.
Gorbachev’s new policy opens the path to reconciliation.
Gorbachev soon caused another stir with his speech in February 1985. in which he declared that the
Soviet Union was in need of a radical transformation. "Paper shuffling, an addiction to fruitless meetings,
windbag gery and formalism" would no longer do.
He proved to be a careful reformer who understood that politics is the art of the possible
As time went by, however, he showed that he intended to reorganize the system.
The Soviet Union, he declared, must undergo radical perestroika, or restructuring. To that end, "new
thinking" was required.
Changes in the Economy
Important changes were soon afoot. In November 1986 Gorbachev announced that 1987 was to be the
year for broad applications of the new methods of Economic management.
A small-scale private enterprise such as family restaurants, family businesses making clothes or
handicrafts, or providing services such as car and television repair, painting, and decorating was to be
allowed.
The number of Co-operative members was increased to a maximum of 50 workers.
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One motive behind this reform was the desire to provide competition for the slow and inefficient services
provided by the state, in the hope that Competition accelerated the Improvement in all the Sectors of the
Economy.
Another motive was the need to provide alternative jobs as patterns of employment changed over the
following decade.
Another important change was that responsibility for quality control throughout the industry as a whole
was to be taken over by the independent state bodies rather than factory management.
The most important change in this direction was the introduction of the Law on State Enterprises, which
removed the central planner's total control over raw materials production quotas and trade and
factories' work to orders from Customers.
Political Changes
These began in January 1987 when Gorbachev announced moves toward democracy within the Party.
Instead of members of local soviets being appointed by the local Communist Party, they were to be
elected by the people and there was to be a choice of candidates (though not of parties).
There were to be secret elections for top party positions and elections in factories to choose managers.
In 1988 dramatic changes in central government were achieved. The old parliament was only met two
times.
Elections went ahead, and the first Congress of People's Deputies met in May 1989 well known figures
were elected including Medvedev, Boris Yeltsin, and Gorbachev elected as president of the Soviet Union,
with two councils to advise and help.
One contained his personal Advisers
The other contained representatives fromthe 15 republics.
These new bodies completely sidelined the old system and it meant that the Communist Party was on the
verge of Collapse.
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The Fault of Gorbachev’s Policies
Opposition from Radicals and Conservatives
As the reforms got underway, Gorbachev ran into problems. Some party members, such as Boris
Yeltsin, were more radical than Gorbachev and felt that the reforms were not drastic enough.
They wanted a change to a western-style market economy as quickly as possible, though they knew this
would cause great short-term hardship for the Russian people.
On the other hand, the conservatives, like YegorLigachev, felt that the changes were too drastic and that
the Party was in danger of losing control.
This caused a dangerous split in the Party and made it difficult for Gorbachev to satisfy either group.
The conservatives were in a large majority, and when the Congress of People's Deputies elected the new
Supreme Soviet (May 1989), it was packed with conservatives; Yeltsin and many other radicals were not
elected.
This led to massive protest demonstrations in Moscow, where Yeltsin was a popular figure since he had
cleaned up the corrupt Moscow Communist Party organization.
Demonstrations would not have been allowed before Gorbachev's time, but glasnost - encouraging
people to voice their criticisms - was now in full flow, and was beginning to turn against the Communist
Party.
The Poor Result of Economic Reform
The rate of economic growth in 1988 and 1989 stayed exactly the same as it had been in previous
years.
In 1990 national income actually fell, and continued to fall by about 15 percent in 1991.
Some economists think that the USSR was going through an economic crisis as serious as the one in the
USA in the early 1930s.
A major cause of the crisis was the disastrous results of the Law on State Enterprises.
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The problem was that wages were now dependent on output, but since output was measured by its value
in rubles, factories were tempted not to increase overall output, but to concentrate on more expensive
goods and reduce the output of cheaper goods.
This led to higher wages, forcing the government to print more money to pay them. Inflation soared,
and so did the government's budget deficit.
Basic goods such as soap, washing powder, razor-blades, cups and saucers, TV sets, and food were in very
short supply, and the queues in the towns got longer.
Disillusion with Gorbachev and his reforms rapidly set in, and, having had their expectations raised by
his promises, people became outraged at the shortages.
By the end of July, the general economic situation did not improve. Early in 1990, it was calculated that
about a quarter of the population was living below the poverty line. The worst affected were those with
large families, the unemployed, and pensioners.
Gorbachev was fast losing control of the reform movement which he had started.
National Pressure
These also contributed to Gorbachev's failure and led to the break-up of the USSR.
The Soviet Union was a federal state consisting of 15 separate republics, each with its own parliament.
The Russian republic was just one of the 15, with its parliament in Moscow (Moscow was also the
meeting place for the federal Supreme Soviet and Congress of People's Deputies).
The republics had been kept under tight control since Stalin's time, but glasnost and perestroika
encouraged them to hope for more powers for their parliaments and more independence from
Moscow.
Gorbachev himself seemed sympathetic, provided that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) remained in overall control. However, once started, demands got out of hand.
The most serious challenge came from the Baltic States-Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia- where so-called
popular fronts began to test the limits of Gorbachev’s “Democratization”.
First, they demanded Economic autonomy, stating they were merely supporting perestroika- that
is decentralization of the top-heavy economy.
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They spoke of fielding their own teams for future Olympic Games and declared their communist
parties to be independent of the party in Moscow.
Then came the inevitable talk of Succession.
Reason for Growth of Radicalism
The reason for the continuous growth of Radicalism in the Baltic States can be found in their recent
History,
They had been part of the Russian empire for over two hundred years, but after the revolution of 1917,
they had managed to establish their independence, which however lasted until 1940.
During the Second World War a secret treaty had been signed between Hitler and Stalin known as the
Non-Aggression pact. Through this treaty, they decided to divide eastern Europe between them.
According to this treaty, the Baltic States fall under the Soviet's part, and Stalin deported or murdered
hundreds of thousands of suspected nationalists.
As glasnost produced a critical reassessment of the Stalin era, the infamous Hitler-Stalin pact could not be
ignored.
Lithuania
In December 1989 the Communist Party of Lithuania voted to establish its independence from Moscow.
In January 1990, Gorbachev took a highly publicized trip to Lithuania in an attempt to convince the people
there of the dangers of secessionism.
He pleaded, cajoled, and issued thinly veiled threats, all to no avail. As his limousine departed for the
airport, the crowd jeered him.
In Moscow, the spokesman for the Foreign Office, Gennady Gerasimov, remarked that the divorce
between Lithuania and Russia must follow an orderly course.
Lithuanians quickly replied that there had been no marriage, only an abduction, and rape and that there
was nothing to negotiate.
On March 11, 1990, the newly and freely elected parliament of Lithuania unilaterally declared its
independence.
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Not all nationalist grievances were directed against the Russians. As Lithuanians demonstrated against
the Russians, the Polish minority in Lithuania demonstrated for incorporation into Poland.
Nearly every Soviet republic had territorial claims against a neighbor. As the Georgians sought to free
themselves from Moscow, Muslim Abkhazians in western Georgia demonstrated against the heavy hand
of the dominant Christian Georgians.
Armenia
The bloodiest clash among Soviet nationalities was between the Christian Armenians and the Shiite
Muslim, Turkic speakers of Azerbaidzhan.
When Gorbachev gave the Armenians a voice, they immediately demanded the return of a piece of their
historical territory, Nagorno-Karabakh, which Stalin had placed under the Azeri administration in 1923.
Armenian national consciousness is deeply affected by the 1915 massacre at the hands of the Turks, in
which 1.5 million Armenians died. The Turks then drove the Armenians from their historic territory in
what today is eastern Turkey, As a result, the symbol of Armenian nationalism, biblical Mount Ararat, is in
Turkey, just across the border from Armenia's capital, Yerevan.
Tensions rose in February 1988, when up to a hundred thousand people demonstrated in Yerevan over a
period of several days against Azerbaidzhan but also against Moscow and Communism.
At the end of the month, Azeris staged a pogrom in Sumgait, a city just north of Baku, the capital of
AzerBijan, where thirty-two Armenians were murdered.
In June 1988, the Communist Party of Armenia voted to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh, and the
Communist Party of Azerbaidzhan voted to defend it. For the first time, the Communist parties of the
Soviet Union split along national lines and went to war against each other.
Only Moscow's intervention minimized further bloodshed, but the fear and hatred remained.
When, in December 1988, an earthquake destroyed much of eastern Armenia, killing tens of thousands,
Azeris rejoiced over the misery of their neighbors.
Rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin
Gorbachev and Yeltsin were now bitter rivals, disagreeing on many fundamental issues.
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Yeltsin believed that the union should be voluntary, which meant that each republic should be
independent but also have joint responsibilities to the Soviet Union as well. If any republic wanted to opt-
out, as Lithuania did, it should be allowed to do so. However, Gorbachev thought that a purely voluntary
union would lead to disintegration.
Yeltsin was now completely disillusioned with the Communist Party and the way the traditionalists had
treated him. He thought the Party no longer deserved its privileged position in the state. Gorbachev was
still hoping against hope that the Party could be transformed into a humane and democratic organization.
On the economy, Yeltsin thought the answer was a rapid changeover to a market economy, though he
knew that this would be painful for the Russian people. Gorbachev was much more cautious, realizing
that Yeltsin's plans would cause massive unemployment and even higher prices.
Coup of 1991
As the crisis deepened, Gorbachev and Yeltsin tried to work together, and Gorbachev found himself being
pushed towards free multi-party elections.
In July 1990, Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party.
Gorbachev was now losing control, and many of the republics declared independence when Soviet troops
were used to prevent those rebellions in Lithuania and Latvia, the people organized massive
demonstrations.
In April 1991 Georgia declared independence
In May 1991 Gorbachev held a conference with the leaders of the 15 republics and persuaded them to
form a new voluntary union in which they will be largely independent from Moscow.
The agreement was to be formally signed on 20th August 1991.
At this juncture, the hardline communists including Gorbachev’s vice president Gennady Yanayev decided
to organize a coup against Gorbachev.
On August 19, 1991, as Gorbachev vacationed in Crimea, the leaders of Soviet military and paramilitary
organizations-Defense Minister DmitriiYazov, the chief of the secret police (the KGB) Vladimir Kriuchkov,
and Minister of the Interior Boris Pugo sent tanks into the streets of Moscow and declared a state of
emergency.
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They declared that Gorbachev had taken ill and Vice-President Yanaev was assuming the position of
president.
Gorbachev’s new union treaty was canceled.
However, the coup was poorly organized and the leaders failed to arrest Yeltsin.
On 21 August the coup leaders admitted defeat, and they were eventually arrested.
Yeltsin had triumphed and Gorbachev was able to return to Moscow.
Result of Coup
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The Communist Party was disgraced and discredited by the actions of the hardliners. Even Gorhachcv was
now convinced that the Party was beyond reform and he soon resigned as party general secretary.
Yeltsin was seen as the hero and Gorhachcv was increasingly sidelined. Yeltsin ruled the Russian
Federation as a separate republic, introducing a drastic programme to move to a free-market economy.
These developments meant that Gorbachev’s rule as president of the USSR had ceased to exist, and he
resigned on Christmas Day, 1991.
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By the end of 1991, the Red flag with its golden hammer and sickle, the symbol of the Bolshevik seizure of
power in 1917, came down from the buildings of the Kremlin and was replaced with the old flag of
Imperial Russia.
Conclusion
The Collapse of the USSR had the same significance as that of the Rise of the USSR, moreover, the fall
resulted in the End of the cold war, because the bipolar world was turned into a unipolar world. The US was
the only superpower that existed. The collapse of the USSR also throws some questions regarding the
significance of Marxism or Socialism.
Probable Mains Questions
1. Write down the process of disintegration of the USSR. (250 words, 15 marks)
2. What were the new changes that Gorbachev introduced? (300 words, 20 marks)
3. What was Glasnost and Perestroika? Why are the republic states willing to independence them?
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