During the 1970’s and the 1980’s the Soviet Union was recognized worldwide as being a strong political power, although the Soviet Union was not as it appeared to be. When Mikhail Gorbachev (see Figure 1) was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 11 March 1985, not one soul could have predicted that in 6 years the Soviet Union would collapse into fifteen separate states. He attempted to make the Soviet system into a democracy, which backfired quickly (Grachev, 1995). The main reasons for the fall of the USSR are economic issues, political issues, psychological factors, and the competition with the West, the leading issue being economic factors. The USSR’s economy eventually turned into a standstill, with no improvement what so ever, and the nation became desperate. The economic factors are linked with the political factors. Such things as dishonesty, propaganda, and secrecy also played a large role in the USSR’s collapse.
Mikhail Gorbachev had a vision for the USSR. He often referred to two words: openness and restructuring (Gill, 1994). Gorbachev fought long and hard to hold on to some form of a union. He preferred a federation, but was flexible enough that if necessary he was ready to settle for a Confederation Union of independent states (Grachev, 1995). The new emergence of strong local governments was a threat for the unity of the country, even so Gorbachev still fought hard to maintain a union. In 1991 Gorbachev (after much persuasion) formed an alliance with the conservatives who wanted to keep the country as a connected whole (Grachev, 1995). Soon after forming, it became obvious that the price of the alliance would be the abandonment of an improvement for the Soviet Union. The reform wa...
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...felt reasonable and sound” (Grachev, 1995, 33). The second reason was more subconscious, reflecting his confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety towards what was happening to his nation.
Politically the USSR had many issues. Beginning with the fact that none of the people in power could seem to agree on anything.
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to assume the role of dictator. This was a phenomenon which was to become a
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"From Autocracy to Oligarchy." The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents. Ed. Ronald Grigor. Suny. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. 340-50. Print.
Janos, Andrew C. “What was Communism: A Retrospective in Comparative Analysis.” Communist and Post- Communist Studies Volume 29 (1996): 1-24. Print.