In the 1980’s, the Soviet Union was coming to realize what they needed to be successful, whether it is economically, socially, or politically. The Soviet Union’s last leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was trying to reform the Soviet Union itself focusing more on the economic side of things, not the actual system itself. He introduced two different policies, Glasnost and Perestroika. These reforms helped the citizens of the Soviet Union, but caused other issues within the nation. When the nation could no longer benefit from those policies, it started to fall and ironically leaving many of the citizens to perish. This was a domino effect for all the other countries within the Soviet Union trading system, most importantly Cuba.
The plan of investigation for this essay is to determine the implication of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and how it affected Cuba’s economy. The investigation will assess how the Soviet Union fell and the repercussions that followed for Cuba, and how Cuba internally changed. This investigation will answer my question; “To what extent did the fall of the Soviet Union affect Cuba’s Economy in 1991?”
The Soviet Union was benefitting from their resources and became one of the most prospering countries of that time. They were the largest country in the world with the largest landmasses and were called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, more popularly known as the USSR. They had a huge impact on other countries and played a significant role of the timeline of history, i.e., they had one of the biggest military thus making them the strongest. (Odom, William) When Mikhail S. Gorbachev was the leader of the socialist Soviet Union (Strayer, Robert), he created two policies trying to create reform within the...
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...in W., and Sarah H. Levinson. "Cuba since 1991." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Loss, Jacqueline, and González José Manuel Prieto. "Introduction: Pg. 1-5." Caviar with Rum: Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Odom, William E. The Collapse of the Soviet Military. Connecticut: Yale University,1998. Print.
Roger Chapman. Review of Strayer, Robert, Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change. H-Russia, H-Net Reviews. July, 1999
Strayer, Robert W.. "Defining the Soviet Collapse." In Why did the Soviet Union collapse? understanding historical change. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. 4.
The Fall and Recovery of the Cuban Economy in the 1990s: Mirage Or Reality?, Issues 2001-2048 http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3286
Economically, Cubans “enjoyed one of the one of the highest standards of living in Latin America” (34). This is predominately due to the fact that Cuba exported half its sugar and two-thirds of it total exports into the U.S., and imported three-fourths of their total imports from the U.S. Although the U.S. (35). Although the U.S. boosted the Cuban economy, Cubans resented that they were still living at an economic level lower than Americans. The average Cuban income was one- third the average of Mississippi, the poorest state in the U.S. in th...
“Cuba - A Case of Communist Take-Over.” The New York Times Magazine July 1961: 59-64 Guido, Jessica.
The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.
Reexamined. London: Lynne Rienner, 1998. “Inspector General’s Survey of the Cuban Operation and Associated Documents.”
White, Robert E. 2013. "After Chávez, a Chance to Rethink Relations With Cuba". The New
Griswold, Daniel T. “No: The embargo harms Cubans and gives Castro an excuse for the policy failures of his regime.” 4 September 2003
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.
... the majority of which sought refuge in the United States. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba now stands at a crossroads. The battle cry has changed from “ Socialism or death to Resist, struggle and win” (Castro’s Cuba II). Hopefully, Castro and/or Cuba will not be forced into a market-based economy and all the materialistic commodities that go along with capitalism. In my opinion, Castro should hold out for as long as possible griping to the former battle cry “Socialism or death”. Only time will tell what the fate of Castro’s Cuba will be. Trade might once again flourish the economy, tourism might open up new economic opportunities and foreign investments from Italy, France and Spain could possibly dig Cuba out the current economic hole it’s in. Until then however, the battle against capitalism must not lose any of its vigor.
On this day 191 years ago John Quincy Adams expressed his prediction for the future of Cuban-American contact. The Cuban wars of independence were only 15 years away from his prediction when he estimated. These independence wars continue to influence Cuba’s cultural and political attitude toward Europe and the United States; This in part due to the externalities involved in the remodeling of social structure in the aftermath of the revolution. The intentions and motives of each faction: rebels, United States government, Spanish government, United States public, and the Cuban public, varied widely to an extend that caused even more concern in the future. Depending on the point of view of an outsider the situation in Cuba seemed to be a continuation of revolution...
“The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: A National Security Archive Documents Reader” edited by Laurence Chang and Peter Kornbluh and “Cuba on the Brink: Castro, the Missile Crisis and the Soviet Collapse” by James G. Blight will be evaluated by referring to their origin, purpose, value and limitation.
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.
Lafeber, W. (2002), America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2000. 9th edn. New-York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
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 eventually emerged into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union crumbled during 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.
However the US played a much larger role in Cuba’s past and present than the building of casinos and the introduction of the first taints of corruption. In the past, even before Batista, Americans were resented by Cubans because the Americans made a lot of Cuba’s decisions. Under Batista, 80% of Cuban imports came from the US, and the US controlled at least 50% of sugar, utilities, phones and railroads. If Cuba was a business in the stock markets, then the US would have been close to owning 50% of its shares. When combined with a long history of US-backe...
...E. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.