Changes in Formerly Communist Nations - Essay Example

However, the fact of the matter is that the nations which have already been listed had rather developed economies. Due to the fact that the Soviet Union was primarily concerned with its defense against the West, it built up a high level of economic strength, industrial production, infrastructure, and other means of economic development within the nations of Eastern and Central Europe. However, when one considers the level of overall economic development that existed within the remainder of the Soviet Union’s vast empire, the states of Central Asia for instance, it is rapidly understood that as disastrous as the collapse of the Soviet Union was for the individuals living within Eastern and Central Europe, it was in order of magnitude more disastrous for the undeveloped nations within Central Asia.

As a function of this, this brief analysis will consider the case of Uzbekistan and trace the hardships that it was forced to face immediately following the collapse of an empire that defined this region for the better part of 60 years (Goff et al, 2008). One of the most powerful effects that the collapse of the Soviet Union had was with regards to the economic integration that had previously existed between the empire. Although the Soviet Union engaged in outside trade, almost all of the domestic needs of production were realized within its contiguous borders.

In such a way, scientists were moved to remote regions as a means of conducting further research, cotton was specialized and grown in key areas, industry sprung up around natural resource deposits and access to rivers and the sea, and other industries were differentiated as a means of geography and need. However, this was a centrally planned economy and one in which a perfect level of natural growth could not be exhibited. In the case of all of the Soviet Union, the years immediately following its collapse were punctuated by extreme economic hardship, the lack of currency and/or currency stability, supply and demand issues, and a number of other factors directly related to transition from a centrally planned communist economy to free market economy.

In the case of Uzbekistan, the nation had only a light level of industrialization, no access to the sea, no natural land barriers, over 10 distinct ethnicities, and an environment that was heavily polluted an increasingly arid (Goff et al, 2008). In such a manner, the collapse of the Soviet Union provided an extreme level of shock to the region due to the fact that it no longer had means to sustain itself, ability to trade with the outside world, or any level of developed industry upon which you could rely.

One of the defining aspects of Uzbekistan within the Soviet Union had been its production of cotton. However due to the fact that the nation was almost predominantly arid, it lacks the water resources to continue this high output of cotton to trade with the outside world. Accordingly, as a result of the lack of resources and economic hardships that punctuated the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of order conflicts, Islamic uprisings, and failed Democratic efforts defined the way in which is Uzbekistan sought to integrate with the rest of the world.

Whereas there is doubtless and myriad of key issues that