End of World War Two and Collapse of Soviet Communism - Essay Example

End of world war two and collapse of Soviet communism Introduction There are many events that took place in the ancient past that people today refer to as history. Some of these event left people in some kind of wonder as they still do not understand the reason as to why those occurrences came into existence. There are two occurrences that this paper intends to discuss though one of these events did no instill any feeling on the lives of the people. There are many occurrences that took place in the past though this paper only intends to talk about the end of world war two and fall of Soviet communism. End of World war two There are very many factors that led to the end of Second World War though only one is majored on because it forms the basis of all other possible factors. It is said or believed that world war two came to an end due to the surrender of the axis powers of which consisted of Germany and other countries that also fell on that bracket. The allies used all the possible means in ensuring that the war came to an end. The allies managed to outthought the Axis power because they were many and received support from other countries that were economically stable and powerful. Though the Axis power was very much powerful, the allies managed to out through their power due to the large masses or number of people that they could not manage to control. They also found support from other states that managed to support them by giving them the superior Weapons. There are those powerful countries that had been dormant for several years due to certain restrictions such as the doctrine that governed their states. It is therefore through the broken silence of these countries that the allies got privileged because all these countries turned against the Axis powers and gave the necessary support to the allies. The end of communism The end of communism dint happen abruptly, it is something that happened slowly and gradually .it took some time and slowly but surely more people in east Europe started hating it and its oppressive nature .The very first cases of the rejection of communism begun in east central Europe and one by one all those countries from that said region came out of the soviet union. More countries looked at the new set up that Gorbachev had put in place and they dint like it .Gorbachev dint want to use force anymore lest people criticized him and looked down at what he had achieved .No attempts of bringing back sanity among those countries of central and Eastern Europe happened since they were in charge of their own countries.Gorbachev had no power nor moral authority to interfere with the matters that concerned the renegades who viewed his style of looking at things as oppressive in nature. The antagonism went on for some time until Gorbachov totally lost control of the Soviet Union. This was first started when communism lost popularity among people of the east and central Europe. Weakening of the Soviet Union According to the Soviet Union became weak and this started being noticed by many in the ambiguity that Gorbachev had in his nuclear program for disarmament and many other weakness. The soviet union slowly but surely started becoming weak and this was clearly seen when they begun to loose control over the eastern bloc nations .In the year 1988, Gorbachev made a public announcement that the Soviet Union authorities would abandon the doctrine that they had traditionally adhered to in a bid to control others. He announced that they were going to allow all the countries in the eastern bloc to freely handle their own domestic affairs. The soviets became less involved in the internal affairs of other nations that they had previously controlling .Although this was viewed by many as the most momentous steps by Gorbachev and his endeavors to improve Russia’s foreign policy. In a speech while addressing the Council of Europe which was held in Strasbourg, France, He claimed that the political and social order had immensely changed in most countries and urged others to do so. He even went ahead to criticize the interference of internal affairs of other countries by powerful nations or an attempt to look down upon the sovereignty and independence of other smaller states. Moscow later on abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine and that in many ways sort of allowed the rise of popular smalltime wars and upheavals among the Eastern European nations throughout the year 1989 consequently necessitating the overthrow of communism .By end of that year (1989) upheavals and revolts had scattered and spread allover eastern Europe .With a few exceptions like Romania, the wanton upheavals against all the pro-Soviet concept of communism regimes were a bit peaceful. The weakening of Soviet Union’s hegemony and power over Eastern Europe partly contributed to ending of Cold War. Even after the Soviet Union’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, talks continued between Gorbachev and the then American president George H. W. Bush. From these talks it was revealed that domestic reforms in the soviet were suffering from a lot of contradictory and diverging ideas from reformists. Most of them criticized the speed at which some of the reforms were taking pace, claiming that they were not going to bring any change soon. Despite all this, Gorbachev attempted to reconcile the various groups but still got a lot of tough criticism from various groups. At this point, the agenda now changed from reforms to basically the gradual dissolution of the former powerful Soviet Union. A few years later, people from East Germany suddenly started crossing through the famous Berlin Wall and getting into West Berlin. This was after a peaceful protest that civilians put up against the dictatorial administration that was in place. Unlike those other earlier riots and protests that were normally ended by use of military force assisted by the USSR, Gorbachev becomes popular among people from West Germany. With all this happening ,Gorbachev decided not to ,in any way ,interfere with what ever that was going on in Germany and even the whole reunification by both west and east Germany to him ,it become more of a German internal matter and he saw no need of interfering. The Soviet Union’s leadership sort of appeared to be a clear indication of the fact that they had lost authority and power in both Eastern Europe and diminished influence in Western Europe. Pundits and historians are of the view that it’s very unlikely that Gorbachev intended for the absolute and total dismantling of the communism system in most countries. They believe that Gorbachev may be assumed that communism in Eastern Europe was to be used to achieve some reforms. Dissolution of the Soviet Union One of the main factors that led to the weakening that necessitated the dissolution of the Soviet Union was that Gorbachev had come up with very unpopular economic policies that almost brought the economy and livelihood to a halt (Laird, 1998). Most of his political policies and initiatives were seen to be positive and helpful in matters that concerned democracy and freedom among Soviets and their its Eastern bloc friends but not his unfavorable economic policies. His economic policies led to severe food shortage and other basic necessities .This policies led to the introduction of weird systems of food distribution which limited how much an individual or a household could consume. The whole process of democratizing the Soviet Union in many ways undermined the power and authority he had .The laxity in censorship and his attempts to create democracy and political liberty and openness led to the re-awakening and enlightening of long-suppressed civilians and those dormant anti-Russian attitudes among other Soviet republics. Immediately people become more vocal claimed greater independence from oppressive and unfair Moscow rule. These displeasures were more from smaller countries that had been forced into the union like Latvia and the ever disgruntled Estonia. The awareness that came with freedom of national sovereignty and the free access to information which had previously been suppressed in the Soviet Union came as a breath of fresh air (Palmer, 2007). The Soviet Union initially was pretty much like an empire that was simply conquered by use of military force but not something that nations had joined voluntarily. This was one of the main reasons to why many people from other smaller nations had desired for independence from the oppressive and bully like Soviet Union’s authority. It all begun when the people of Azerbaijan differed with Armenians and Gorbachev could not control but impose temporary measures and solutions that dint last. Just a few years later, war erupted among people of Armenia .In the year 1989 there were congress elections which happened throughout the Union in which many new leaders were chosen and those that believed in Gorbachev and his ideas got rejected. In this entire melee, a lot of things happened and even more nationalistic kind of protests took place. In some places things turned out to be ugly and particularly in Baltic republics which saw the passage of numerous laws in non-Russian nations which gave precedence for other languages over Russian. Many small nations like Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia begun to declare their independence and sovereignty. All this developments sort of brought the whole union and other republics in conflict .Following this, Eastern bloc members fragmented. The collapse of the Soviet Union According to Marples, (Marples, 2004) the Soviet Union collapse was due to the removal of communism in east Europe and Garbachev’s refusal to use force to counter its rejection. The collapse of the Soviet Union was as a result of many other reasons, first of all Gorbachev as a leader; he had many political social and economic problems. When it comes to matters like technology, it had lagged behind most of the other powerful western nations .slowly but surely, most of its foreign policies increasingly became unattractive and lacked the ability to influence and win friends .most historians believed that this was not a case of political and economic problems causing democracy or even liberalism but rather a case of democracy and liberalism that brought down the régime. There were quite a number of other factors that led to the collapse . (Strayer, 1998) In this explanation there are two things that people need to understand clearly ,first there the issue of ending the communism systems and then there is the disintegration of the soviet union which took place two years later after the collapse of the communism system. Some of the other factors that greatly contributed to the collapse included the opening up of the political system. Opening up the political system and allowing for democracy to prevail was a recipe for the collapse of the soviet union.Gorbachev began all this by first of all permitting liberalization which later on ushered in democracy. Gorbachev got a reality check when the communist party agreed to hold democratic elections to pick a legislature .This election was like an acid test for Gorbachev because most of his people lost. Conclusion The fall of Gorbachev contributed to so many other problems like the fall of the soviet union.Gorbachev come to power with very good ideas and reforms that saw the western nations like him. Most of his reforms were political and economic and they largely contributed to the end of cold war .It is unfortunate that as he strived to make good relationships with leaders from far places and attracting them with his friendly foreign policies, locally people started hating his style of leadership because some of the economic policies that he put in place were a bit oppressive and restrictive. (Grachev, 2008) Slowly but surely he started becoming unpopular among members of the soviet union due to the diminishing power and authority that he had due to concepts and policies that he attempted to implement, for instance non-involvement in internal affairs of other union members. The moment the Soviet Union started losing control over its members, its collapse became inevitable. First there was the growing unpopularity of the communism system, this was due to some of the policies and changes that Gorbachev attempted to effect .The fall of soviet union started by smaller countries which were disgruntled pulling out after doing away with the communism systems that they believed were oppressive in nature .Most of this countries realized that Gorbachev had very little power and influence and also had sort of lost interest in their internal affairs. They dint see the need to still operate under the oppressive régime. The fall of Gorbechev was preceded by weakening of the Soviet Union .Other events that followed included the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Work cited Grachev, A. (2008) Gorbachev’s gamble: Soviet foreign policy and the end of the Cold War. Cambridge Polity. Laird B. (1998) Rural Communism in France, 1920-1939. Cornell University Press.. 266pp. Marples,D. (2004) The collapse of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991, Palmer, B. (2007) James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928. Urbana, IL: Illinois University Press. Pearson, B. (2004) The Jewish world in the modern age. Jersey City, NJ: KTAV Pub. House Strayer, R. (1998) Why did the Soviet Union collapse: Understanding historical change, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Read More