The Soviet Union Collapse - Essay Example

Why did the Soviet Union collapse? The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was founded in the year of 1922 after the Bolshevik Revolution. The USSR had a great impact on the political affairs of the world ever since but could not maintain this impact after its downfall. The Soviet Union underwent a rapid collapse in the late twentieth century which was inevitable due to the policies and conditions that Russia was undergoing in these times. After the World War II the Soviet Union turned out to be a super power which was becoming a threat for the United States and for this reason many blame the United States to be the main cause of Russian collapse. The Soviet power was never able to expand much under the influence of the U.S agenda. It was under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev that Russia began to undergo a political change which could not be handled and thus led to a political turmoil. The United States itself did not play a direct role in the collapse of Soviet Union but it did play an indirect role in the collapse. This essay would further revolve around the factors which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union (Watson 1998; Weiss 2009). To understand the massive collapse of the Soviet Union one has to understand the basic principles on which the country was made. From a historical point of view it can be seen that the Soviet Union consisted of people belonging to different ethnicities and races. The political ideology of the country was based on the principles of communism in accordance to the theories laid down by Karl Marx. The Communist party was leading the government offices in Soviet Union and the leaders in the party were following a level known as ‘nomenklatura’ which helped them to access the resources of the state as they wished to (McCauley 2001 p. 86). A variety of factors led to the fall of the Communist State which have formed a debate amongst the historians. Many believe the sole factor of Afghanistan was enough to collapse the Soviet Union whereas opponents argue that a lot of other factors came into play along with the Afghanistan war which led to the collapse of the state. The major reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union are cited as the Afghan intervention, the role of Poland, the varying prices of oil in the world and the reaction of the minorities to the government (Usitalo & Whisenhunt 2008). It has been found that the Soviet Union always had a conflict of interest with the West and this is the reason because of which the leaders had always aimed to excel from the west. The domestic problems along with the structural problems were the internal problems that the Union was facing because of which it underwent a political unrest. Tilly defines the collapse of the Soviet Union in the following words [O]ne of Europe’s more peculiar revolutions: the shattering of an empire and the dismantling of its central structure without the direct impact of a war . . . the costly stalemate in Afghanistan, itself a product of a hugely expensive Cold War with the United States, provided the closest equivalent to those earlier empire-ending wars” (Tilly 1993 p 231). In December 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed into fifteen independent countries. The West was victorious in disintegrating the nation and considered the collapse as a victory of capitalism over socialism. After the creation of Soviet Union it was seen that the leaders were implementing a plan through which they could unite all the nations of the Soviet Republic. To carry out such a plan the assimilation process began and Russian was taught to everyone. However more than fifty percent of the population living in the Soviet Union belonged to non Russian back grounds and it became difficult for them to assimilate with the newly laid principles. The economic policies of the state also failed which can be witnessed in the arms race that they had with the United States. The arms race with United States led to an economic turmoil for the country itself because of which they finally collapsed. The last leader of the country Mikhail Gorbachev tried his best to implement economic reforms which could help in the revival of the state but his policies also failed as was witnessed in the latter years. He implemented the policy of glasnost which gave freedom to the people of Soviet Union along with perestroika or economic reforms. When the economic reforms of Gorbachev failed the people of the Soviet Union openly objected to his policies (Cold War Museum). The Soviet Union underwent a period of Cold War with the United States which gravely affected the finance of the country. The Cold War posed high costs to the country as the state had to allot forces in different districts. Along with the ethnic tensions the economic policies worsened the whole situation and this led to the final collapse of the nation in 1991 (Reuveny & Prakash 1999). One of the major reasons of Soviet Collapse has been cited as the Afghanistan war by some authors. During periods of war it has been witnessed that the countries involved have to undergo domestic problems which can produce social changes that are unacceptable in the prevalent society. Such was a situation created in the Soviet Union because of the Afghanistan war (Daugerty 1996). USSR intervened in the politics of Afghanistan in the year of 1979. Although at first the intervention by the Soviet Union was limited to only a few soldiers it soon expanded and a great deal of interest was shown by the Soviet Union in the war. The war which lasted for almost a decade cost the lives of thousands of Soviet soldiers along with the deployment of around a million soldiers in the region (Radio Liberty 1989). The early 1980s showed that the citizens of the Soviet Union were against the intervention of the state in Afghanistan. According to the government the Soviet Union stepped up for the intervention for humanitarian efforts. The Soviet Union suffered at the hands of the freedom fighters in Afghanistan because of the help that the United States was providing to them. The freedom fighters won many of the confrontations with the Afghan fighters because of the technology that they were provided with by the United States. With the help of the US supplied technology the freedom fighters were able to injure and kill many of the Soviet soldiers. The disabled soldiers who came back to the nation were known as the Afghantsy. These Afghantsy mostly belonged to the non Russian republics because of which the voices against the Soviet Republic became more prominent (Harrison 1988). In the late 1986 it was seen that the war posed several domestic problems for the Soviet Union government. The non Russians began arranging a revolt against the government of Moscow because of the war. It was at this stage that the Soviet Union could not even back off from the Afghanistan intervention because it would signal the enemies about the weaknesses that the army faced. By 1988 it was seen that the Soviet army was defeated in Afghanistan and it could not hold its forces any longer there. It was after this defeat that it can be seen that the collapse of the nation was further accelerated. The military became vulnerable to attacks and many other problems were seen in the army of Soviet Union. Military force was used previously by the Soviet Union to hold back the diverse population of the country but this could not be possible now as it was seen that the non Russians became adamant towards the government. It was because of these effects that the Soviet Union could not control the military of the state and this led to the downfall of the nation as a whole (Reuveny & Prakash 1999). Oil crisis has also been cited as one of the major reasons because of which the Soviet Union went under a collapse. The Soviet Union was one of the major countries that produced oil for the communist states. The decrease in the production of oil led to the downfall of the Soviet economy. The economy of Russia was already undergoing a rapid turmoil because of the Afghanistan war and the internal problems of the state but the problem was further exacerbated by the oil crisis faced by the country. The decline in oil production by the Soviet Union has been reasoned to be because of the lack of investment and old technology in the state. At many instances it has been seen that the last blow to the economy of the Soviet Union was related to the oil crisis that the country faced. Economy has been cited as one of the major aspects which led to the downfall of the state (Thomas 1992; FBIS 1990). The downfall of the Soviet Union was spread to a decade and it has been stated by many authors as inevitable. The collapse of the nation started from the peripheral areas where the non Russians were mostly located. In 1987 the government of Estonia demanded independence because of the dissent that was created amongst the citizens after the Afghanistan war. Lithuania and Latvia were two other republics which demanded independence later on and this led to a widespread retaliation by different republics. Although at first the government of Soviet Union retaliated in a similar manner they could not hold on to their stance for much long. The movements later on were not only limited to the peripheral areas but were also spread in the republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. All these movements together led to the weakening of the central government. The military was weakened by the Afghanistan war fought and the state had no other means through which they could oppose the different movements launched by the republics. In a last effort to save the communist government a coup was formed which kidnapped the head of the state Gorbachev. The coup informed the rebels that the head of the state would not be able to govern the state any longer but this led to strikes all over the nation. Military intervened in the state affairs as requested by the coup but the military did not take any further steps because of the hardships that the soldiers themselves had faced during the Afghanistan war (Cold War Museum). It was after this attempt that the Soviet Union collapsed totally. On December 1991 Gorbachev resigned from power and in the very next year the demands of the general population was accepted. Soviet Union collapsed in 1992 and 15 different republics formed in accordance to their demands. The collapse of the Soviet Union has been said to be because of different events that occurred over time. It can be clearly seen that Afghanistan war had a significant role to play in the collapse of the Soviet Union. After reviewing the situation of the collapse one may ask the question, Could the collapse have been avoided if Afghanistan war was not fought? Military intervention in the state affairs in the late 1980s would have surely helped the nation to unite as a power but this could not be possible because of the war that was fought. The collapse of Soviet Union has been stated to be because of economic, political and military agendas (Usitalo & Whisenhunt 2008). References FBIS,US Foreign Broadcasting Information Service (1990) Soviet Union Economy 18 December 1990 p. 71. Brown, Thomas G. (1992). "The Soviet Union as a Great Power: The need for Reform," The American Economist, Vol. 36, No 1, spring, pp. 77 -84. Selig Harrison, ‘Inside the Afghan Talks’, Foreign Policy, 72 (Fall 1988) Fall of the Soviet Union. The Cold War Museum. William E. Watson, The Collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, 1998. Stoner-Weiss, K. (2009) Domestic and International Influences on the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991) and Russia’s Initial Transition to Democracy (1993) Top of Form Usitalo, S. A., & Whisenhunt, W. B. (2008). Russian and Soviet history: From the Time of Troubles to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lanham, Md: Rowan & Littlefield. Top of Form REUVENY, R. A. F. A. E. L., & PRAKASH, A. S. E. E. M. (October 01, 1999). The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Review of International Studies, 25, 4, 693-708. Top of Form Daugherty, L. J. (January 01, 1996). The Afghan Syndrome: The Soviet Unions Vietnam by Oleg Sarin and Lev Dvoretsky. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 9, 4, 911-913. ‘Legacy of the Afghan War: Some Statistics’, Radio Liberty Report on the USSR 1, (#14, 1989) Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More