The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the main causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the role of the United States in its collapse. The paper looks at the final phase of collapse in the 1980s when Leonid Brezhnev died and the other factors that impacted the collapse at that time. The paper also discusses the efforts of Gorbachev to try to stem the collapse of the Soviet Union and how his efforts failed.

From the Paper:

"Gorbachev realized that perestroika was bold and risky and that only time would determine its ultimate success or failure. Like Lenin, Gorbachev believed that, "sometimes you have to retreat, and then advance." But he ran out of time, in part because the new openness in the Soviet press under glasnost revealed to the Soviet people for the first time that conditions across the entire Soviet Union were shockingly bad.
"Ever since the days of Lenin, the average Soviet citizen knew that economic conditions were bad in their own village, city, or region, but the communist-controlled media prevented them from knowing that conditions were just as bad everywhere else if not even worse. Glasnost confirmed this harsh reality beyond any doubt, and created a political environment across the Soviet Union in which people were not going to tolerate communism much longer."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aron, Leon. Yeltsin: A Revolutionary Life. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
• Daniels, Robert V. A Documentary History of Communism in Russia. Vol. 1. Boston: University Press of New England, 1988.
• Goldman, Marshall. What Went Wrong with Perestroika. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
• Gorbachev, Mikhail. Perestroika: New Thinking for our Country and the World. New York: Harpercollins, 1998.
• Lundestad, Gier. East, West, North, South: Major Developments in International Politics. New York: Scandinavian University Press, 1992.

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