The Soviet Union - Stable or Unstable?

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the topic of Soviet Union history. The paper also discusses whether the Soviet Union was a relatively stable dictatorship that lasted seven decades or a primarily unstable system that collapsed of its own weight. The paper explains that communist, democratic and autocratic, the history of the Soviet Union is as diverse as the country itself. The paper then points out that many factors contributed to the instability of the country, from dictatorial leaders, corrupt political parties, and oppression to poor economic policies and social unrest. The paper concludes that the Soviet Union made great strides during the 20th century, but it could not keep up with the west in economic, political, or social arenas, and so, the Soviet Union gave up communism, returned to democracy, and became even more unstable as it broke up into smaller entities and is still unstable.

From the Paper:

"Socially, the Soviet Union began on extremely shaky roots. The Bolshevik Revolution took place in 1917, and disposed the monarchy, creating instead a Communist state. However, civil wars plagued the new Communist regime until the 1920s, and there were many who fought the overthrow of the Tsar and his family. Before the Revolution, peasants worked the land for the nobles and ultimately the Tsar. Author Suny notes, "Tsar and noble supported each other, maintaining a stable political regime that could defend the realm against foreign threats, keep the various nobles from fighting each other, collect taxes and keep order over the immense spread of the Russian lands, and preserve the nobles' hold over their peasant serfs" (Suny 12)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Davies, Sarah, and Harris, James. Stalin: A New History. Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
• Hosking, Geoffrey. The Awakening of the Soviet Union. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
• Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

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