In December of 1991, as the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.What led to this monumental historical event? In fact, the answer is a very complex one, and can only be arrived at with an understanding of the peculiar composition and history of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was built on approximately the same territory as the Russian Empire which it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the newly-formed government developed a philosophy of socialism with the eventual and gradual transition to Communism. The state which the Bolsheviks created was intended to overcome national differences, and rather to create one monolithic state based on a centralized economical and political system. This state, which was built on a Communist ideology, was eventually transformed into a totalitarian state, in which the Communist leadership had complete control over the country.
Answer: Why do you think the Soviet Union collapsed?
13 comentarios:
With some investigation, together with my opinion, I can conclude that there are many reasons for the failure of one of the most important powers during the XX century; but mainly these are social and economical reasons together with the consequences of Cold War.
USSR's economy began failing without any economical growth, which had consequences on shortages of food, for example. Also, too much money was spent on arms race, which created a deficit in the economy; and the adecuate policies weren't developed to help it.
On the other side, many people were unhappy with this type of government, which had turned into a totalitarism, not a real socialism as they were promised. They didn't have a government organized as it was proposed and the upper classes lacked of prosperity.
Defintely, Cold War affected the power of the Soviet Union. They not only spent too much money, but also caused many human and psychological damges trying to be a stronger power since the world wars. They also were far behind in technology: they couldn't adjust to modern times as capitalism did, which made this other ideology a more attractive way of government.
People were not satisfied with the government they had; they were not very supportive, and when a little more freedom of speech was allowed (where opposers could write and express themselves) nationalism weakened even more.
These all economical and social reasons and the defeat of capitalism made the USSR unpopular, together with other facts (such as the Berlin Wall) that lead to the independence of Soviet states, causing the USSR's collapse.
I think that the reasons why Soviet Union failed were that:
Cold War affected the power of the Soviet Union. They spent too much money and they caused many damages.
USSR's didn’t grow on economic, it failed, a deficit was create
Many people didn’t approved that the government was don’t organize as it was proposed and that the government was totalitarism.
Because of this USSR failed.
I think that the failure of the Soviet Union was due to political and economical reasons.
The immediate cause of the Soviet collapse was economic, as the Soviet Union lost the arms race and international competition with the West. The United States was able to return from its imperialist exploitation of other countries, while socialism could only lose economically in that competition.
The USSR economy began to fail, there were no longer money to buy food, which was much more important for the people than spending all the money they were spending on the arms race. People were also unhappy with the type of government they were living on, because it was no longer what they knew, but it was a totalitarian government instead.
Economic factors were linked to political and psychological factors. As the Soviet economist Latsis said at the time, "the gloomy background of the worsening market situation ... has a depressing effect on people."
On the other hand, the Cold War also affected the power of the Soviet Union because it damaged the country´s people, and it was also a psychological damage.
Another fact that made the Soviet Union collapsed was that they couldn´t managed to grow in terms of technology, as capitalism did, so they were behind them , making the capitalism look more attractive.
All of these factors accumulated on top of a profound alienation of the Soviet people that had grown up over the years as the country remained in the memories of the culture of war. In the Stalin years, not only was the economy devoted to the arms race, but information was controlled in the form of propaganda and dissidents were sent to labor camps. People did not feel free to discuss this, and most people did not participate in governance.
The primary causes were political and economic and they were the result of the culture of war. The Cold War affected too much for this to collapse. Because all their attention was put in the war so they “forgot” a little about the country need.
The immediate cause of the Soviet collapse was economic, as the Soviet Union lost the arms race and international competition with the West. They spend so much money in the arm race that they didn’t have money to eat. Another factor was the lack of honest information. Secrecy and distortion of information have disastrous economic as well as political effects.
The people were unhappy, because the equal government became to a totalitarian government.
Gorbachev was democratizing the totalitarian Soviet system so this open and make it easy for all the people, for all the nations to change and became free.
The Soviet collapse has also shown that a socialist culture of war cannot win out over a capitalist culture of war on economic terms.
I think that the most important reasons fro the failure of one of the most important powers during the XX century were all social, political and economic reasons.
The economic problems were increasing. While the USA continued with its economic growth, the USSR couldn’t face all the economic issues that were only leading to Soviet Union failure. They continued to spend money in the arms race rather than spending the money in things that people really needed, like for example food. They couldn’t afford such an expensive arms race; this provoked a deficit in the economy that they couldn’t solve. This led to a food shortage crisis, which made people really unhappy with the system.
With this, people realized that the government wasn’t working properly. They didn’t have the organized and prosperous government they expected, they only had a totalitarian communist government that clearly wasn`t working. People were not happy, and when freedom of speech was allowed the government unpopularity grew even more.
All these, in addition to the effects of Cold War, that caused la huge lost of money and also millions of deaths and psychological damages; were the reasons that lead to the final collapse of the Soviet Union.
The reason why the Soviet Union collapsed it is not only the ambition they have to win the contest of supremacy or the desire of being the best power ever, it was more than that. There were the social, political and economic effects of the Cold War.
By one side, the government turned to be a totalitarian one; it controlled all the people’s lives. There was no freedom of speech neither of choice. We can see this with the Berlin Wall where people which were on the communist side could not cross the Wall. By denying freedom to people the government kept people from contact with the World.
Also, the president was a dictator and many times he was seen as a god. This entire situation did not make the government develop and made the people feel oppressed and all the promise of having a socialist government became a lie.
By the other side, the Soviet Union did not develop too much in economy, this happened because they spent lots of money in military affairs, for example in the arms race. The lack of money had very bad consequences such as a food crisis which caused many deaths.
Although at first many people fought for having a communist government, after seeing what the government turned into they got disappointed. They did not have freedom and they did not feel that the estate worried for them. A logical solution for the food crisis would have been to cut the spend on the military affairs, but the government preferred to fight for having a huge empire than helping people. While the years passed nationalism began to debilitate because people realize the truth of the things.
They were all this factors that made that the Soviet Union never reached the level of the United States. While the Soviet Union debilitated, the USA got more powerful. Capitalism turned to be the leading type of government and became more attractive.
These all reasons and the fell of the Berlin Wall made the Soviet Union come to an end.
In 1991, after a little less than 50 years of Cold War conflict, the Soviet Union collapsed. I think this failure was caused by the two opposite realities that, during this time, were lived through and contrasted.
On one hand, we have the Soviet Union. When I think of the USSR, I think of a book called "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. This book is actually a satire that talks about how the Soviet government, little by little, distorted into a tyranny, how power was corrupted. When the USSR first started, people where promised equality and prosperity by a government who stood up for being different from all the others. At the end, the communist government got so caught up in competing against the US and capitalism, that they kind of put aside what they were standing for. They worried more about the arms race that on their people's well-being.
This led to an economical and social disaster. The country wasn't developing, economically they couldn't keep up with the arms race and socially people began to realize the scam they'd been brought into.
At the same time, capitalism presented itself as a prosper form of government. Freedom of speech gave clarity to every government. People were deservedly rewarded for their work and efforts. And even though capitalism had its weaknesses, nationalism in the US was stronger than these fragilities and people were satisfied with their country.
These contrast between the two governments was revealed to the world in the form of a Wall. Finally, just as this wall fell, and for the same reasons it did (reasons I talked about above), communism and the Soviet Union collapsed.
I think the Soviet Union collapse because of variable reasons:
Economy crisis; they spent too much money in armament, so their economy was decreasing, that brings new problems to the country.
The technological gap and lag behind the West were increasing. The quality of production and services were substantially below world standards. This reduced Soviet ability to export goods and also added to consumer dissatisfaction, given the rising expectations of the new elite.
Another factor was the lack of honest information, the secrecy and propaganda that is central to the culture of war.
People had lost all faith that the communist system could deliver a better way of life, they had a chance of determinate their future, and they want a capitalism system.
Cold War affected the Soviet Union in all their aspects. American policy, can take credit for the collapse of the Soviet system.
That’s why The Soviet Union fell; they didn’t have the power enough and the organization too resist Cold war and all the problems they had before.
As many of my calssmastes have said, I also conclude that the aspects in which he Soviet Union failed are, along with the effects of recent issues, in this case cold war, political, social and economic.
In the economical factor, the USSR was not prosperouse and did not come up with a proper strategy to recover it. It has spent too much money on arms race, putting a side other aspects that brought consequences suich as food shortages.
Another factor was the discontent of the poele with their government style. They has been promised a socialist government and it was turned into a totalitarian one that didn´t support the poeple. Things even got worse and the govenment grew even unpopular when freedom of speech was permitted.
An uneven space between the development of technology of capitalism and the USSR, made the Soviet Union less popular do to it´s inferiority. This factor made capitalism more attracive do to it´s speriority.
The Soviet Union caused psychological and human damages
with the intent of becoming a more powerfull.
SO all these factors mixed with surronding events like the fall of the Berlin Wall ended up to an out come which was the end, collapse of the Soviet Union.
I thing the Soviet Union collapsed because of political, social and economic reasons.
They spend a lot of money in the arm race that they didn’t have money for important things, such as food. This made the economy didn´t growth and this led to a crisis.
Also the government start controlling people’s lives. There was no freedom of speech. The government did not developed and made the people feel oppressed and unhappy with this system.
All of this caused lost of money and a lot of deaths and damages in the people. This made that finally the Soviet Union failed.
Clauchi*
I think that it declined because people loose the confidence that they had over this ideology and its plans, and also because of th fact that USA was winnig almost everything and that caused a failure for USSR economy, politics and finally and most important: ideology. Thats why i can conclude that the COLD wAR was the most important in charge of why i had.
The USSR, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, had become a world power after the Second World War. The problem was that all this ended up right afer the fall of the Berlin Wall. But what reasons are there behind that support this fall?
I personally think that every collapse in an empire or state, is clearly caused by the uncomfortability and unhappiness that lives inside the habitants. This was created in Soviet Union, when everything around it would look much better than what they actually had inside their state, such as new technology, scientific advancements, cultural exchange, and some more, which the USSR couldn't achieve.
Apart from that, the people couldn't be happy in a place were all the economical supplies were used in Arms Race, while the population in the state were hungry, and had a lack of food.
Not only economical but political facts were reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union. The government in which the people believe had turned into a totalitarian government, which gradually expected to become a communist state. At once, it wasn't that bad for the people who lived there, but after seeing the progress and the life conditions in other capitalist countries, and Gorbachev allowing the people to speak a little bit more than what they usually could by democratizing, the people were free to say what they really wanted, and free to say they wanted to be free. Apart from that, after the Cold War, it was pretty obvious which of the to antagonist ideologies was better in some way, which made the USSR's communism be rejected by almost all the world. Capitalism had won over communism. One detail that i would like to mention is that a totalitarian leadership with one single ruler for all this territory and for all this people that might have had different ideologies, and consequently might want different things, is a fact i consider important for the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to the fact that by all of the being almost totally different, the state would separate according to their thoughts, and by separating, the USSR would sink.
These economical and political facts might have been the reasons by which the Soviet Union collapsed. The people wasn't happy with this situations described previously, and without the support of the people living in it, the state as a Soviet Union died.
I think that Soviet Union collapsed because of their totalirian goverment.The people were not happy with the radical type of government.But not olny they failured for the social problem, also their economy was not eficient because there were not ecomical growth and they spent a lot of money on the arm race.
At the same time, capitalism propose more freedom and this was a very important factor for the people.
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