Soviet Union Collapse Essay

Superior Essays
Kellen Ramsey

World Since 1914

9 December, 2016

The Soviet Union Collapsed

Events that Lead to the Collapse of the Soviet Union

It all started in December 1991. The Soviet Union split up into fifteen different countries. The collapse was praised by the west, which was a sweet victory for freedom. Triumph of democracy was over totalitarianism. Also capitalism was over socialism. The United States were joyful as the empire collapsed before their eyes. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War which was hanging around since the ending of World War II. The collapse of the Soviet Union was in great favor to the rest of the world. By changing the military, political, and economical alliances.

What led to the collapse
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The Soviet Union had strict policies, and the citizens were making the country weaker, they were also preventing diplomatic relations with a lot of the other countries. When Gorbachev’s reform policy Glasnost came into play, the citizens were more willing to work for the Soviet Union. That had been flying under the strict censorship radar.

After the reforms had taken place, the media was not under the state’s control anymore. The media were more free and live on their own for the first time. A lot of the population blames the reform policies for the fall of the Soviet Union. Three major keys were because of it. The first one is that it allowed many people more access to the government’s business. The second one is because it allowed the population to be more apart of the media of different countries. The third one is because it gave people a say for their country.

The plan for Glasnost was to make the country a more transparent country which everyone would be able to recognize the country’s views on everything. The reform brought the country to more closer to freedom and more closer to modern nations. When the reform policies looked as a positive effort to Gorbachev, it looked as a negative idea for
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The country lost thousands of troops. The true damage was from the billions of dollars spent during the war. The defeat of money caused the Soviet Union to fall apart.

Gorbachev’s reforms affected society greatly. He aimed towards two type of reforms, political and economic. The economic reforms were set to improve efficiency of the economy. Instead it was totally destroyed. The Soviet Union and the whole Eastern Block was set into a recession in the 80’s and utilities, industrial sectors, and distribution started to collapse. Lack of goods and energy became extinct.

There were also long term effects on the Soviet invasion. The absence of troops lead to the creation of terrorism. The United States provided guns and military which terrorism now faces. When the war ended, people left the countries. The Taliban terrorists took over Pakistan. The Taliban introduced the United States to the dangerous, Osama bin Laden who was the mastermind in bringing down the twin towers in New York on September 11th and many more attacks to

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