Introduction
The Soviet Union, commonly referred to as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – USSR, was in existence from the years 1922-1991. The Soviet Union emerged following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil war of 1918-1921. The last blow that marked the end of the Soviet Union and the beginning of self-governed nations was a result of a combination of a lot of factors. In a nutshell, these factors can be summarized into two major points. First, the decision to build up a strong military unit at the expense of domestic development, and secondly, limited or no economic growth in all the republics. Gorbachev’s program to revive the fallen economy and fix political and social problems hit a snag and threatened to destroy the Soviet Union completely. He could not just get a compromise among the numerous forces that faced his regime to aid him to save the Union from collapsing (Ronald Grigor Suny, 1993, 186-188).
This essay paper will look into the finer detail that the system of governance of the Soviet Union put in place, how the Soviet Union came to power, the perception of the people on it, its general impacts on the citizens, both politically and culturally and finally, how it came to collapse in 1985 with the onset of the New Russia.
The Soviet Union
During the period when the Soviet Union was operational, it, together with the United States, was the only world two superpowers dominating every sphere of life, be it sports (Olympics games and other World Championships), Economic Policies, Military operations, Scientific Advancements, Cultural Exchange and Foreign Affairs Issues. The Soviet was first established as a union of only four Socialist Republics, but after about 34 years in 1956, it constituted a total of 15 Republic Unions.
The post-revolution times led to very difficult times for the Russians as it led to a grave decay of the economy and morals, which later resulted in the ousting of the imperial government. Under the new regime, the working class, through their workers’ council, known as The Soviets, began pushing for their rights. The Soviet Union, under Stalin’s rule, based itself on a single party rule [the Communist Party] (Leonard 1955,1966). The communist system of governance saw the state taking in their possession all the business enterprises in the country and established a program of collective Agriculture and Industrialization. This idea did not go well with the “kulaks” and numerous prosperous peasant farmers; they opposed and resisted the Socialism style of governance. Such protests later culminated into a bitter struggle between the two groups and the government. The peasants decided to hoard their grains, and the famine stroke the state, causing millions of deaths.
The Soviet Union was involved in a lot of inversions and wars as well as diplomatic relations with other nations. Owing to the fact that they were stable economically, and their military strength was of no match to any state, they waged war with countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, and Finland before finally settling as the position of the world’s superpower. During those times, the US, UK, and the USSR were great allies. But this relationship did not last for long; in the emergence of the rising tension of the Cold War period, all their allies (The United States and The United Kingdom) turned foes (David, 415-417).
There were economic reforms proposed by Gorbachev in the mid-1960s geared to revive the declining economy that did very little to help. It only saw a slight economic growth which could not keep up with the increasing consumption, and the country resorted to the importation of foodstuff. Human welfare was at its lowest, with the Russian citizens becoming less and less healthy, leading to an eventual crude death rate of 10 from 7 people in every 1000 persons within sixteen years (1964-1980) (W. Tompson, 2003, Pg. 91)
The fall
The reforms that were brought by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 are what contributed to the downfall of the once prestigious Union of Soviets. Gorbachev had his tenure characterized by two serious developments dominants: The crumbling of the Economy of The Soviet Union and the change in the political structure of the Soviet Union. The Cold War aggravated the situation. Further, it set off at a time when the Soviet Union’s economy was in bad shape, and the satellite states were reverting from communism. Gorbachev decided to end the Cold War to salvage the situation and help it from worsening. In 1988 the USSR’s war with Afghanistan was stopped. The Soviet Union was dealt the last blow when the West and East Germany finally united upon tearing down the Berlin Wall. In reaction to the devastating state, the Republics of the Soviet Union decide to seek sovereignty (self-governance) over their borders (Brian Crozier, 1990. 213-234).
Gorbachev, who was believed to be a reform-minded technocrat, seemed to have ignored the impacts of promoting reforms. These same reforms that he fought hard to institute later acted against him to end his regime with the fall of the Soviet Union. His ascending to the higher office was described as the rise of a new generation of leadership. He introduced a system that led to the disbandment of the Soviet Administration Command Economy through his three program principles: “Glasnost” – Meaning political openness, “Perestroika” – Meaning economic restructuring, and “Uskoreniye” – Meaning Speedy economic development…The policies led to notable negative impacts, among which are: – Hidden economic inflation and the rise in the black market that undermined the official state economy. The overall effect of these two impacts literally blew the economy out of proportion (Hélène Carrère, 1992. Pg. 173-217).
Glasnost led to the freedom of speech, and controlling the press became hard. Gorbachev also released several political prisoners and dissidents. But the most vital step that made his people. The Russians give the government a questionable look was the opening of the state archives. The Social Statistics that had initially been kept secret from the public were now more accessible. Researchers and publishers wasted no time and went for those data on sensitive subjects like suicide, crime, infant mortality, and income disparity, among others.
A constitution that deprives CPSU of political power was established under the same leader, Gorbachev. The media brought into the spotlight the negative aspects of the Soviet Union [4], the result of this was disastrous, the public lost faith in the Soviet System, thus eroding the Social Power of the Communist Party…and the eventual exit of Gorbachev and final fall of the Soviet Union.
The idea by the Social Republics to resist central control and promote democratization resulted in a weak central government that could not resist much opposition. The governments’ trade gap began to empty the coffers union that eventually caused the bankruptcy progressively.
The KGB-The Committee of State Security and the Hard-line Communist Party members of the government organized a coup d’etat against Gorbachev and sort to reverse the proposed reforms and revive the central government control. The coup ended Gorbachev’s powers. This was followed by the Presidents of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus signing “The Belavazha Accords” that declared the Soviet Union a null and dissolved state and instead established in its place the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (David Remnick, 1994, 370).
On December 25th, 1991 felt that he was left with no choice and yielded to pressure; he resigned as the president of the USSR and, in turn, declared his office [the office of the president] extinct. The Soviet Union accepted the inevitable and dissolved itself as a functioning state. All the powers to govern were therefore vested in the then president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. The Soviet Army, as well as the Police, though remained, they are being faced out and some being absorbed by the independent state.
Culture of the Soviet Union before and after the fall
The change of government structure saw a lot of improvements in the peoples’ freedom. The decision by the political lawmakers on April 7th, 1990, which declared that a republic could secede upon a referendum, was a major leap forward. (Drozhin Honoured, 1994, 50). The people held their first-ever elections in the 1990s, and political leaders went further to establish a set of rules, “The War of Laws,” to guide the New Government.
Gorbachev organized a referendum that was meant to preserve the USSR on March 17th, 1991; the vote was in his favor, giving him a slight boost. In the summer of the same year, eight Republics agreed to sign a New Union Treaty that turned the Soviet Union into a looser federation, but this was disrupted by a coup.
Within the 70 year period that the USSR was in existence, the cultural practices of the people underwent several stages to what we now see in the modern culture. For eleven good years following the Revolution (1918-1929), the artists of those times enjoyed relative freedom and were at liberty to use different styles to define the distinctive Soviet art. The government, under the leadership of Lenin, made all efforts to make Russians accessible to any available styles of art and literature. Schools (both traditional and radically experimental) were established to help promote art. Communist writers like Maksim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky were on a field day-enjoying all freedom of expression (Drozhin, 205).
With Stalin taking on the throne, the culture took a completely different turn. The new government was more dominative and strict on the free culture. Stalin repressed all the art styles and imposed Socialist Realism. Many of the Communist writers were dealt with severely (imprisoned and killed), and the Orthodox Religious leaders were persecuted by sending them to the Gulags or killing them in mass (Rayfield, 2004, p. 317-320). As if that was not enough, he ordered for the destruction of all symbols suspected to be of the Communist Ideology.
Towards the end of the 1950s and the early years in the 1960s, the culture reversed to its previous trend. The restrictions and censorships were dropped. With the permissibility of art forms once more, critics emerged, but this time around, they concerned themselves with proposals of how to solve daily life challenges rather than building socialism. Full liberation was realized during Gorbachev’s tenure. Gorbachev’s policies allowed full freedom of expression both in the media and press; it abolished all the bans on censorship and the most important, the total freedom to criticize the government (Gorbachev Mikhail, 2007). This trend has never stopped, even after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Enter the New Russia
Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia was recognized internationally as the legal replacement of the Soviet State. Russia inherited the foreign debt as well as all the Soviets overseas’ wealth. The new government got down to business by first trying to avoid the occurrence of any disputes erupting on ownership of the Soviet properties. A “Zero Variant” agreement was therefore proposed to allow the newly established states to retain the status quo. The incoming government had a lot of other challenges to deal with…obstacles that were created by the fallen Soviet Union. There was massive ethnic tension in most if not all Republics, and just before their exit, the Soviet Union had completely lost con
There was a complete disaster in the production sector. In an attempt to restructure the administrative command and establish a market-based economy, Yeltsin quickly moved to abolish the price control system and cut subsidies to all money-losing firms. The Russian people had many expectations of their new government, for instance, the elimination of huge microeconomic and structural distortions through privatization and liberalization. The success of the government in the eyes of the citizens was therefore based on how well they had to tackle such related issues.
It has never been an easy ride for the Russian government plus her citizens, but great success has been realized all in all. Russia has experienced a forward leap…coming out of the situation of Reduced GDP (by half), low birthrate, and fallen life expectancy, among others negative reports.
Conclusion
From the facts highlighted in this paper, we can conclude that the fall of the Soviet Union was a result of the failed attempts of the reforms by Gorbachev to change peoples’ lives. He did not succeed in reviving the stagnant economy and offer his people political and social freedom as they wished. The fall also happened at a bad time when the war with Afghanistan had greatly hurt the economy, and coupled with the dramatic fall in oil (USSR’s major export) prices, the people generally lost confidence in the government and grew discontent (Gaidar, Yegor (2007, Pg 1-3).
The consequences of the “Glasnost” were not pleasing at all; it proved very hard to contain the rising upheaval cases within USSR with the increased freedom. Weak political repression made it practically impossible for the USSR’s central Moscow to impose any will on the constituent Republics, rendering it almost powerless. The peaceful protests (the Baltic Way and The Singing Revolution) showed it all…the people were no longer under censorship and, at the same time, not happy with the regime. But all said and done, the new government of New Russia has really done the citizens well in almost all spheres of life.
Works Cited
- Brian Crozier “The red blues — Soviet politics”, National Review, 1990; 212-234.
- “Encyclopedia Britannica: Gorbachev Mikhail. 2007.
- “The country profile: Russia”
- David Remnick, “Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire”, Vintage Books, 1994. 365-431.
- Drozhin Honoured, “Origins of Moral-Ethical Crisis and Ways to Overcome it”: 1994; 33-87.
- Gaidar, Yegor (2007-04-19). “The Soviet Collapse: Grain and Oil”. On the Issues”: AEI online. American Enterprise Institute. Pg. 1-5
- Hélène Carrère D’Encausse, “The End of the Soviet Empire: The Triumph of the Nations”, Basic Books, 1992Pgs. 173-217.
- Leonard Schapiro, “The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917–1922”. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966.
- Rayfield “Percussions under Stalin” 2004, p. 317-320
- Ronald Grigor Suny, “The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Stanford University Press, 1993. 186-214.
- W. Tompson, “The Soviet Union under Brezhnev”, (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 91