Introduction
The Soviet Union was a social state that was established in 1922. The state’s capital city was Moscow and it was ruled under a Communist party. Some of the countries that formed this union were Russia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia.
Even though this was among the strongest unions in the history of the world, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev, went under in 1991. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the countries that had unified under it emerged as independent states and Russia took all the rights of the Soviet Union.
The Formation of the Soviet Union
History points out 1922 as the year when the Soviet Union was formed. However, according to Matthews (13), plans to form this union had been underway much earlier than 1922. Matthews (13) refers to the Decembrist Revolt of 1825 as the first time when Russia thought of forming such a union.
The fact that Tsar Nicholas II refused to embrace the idea of a constitution made the country tense throughout the World War I era. Some workers’ council who were known as the “Soviets” began to riot all over the country due to the deplorable state that the Russians were living. An agreement was reached after a civil war within Russia itself and soon the unification of republics began.
The year 1922 is when Russia, Transcaucasia, Ukraine, and Byelorussia went into agreement about the USSR. They discussed the Treaty of the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR. These two documents were signed and they created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The five leaders who signed the two documents were Mikhail Kalinin, Mikhail Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze, Grigory Petrovsky, and Aleksandr Chervyakov. They also approved the Soviet Constitution in 1924. This was the same year when the USSR was recognized by Britain.
The formation of the Soviet Union did not just involve politics. The coming together of all theses republics also merged their economic and social systems.
The leaders had to ensure that the economy of the union was not only at its best, but that it would survive any other war. Intense economic plans were discussed and the leaders tried to realize them by the end of 1931. The citizens of the republics also had to be integrated so that they could accommodate one another.
The Economy of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
The economy of the Soviet Union was based on Communism. This is a system of collective growth. It meant that no one individual would own the country and that every product was divided equally among the people.
Some of the activities that boosted the economy of the USSR are collective farming, industrial manufacturing, and central administration planning. The state controlled all the investments, ownerships, and any other assets. One of the most memorable leaders of the USSR in terms of the success of the economy during his leadership was Joseph Stalin.
Stalin was initially the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under the Lenin leadership. He was also the head of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate. These titles did not just give Stalin a lot of power, but they also gave him influence in the state’s economy. He introduced the totalitarian rule and used some of Lenin’s ideas to develop the economy of the USSR.
Stalin introduced the five year plan strategy in an attempt to make the economy grow bigger. These were thirteen series of economic plans that were meant to boost the economy.
Even though these plans started when the Soviet Union was established and ended when it collapsed, several of these plans were not successful. The last series was left mid way due to the collapse of the union in 1991.
The first plan was from 1928 till 1933. This plan entailed collective agriculture. It was meant to help with industrialization of the state.
The plan was to ensure that peasant farmers worked on the collective farms. They would be provided with the right equipment to ensure that their crop was not only healthy, but that it was also very similar. The first plan was very successful. The second plan started immediately after the first plan and lasted till 1937.
This plan was to enhance industrial development of the union. This plan saw to it that the USSR was the second largest producer of steel, after Germany. Other industries that were enhanced during this period include the transport and communication industry and the healthcare industry.
Despite all this success, the second plan also led to deplorable living conditions for the peasants. According to Bernstein and Li (157), the poor state of living was not only due to corruption, but also the killing of farmers due to political rivalry.
The third plan started in 1938 and ended midway in 1941. This was as a result of the invasion of Germany in the Soviet Union. Stalin used a lot of money building an armoury to protect the country during the Second World War. This plan was unsuccessful and only a few goals were realized.
However, their economy was still strong due to their previous economic success. The fourth and fifth plans ran from 1945 till 1955. These were the last plans that Stalin conducted while still in power. These plans were supposed to help the union back on its feet after the war.
Stalin requested for a loan from the USA, but they failed to agree on the terms of the loan. This forced the country to seek financing from the other countries that it had helped during the fight with the Germans. The Council of Mutual Economic Assistance was established in 1949.
The rest of the five-year plans were conducted after the death of Stalin in 1953. All the plans were meant to enhance the economy of the Soviet Union. It is true that Stalin’s era was the most successful era in the history of the Soviet Union. The Union was most stable economic wise during this period, even though there were times when the economy was shaky (McCauley 25)
Impact of the Afghan War on USSR
The Afghan War was from 1979 to 1989. The war was between the Afghans who were Soviet led and other rebels like the Pakistani and Iranians. The war lasted nearly 9 years and it affected both Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had good relations with Afghanistan.
The union helped Afghanistan in both economic and political problems. The war was nothing like the Soviets anticipated. Köchler (90) argues that the war took a bad turn for the Soviet army because a majority of them were not interested in winning the war.
Köchler explains that many of the Soviet soldiers who were deployed to Afghanistan were not loyal to the Communist government, thus they were fighting only as a means of earning a living and not because they wanted to win (Krieger and Crahan 50).
One of the impacts of the war on the Soviet Union was that it led to a strained relationship between the Soviet Union and the international community. In the mid 1980’s the Afghans rebels, the Mujahideen, received help from the USA, the United Kingdom, and China, among other countries in keeping off from the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union also lost many soldiers and money. The Soviet Union had invested a lot of money in Afghanistan before the Afghan war began.
They had built infrastructures and enhanced education in that area. They also had military infrastructures situated in the region. Many of these infrastructures were destroyed during the war. The Soviet soldiers also lost their lives fighting off the rebels.
The international community also placed restrictions on the Soviet Union due to their role in the war. One restriction that affected the Soviet Union immensely was the trade embargo that restricted the Soviet Union’s shipping of products.
This affected their economy greatly. The international community was also not at ease with the position of the Soviet Union. They feared that it was getting too strong, thus most countries were against it. The union’s allies, for example India, soon revolted against them. This was the beginning of the demise of the Soviet Union.
Many other allies of the Soviet Union pulled away because they wanted to be capitalistic. The communist economic system did not encourage democracy, yet most of the world wanted democracy. The world was tired of the force manipulation rule where the citizens did what they were told without being aware of their rights. This was very common in the Soviet Union.
People were also tired of the influence type of power where only those who complied with the government would be rewarded. They felt the need to have freedom to choose their own leaders from various parties. The communist economy also encouraged the use of forced authority, which ensured that the citizens complied due to fear. The citizens preferred the social class authority that the capitalist economy provided.
Impact of the Arms Race on the Demise of the Soviet Union
The arms race was an attempt to control the manufacture of arms in all countries. This was after the USA dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The USSR was in a cold war with the USA concerning who was the world’s superpower.
Even though they did not fight against one another literally, the countries fought against each other’s allies. The international community had banned the manufacture of any type of weapon in all countries. The USA’s hit on Japan made the Soviet Union to retaliate. The Soviet Union started making its own atomic bomb, which made the USA uneasy. The USA then made the hydrogen bomb (Hanhimäki and Westad 16).
After the USA won the cold war, the Soviet Union was hit by international restrictions as a result of ignoring the arms race contract. The Soviet Union was restricted from trading and it had to give up its colonies. It also had to give up its armoury. This was the last hit on the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable after the cold war.
How Alcohol and Drugs Destroyed the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had a number of social problems after the Afghan war. There was misuse of alcohol and drugs not only among the young soldiers, but also among the community in general. The quality of life was already bad and drug abuse made it worse. Many people became addicts, thus they could not fight in the cold war.
This reduced the level of success of the Soviet Union during the cold war. The drug addicts were also too lazy to work in the farms and other industries. This led to low levels of productivity and poor produce. Many addicts had a short lifespan due to the hazardous effects that both the drugs and alcohol have on the human body.
All the mentioned impacts led to a less healthy Soviet Union society. Money was used to establish rehabs to rehabilitate the addicts and the Union lost many capable soldiers. Drug abuse also saw to it that the economy of the Soviet Union went under.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Soviet Union was a very strong union between countries that had a similar goal. The demise of this strong union was slow and the republics that were joined by the union became independent states when it eventually fell.
The Union had a very stable economy during the Stalin era, but it started to decline when the union interfered with the Afghan war. Despite the previous success of the union in both war and the economy, the union took a hard fall after many of its allies rejected the communist economic system that it stood for in favour of the USA’s capitalist economic system.
Works Cited
Bernstein, Thomas P., and Hua-Yu Li. China Learns from the Soviet Union.1949 – Present. Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2010. Print.
Hanhimäki, Jussi M., and Odd Westad Arne. The Cold War: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
Köchler, Hans. The “Global War on Terror” and the Question of World Order. Vienna, Austria: International Progress Organization, 2007. Print.
Krieger, Koel, and Margaret E. Crahan. The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
Matthews, John R. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 2000. Print.
McCauley, Martin. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union. London, England: Pearson Longman, 2008. Print.