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What Went Wrong in the Soviet Union?

When people hear the words “Soviet Union,” various images and thoughts come to mind. Images might include the hammer and sickle, a picture of Joseph Stalin, or lines of Soviet troops and tanks. Thoughts might include the fear from the Cold War, an overall disdain of communism, or one might not have any thoughts at all. A common misnomer is that the Soviet Union was a communist nation somewhere in Europe that the United States defeated in the Cold War, which is not true. In reality, the Soviet Union was a complex political empire that spanned the continents of both Europe and Asia, and was not defeated by the United States, but rather by its own people. While the United States did apply heavy pressure during the Cold War that the Soviet Union could not compete with, this was hardly the reason for its demise. Because of the democratic and capitalist reform that took place in the 1980s, the people of the Soviet Union rejected the communist government and as a result of the rejection, the Soviet Union collapsed from within. The Soviet Union, formally known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was founded in 1922 as a result of the Russian Revolution when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, took power. The Bolsheviks were a revolutionary group based on Marxist ideals originally led by Leon Trotsky, until Lenin seized control. They eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Shortly after that, Joseph Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Using a variety of tactics, he became the absolute leader by the end of the decade. During the early years, Stalin worked on establishing a working socialist economic and political system. By eliminating his enemies and various other ploys, he successfully did so, and by the conclusion of World War II, the Soviet Union grew to include fifteen republics and became one of the two most powerful nations in the world, with the United States. Stalin died in 1953, however, and in the next half century his successors were not able to expand Soviet power and control the Soviet Union the way he could. The rest of the world was rapidly changing, and the Soviet Union tried to keep up by instituting its own reform and new practices. In a socialist system, however, it was hard to institute reform that did not stray from Soviet ideals of the Communists in Moscow. Because a successful, alternative system could not be found, the economy and social structure of the Soviet Union collapsed. The socialist government of the Soviet Union committed itself to reform over and over, which doomed the socialist economic system. In 1957, Nikita Khrushchev (the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, or simply put the Soviet political leader) instituted his sovnarkhoz program. What it did was divide the Soviet Union into economic regions, each of which reported back to Moscow. It was one of the early attempts at decentralization of the Soviet economy. Kruschchev was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev, who continued decentralization, but the economic turmoil persisted and the unrest of the people grew. Along came Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, and within a few years, his perestroika was introduced. Literally translated, this word means “restructuring,” and it did just that. “The critical difference with perestroika, however, was that the previous reform projects had been reorganization from above; Gorbachev attempted to spark initiative and circumvent opposition by stimulating action from below” (Gleason 147). During the reform, the economy of the Soviet Union began to shift toward a market economy with increased freedoms for the republics and people. This led to the spread of nationalism in the republics, and the economic and social tensions between classes that were already in existence grew. Some argue that perestroika, the economic freedoms that came with it, and the resulting conflicts are the main reason for the unraveling of Soviet society. Clearly, perestroika came with unintended consequences. In 1988, Gorbachev was able to pass the Law of Cooperatives, which, for the first time, permitted the private ownership of certain businesses in the Soviet Union. Another one of Gorbachev’s new policies to go along with perestroika was glasnost. This policy granted Soviet citizens greater freedom of speech and the Soviet control of the press was reduced. Along with economic reform came political reform. Gorbachev pushed for the democratization of Soviet institutions, and was relatively successful at doing so. The Soviet people were granted limited voting rights, and Gorbachev established the position of executive president, which he was elected to and could be impeached if he violated the law or if the Soviet central government became dissatisfied with him. Along with perestroika, glasnost backfired on Gorbachev. When instituting these reforms, Gorbachev hoped that they would gain the support of the people and the social and economic problems that the Soviet Union faced could be solved. The results of the various reforms, however, were a series of unintended consequences that instigated the collapse. Glasnost allowed the media to began exposing to the world the social and economic disparities in the Soviet Union. For years the government had only shown the positive aspects of Soviet life, and now that the negative aspects were surfacing, it was obvious that they outweighed the positives by far. The social structure in the Soviet Union was a disaster, and the rest of the world began to see this. Communist dissenters were jailed and there were virtually no individual rights. The working class worked for the motherland, sometimes to death. Rather than boost revenue, Gorbachev’s economic policies encouraged the Soviet republics to work for their own profit. When the republics were granted election rights, they quickly voted in their own nationalists, and the government in Moscow lost control of the republics. Nationalism was rapidly spreading, and there was nothing Gorbachev could do about it. Gorbachev, in trying to revise the Soviet socialist system, was fighting a winless war. There are several reasons why it could not, in any capacity, be repaired. “One [reason] is that the Soviet system was so illegitimate that it could no longer be maintained by any form of government except one that resourcefully practiced widespread repression” (Gleason 161). Stalin, in his crude political practices, was able successfully repress the Soviet people into a functioning and productive socioeconomic system. Towards the end of the 20th century, however, mindsets were changed, and Soviet people were no longer as welcome to this repression. Another large reason Gorbachev could not fix the problem was because of the vast size and the ethnic diversity of the Soviet Union and its citizens. In the fifteen republics that constituted the union, nationalism was growing, as was a desire for political, economic, and social change. Gorbachev could not successfully fill this desire for change and keep the Soviet Union the stronghold it had been for most of the century. The republics grew disgruntled and impatient, and the result was a collapse from within. After almost three decades of political corruption, economic disparity, and social tension, the actual dismantling began in 1988. The central government in Moscow had spent the past three decades massively building up the military, which left the economy to suffer. “Yet in its efforts to keep up with the American defense build-up, the Soviet Union was compelled in the first half of the 1980s to raise the share of its defense spending from 22 percent to 27 percent of GDP, while it froze the production of civilian goods at 1980 levels” (Hilton). Added to unrest was a failed war in Afghanistan that lasted nearly ten years. In the late 1980s, the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia held massive demonstrations demanding autonomic rule. Other republics followed suit, and by 1990, the central government in Moscow made the decision to relinquish some of its power by allowing popular elections in the republics. Over the next year, the republics voted in their own nationalists, and Moscow had essentially lost control. By the summer of 1991, most Soviets accepted that the collapse was inevitable. Elections were held However, in August a group of radical Communists, in an effort to preserve the Soviet Union, organized a coup d’etat. “They kidnapped Gorbachev, and then, on August 19 of 1991, they announced on state television that Gorbachev was very ill and would no longer be bale to govern” (“Fall of the Soviet Union“). Protests were held all over the country against the coup. The organizers of the coup tried to call in the military to put down the protests, but soldiers refused to fire on the citizens. The coup organizers realized that they could not be successful without control of the military, and so they surrendered after three days. Gorbachev returned as president, but it was already too late. During the fall of 1991, the Soviet republics, beginning with the Baltics states, slowly declared themselves independent from the Soviet Union. Gorbachev continued working on the failing economy, however Russian SFSR President Boris Yelstin made the move to disband the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Gorbachev was removed from power. In December of 1991, the dissolution was made official with the Belavezha Accords, which were signed in Belarus. The Soviet Union was replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States, which held no real control over the new independent nations. Russia and several other republics denounced the Treaty of 1922, which created the Soviet Union. On Christmas Day, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union and relinquished all his power to Boris Yelstin, the President of Russia. In his final speech to the people of the former Soviet Union, Gorbachev admitted his faults and gave his regards for the future or Russia. “Some mistakes could surely have been avoided, many things could have been done better, but I am convinced that sooner or later our common efforts will bear fruit, our nations will live in a prosperous and democratic society. I wish all the best to all of you” (Gorbachev). The Soviet government ceased all operations by December 31, the final day of 1991. A surprising part of the collapse of the Soviet Union was how peaceful it was. For a nation that had a violent past under Joseph Stalin and that had been building up its military for almost half of a century, it went out without a boom. There was some rioting in the massive protests that took place throughout the republics, but overall the protests were peaceful. The August coup could have ended tragically, but luckily Soviet soldiers refused to fire on fellow countrymen. Overall, power was passed from Gorbachev and the Soviet Union to Yelstin and Russia with little violence. Many scholars argue that Ronald Reagan was the main cause for the collapse of the Soviet Union, rather than it being internal. Reagan’s defense and economic policies had a profound effect on the collapse. “The war in Afghanistan cost the United States about $1 billion per annum in aid to the mujahideen; it cost the Soviet Union eight times as much, helping bankrupt its economy” (Hilton). Along with aid to the war in Afghanistan, which was called the “Soviet Union’s Vietnam,” Reagan’s SDI initiative convinced the Soviets that they could not keep up with the military and technology of the United States. Reagan was also successful in driving down the price of oil during the 1980s, which, along with defense spending, severely hindered the Soviet economy. Also, as we all know, Reagan was instrumental in the uniting of East and West Berlin. So while Reagan did have a significant impact on the fall of the Soviet Union, the internal factors were by far greater. Perhaps the most interesting piece of the dismantling of the Soviet Union was how unexpected it was. In less than half of a decade, the Soviet Union went from being seemingly one of the most powerful nations on Earth to a state that no longer existed. “An entire socioeconomic system was dismantled and one of the two most powerful nation-states in the world dismembered, in a relatively peaceful manner, while the world gasped in disbelief” (Mayer 760). The effects of the fall were and are still felt throughout the world. The United States, after decades of the Cold War, was able to reduce its military spending and stop living in the fear of nuclear war. The final question that comes from the events that transpired in the Soviet Union is whether or not socialism can exist. “The failure of various attempts at building socialism and the subsequent abandonment of any attempt at building an alternative to capitalism have led to a situation where the very possibility of an alternative to capitalism is itself under question” (D.N. 2443). Many experts believe that socialism is the perfect system, and that one day the world will succumb to this system, but people are not ready yet. Sure, socialist states exist today, but most have not been around for more than half a century and it has yet to be determined whether or not they will flourish in today’s rapidly diversifying world. The perfect government, which satisfies both social and economic needs, is one that will blend socialism with capitalism, but that system has not yet been implemented. Gorbachev tried to find it, but he could not do so because the people of the Soviet Union were no longer accepting. The final line of the Soviet anthem translates roughly into saying that the Soviet people will stand selflessly under the scarlet flag forever. Under the stalwart leadership of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union flourished, and the people were unable to dissent to the communist system. By the end of the 20th century, the social and economic problems were so terrible that Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to institute reform. Rather than boost the economy, perestroika boosted nationalism in the republics, who wanted a free market. Glasnost, aimed to allow citizens to constructively criticize the Soviet government by allowing increased freedom of speech, effectively opened up the people to the ideas of democracy and showed the rest of the world the dire situation that the Soviet Union was in. These two reform projects, along with others, backfired on Gorbachev and the Communists and severely hindered Soviet control. The republics got swept up in ethnic nationalism and there was nothing Gorbachev or anyone else could do about it. The Soviet Union was a huge mass of land with multiple ethnic groups that were once independent, and after less than a century of rule, they broke free. This revolution from within was the clear result of failed reform. The effects from the events that took place during the collapse of the Soviet Union are still felt today, and Russia and many of the republics are still struggling to maintain democracy. The Cold War and Western disdain were certainly factors in the collapse, but the more main causes were a failed economic and social structures. These structures could not be reformed, and on New Year’s Eve, 1991, the Soviet Union became obsolete.