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Final Draft of History-II

Bachelors of Law (Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University)

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TITLE: Decline of USSR

Subject: 2.3 History - II

Academic Year: 2021-2026

Semester: II

Submitted by

AJEET ATTRI

UG 2021-26

Submitted to

Ms. Nitu Kumari, Assistant Professor of History

MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, NAGPUR

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..3

2. Research Design………………………………………………………...4

3. Analysis…………………………………………………………………5

 Reasons for the Decline of USSR………………………………5

 Timeline of events that took place during Collapse…………..10

 Aftermath of the Disintegration of USSR…………………….12

4. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….15

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INTRODUCTION:
Russia and 14 neighbouring countries made up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(commonly known as the USSR or the Soviet Union). The Soviet Union's territory stretched
from Eastern Europe's Baltic nations to the Pacific Ocean, covering the majority of northern
Asia and parts of central Asia. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a loose
confederation of 15 republics led by Russia. From 1922 through 1991, when it was
fragmented into smaller groups, the USSR was a strong bloc with enormous control over
global politics.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the world's largest country by area during its
existence. With over 100 different nationalities living inside its borders, it was also one of the
most diversified. Between 1946 and 1991 (the data and descriptions below pertain to this
time period), the Soviet Union covered 8,650,000 square miles (22,400,000 square
kilometres), over seven times the size of India and two-thirds the size of the United States.
Nearly one-sixth of the Earth's land surface was inhabited by the country, which included the
eastern half of Europe and roughly the northern third of Asia.

So it becomes pertinent to know that what led to the decline of such a big union. In this
research paper we are going to examine the reasons behind the collapse of USSR and the
series of events that took place during this decline. Also we will discuss the aftermath of the
disintegration of Soviet Republic.

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RESEARCH DESIGN:
RESEARCH PROBLEM:
The research problem here is to analyse the decline of USSR. USSR being a major global
power had a huge geopolitical impact on the world and its surrounding regions. It was
considered to be a powerful bloc of nations but saw its decline post the second world war and
finally disintegrated in 1991.

So the fall of such a major power provides us with a certain set of questions with respect to
how, why and when related to this disintegration. This is what becomes our research
problem.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of this research are as follows:
 To find the reasons that led to the decline of USSR.
 To examine the series of events that took place during this decline.
 To analyse the aftermath or consequences of this decline.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. What were the reasons for the decline of USSR?
2. What were the series of events that took place during the decline?
3. What was the aftermath of this decline of USSR?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The approach to this project work is descriptive and analytical. It is mostly based on article
analysis, and references have been generated using secondary sources, such as websites and
publications. This study is doctrinal method research because it is based on books, articles
and journals that are freely available online. The study of many sources on the topic, mostly
from internet sources, is one of the topics explored in this research.

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ANALYSIS:
REASONS FOR THE DECLINE OF USSR:
The reasons for the decline of USSR are as follows:
1. The Political Factor:
The Soviet Union’s leader Mikhael Gorbachev came to power in 1985. He was the
last ruler of Soviet Union.
On March 11, 1985, Mikhael Gorbachev was appointed general secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), with the primary domestic aims of
reviving the Soviet economy and streamlining the bureaucracy. When his first reform
efforts failed to produce major results, he implemented the glasnost1 ("openness") and
perestroika2 ("restructuring") initiatives. The former was designed to promote
conversation, while the latter was designed to implement quasi-free market policies to
government-run businesses. Rather of generating a revival in Communist ideology,
glasnost unleashed a deluge of criticism of the Soviet system as a whole. The state
lost control of the media and the public domain, and democratic reform movements
grew in popularity across the Soviet Union.
During the late 1980s, during Perestroika, there was an escalating level of violence in
the Soviet republics due to opposing ethnic nationalisms. The first instance of ethnic
violence occurred towards the end of 1986 in Kazakhstan's city of Almaty, when
Kazakh youth rioted in protest of the choice of an ethnic Russian as the republic's
leader. Troops were eventually dispatched to quiet the commotion. Then there was the
massacre in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait, as well as the violent events in Tbilisi,
Baku, and other cities. The worst fighting occurred in Karabakh, which is frequently
referred to as "one of the key political catalysts that triggered the breakup of the
USSR."
Glasnost provided individuals with liberties they had not previously known, such as
greater freedom of expression. The press was freed, and thousands of political
prisoners were released. However, Glasnost had the unintended consequence of
exposing the entire Soviet system to criticism. The state lost control of the media, and
democratic reform groups spread throughout the Soviet bloc.

1
A Soviet policy permitting open discussion of political and social issues and freer dissemination of news
and information.

2
The policy of economic and governmental reform instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union
during the mid-1980s.

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The populace was fed up with extensive corruption, as well as the police state and
censorship. Glasnost ushered in a flood of fresh ideas and experiences, ranging from
politics to western-style fast food, leaving people feeling newly empowered.
By the end of 1989, Hungary had decommissioned its border barrier with Austria,
Poland had elected Solidarity to power, the Baltic republics were taking serious
moves toward independence, and the Berlin Wall had fallen. The Iron Curtain had
come down, and the Soviet Union was not able to keep it up for long. Thus we can
say that poor political decision making and the overall political scenario is at the heart
of the reasons for the collapse of USSR.

2. The Economic Factor:

In some ways, the Soviet economy was the second biggest in the world in 1990, yet
consumer goods shortages and hoarding were prevalent. The Soviet black market
economy was believed to be worth more than ten percent of the country's official
GDP. Economic stagnation had plagued the country for years, and the perestroika
reforms had only exacerbated the situation. Wage increases were financed by printing
money, which fueled an inflationary cycle. Mismanagement of budgetary policy
rendered the country vulnerable to external forces, and a dramatic decrease in oil
prices threw the Soviet economy into disarray. Because of the country's continued
dismal economic performance, Mikhail Gorbachev implemented a more extreme set
of changes. Gorbachev sought to decentralise economic activities and open the
economy to global commerce while seeking to retain socialist principles and central
control over core societal goals.

This reform, known as perestroika, promoted individual private incentives, resulting

in more transparency. Perestroika stood in stark contrast to the command economy's
former hierarchical structure. However, increasing access to information aided in the
development of critiques of Soviet control, not just of the economy, but also of social
life. When the Soviet leadership relinquished authority in order to salvage the
country's collapsing economy, they aided in the creation of conditions that would lead
to the country's demise.

The late 1980s and early 1990s, the latter years of the Soviet Union, were marked by
severe economic recession. In the middle of the escalating economic crisis, Soviet

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officials no longer had the authority to interfere. Locally empowered leaders wanted
increased autonomy from central authority, undermining the command economy's
3
underpinnings, while increasingly localised cultural identities and interests trumped
national concerns. Following a massive increase in their economy, the Soviet Union
saw one of the hardest economic collapses in history: the Soviet people were evicted
from their homes, famished to death, and yearning for any reform that would relieve
them of famine and poverty. The USSR not only lost economic superiority, but also
the population's trust in the leadership, which led to the country's impending demise.
The Soviet Union fell in late 1991, its economic and political unity in shambles,
fragmenting into fifteen distinct entities. There was a severe shortage with respect to
consumer items. The increased spending by the government in military affairs,
maintenance of satellite states in Eastern Europe, and maintenance of Central Asian
Republics in the USSR had a very adverse impact on the already struggling soviet
economy.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Soviet Union was one of the world's top
producers of energy resources such as oil and natural gas, and exports of those
commodities were critical to the world's largest command economy's survival. When
the price of oil fell from $120 per barrel in 1980 to $24 per barrel in March 1986, this
essential lifeline to external funding was severed. The price of oil briefly soared in the
aftermath of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, although the Soviet Union had
already collapsed by that moment.

3. The Afghan War Factor:

Major conflicts have a significant influence on domestic politics by causing long-term
socioeconomic changes and dispersing political power among groups. A well-
established literature illustrates how great conflicts may both create and break states.
Surprisingly, existing theories for the Soviet collapse downplay the significance of the
Afghanistan conflict.
In December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded in Afghanistan. In retrospect, it was
unimaginable in 1979 that the Soviet empire could come apart, let alone within a
decade. Though Soviet officials first envisioned the Afghanistan war as a small-scale

3
A command economy is where a central government makes all economic decisions. Either the government or a
collective owns the land and the means of production. It doesn't rely on the laws of supply and demand that
operate in a market economy.

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operation, it escalated into a decade-long conflict involving almost one million Soviet
forces, killing and wounded tens of thousands of them.
1986 is considered to be a watershed moment in the Afghanistan conflict and, as such,
the start of the second phase of Gorbachev's reform plan. In 1986, the Mujaheddin4
(Afghan independence fighters), now fully armed with US-supplied surface-to-air
missiles, rockets, mortars, and communication technology, defeated the Soviet army
in a number of battles. As successful ambushes of Soviet convoys became a regular
occurrence, the number of Soviet losses increased, the number of handicapped troops
observed in Soviet towns increased significantly, and war veterans (Afgantsy) became
an increasingly important element of the Soviet urban environment. Because many
Afgantsy were of non-Russian ethnicities, resistance to the conflict grew among
inhabitants of non-Russian Soviet countries.
The Afghanistan conflict had had a considerable influence on Soviet domestic politics
by late 1986. In the non-Russian Soviet republics, anti-militarism grew strong. The
conflict became a uniting emblem of non-Russian opposition to Moscow's authority
for non-Russians. The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan revealed Soviet
military inadequacy and exposed the army's vulnerability. By 1988, the conflict had
altered Soviet authorities' ideas of the efficacy of employing military force to keep the
collapsing country together.
The Soviet army was also tarnished as a result of this battle. Because the Soviet army
was the glue that kept the several Soviet republics together, its failure in Afghanistan
had far-reaching consequences for the Soviet Union's survival.
Many Central Asian soldiers felt deeper ethnic and religious ties to Afghans than they
did to Russians, prompting major demonstrations. The schism with Moscow was even
more pronounced in the European republics. In Ukraine, anti-war protests erupted,
while opposition forces in the Baltic republics viewed the Afghan war through the
lens of Russian annexation of their own nations. This fostered secessionist efforts,
which resulted to the three Baltic states declaring independence in 1990, mostly
unchecked.

4. The Cold War and Military Factor:

4
Members of a number of guerrilla groups operating in Afghanistan during the Afghan War (1978–92) that
opposed the invading Soviet forces and eventually toppled the Afghan communist government.

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After World War II concluded in 1945, the world was in disarray, with most impacted
countries attempting to recover from significant post-war losses. The cold war was a
direct result of the world's second major conflict, which set the world's two
superpowers against each other in a quest to become the world's sole significant force.
From the beginning of this 45-year war for dominance, only one outcome was
possible: one of the two titans had to fall in order for the other to triumph.
The end of World War II came in the shape of a mushroom cloud slamming on
Japanese territory, prompting the Soviet Union to build nuclear weapons of their own
in order to establish supremacy over its western rivals. This type of equipment is
neither simple nor inexpensive to get, and the Soviets spent millions in the hope of
winning the nuclear race against the United States, who already had operational
bombs that they detonated on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. This
type of spending harmed the USSR's economy, leading to a rise in poverty and
dissatisfaction among its citizens.
The Warsaw Pact5 fell apart as a result of the Cold War. The Baltic States and certain
former Soviet republics were able to achieve freedom as a result of the Cold War.
Because of the demise of the Soviet Union in 1990, the United States became the
world's solitary superpower during the Cold War.
It is widely assumed that Soviet defence spending increased considerably in response
to Ronald Reagan's administration and programmes such as the Strategic Defense
Initiative. In truth, the Soviet military budget had been increasing since at least the
early 1970s, but Western analysts were only given best estimations in terms of precise
statistics. Outside estimates of Soviet military spending ranged between 10 and 20
percent of GDP, and even within the Soviet Union, an exact accounting was
impossible to generate because the military budget involved a number of government
ministries, each with its own competing objectives. What can be asserted
unequivocally is that military spending has been persistently agnostic to general
economic developments.
The military was well-funded even when the Soviet economy weakened. Furthermore,
when it came to research and development talent, the military was given first priority.
Instead of supporting Gorbachev's partial shift to a market economy, technological
inventors and would-be entrepreneurs were diverted into defence industries.
5
The Warsaw Pact, formally the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, was a
treaty signed on May 14, 1955, by the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Hungary, Poland, and Romania that established a mutual-defense organisation (Warsaw Treaty Organization).

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5. The Nuclear Factor:

Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States were on the verge
of nuclear war. Few predicted, however, that an event involving a civilian nuclear
power plant would bring the Soviet Union to its knees. Gorbachev had been in power
for just over a year when the Unit 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Power Station in
Pryp'yat (now in Ukraine) exploded on April 26, 1986. The explosion and following
flames produced more than 400 times the amount of radioactive fallout as the
Hiroshima atomic bomb. The official reaction to the tragedy would be a litmus test for
Gorbachev's concept of openness, and glasnost would be deemed critically lacking in
that aspect. Officials from the Communist Party moved fast to hide knowledge about
the disaster's severity, even ordering that May Day parades and celebrations in the
affected area go on as scheduled despite the knowing risk of radiation exposure.
Following the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, approximately 100,000 people were
evacuated from adjacent cities in order to reduce exposure and, eventually, to restrict
the spread of radiation from the radioactive leak. The catastrophe not only had a
tremendous detrimental influence on Soviet Russia’s economy, but it also crippled
and converted Pripyat, one of the USSR’s most ideal towns, into a ghost town. This
sows seeds of distrust in the hearts of the Soviet people. The greatest repercussion
was the empire’s loss of reputation as a result of the incident that dogged the nation
for a full century due to radiation sickness.
Almost 18 days after the tragedy, on May 14, did Gorbachev release his first formal
public remark, in which he labelled the disaster a “misfortune” and denounced
Western media accounts as a “very immoral campaign” of “malicious falsehoods.”
However, as individuals in the fallout zone and beyond reported suffering from the
consequences of radiation sickness, the Communist Party’s propaganda was revealed
for what it was. As a result, public faith in government and transparency were broken.
Decades later, Gorbachev would describe Chernobyl as “perhaps the true reason of
the Soviet Union’s collapse five years later.”

TIMELINE OF EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE COLLAPSE:

1. Fall of Communism in Poland:

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The 'Solidarnosc'6 labour union in Poland created the first 'non-communist'

administration in the former Soviet bloc since 1948 on September 13, 1989, after
winning an election with an overwhelming majority.

2. Fall of Berlin Wall:

The Berlin Wall between communist East Germany and West Germany fell on
November 9, 1989, five days after half a million people assembled in East Berlin in a
major protest. A few decades after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union erected
a wall separating Berlin into a western capitalist side and an eastern communist side
in order to prevent eastern Germans from enjoying the fruits of capitalism. This
division not only split neighbours, friends, and families, but it also divided both
economies, resulting in a stark picture of the differences between US capitalism and
USSR communism. The wall was ultimately down in 1989, over 30 years after its
construction, and Eastern Berlin came back to life. Germans from all around the city
converged atop the wall and proceeded to tear down the barrier that had divided their
capital for more than three decades.

3. Economic and political reforms in USSR:

Gorbachev identified the USSR's economic and political issues and initiated a series
of changes aimed at reviving the economy. This was a shift away from communist
policies and toward more market-oriented policies. Many communist officials in the
USSR rejected Gorbachev's reforms. In 1991, they aided and abetted a coup.

4. Lithuania left the USSR:

Following the events of Gorbachev's attempted transparency and leniency, Lithuania
took advantage of USSR's weakness to revolt and demand its independence.
Lithuania was the first republic to officially break away from the USSR and restore
independence in the Act of 11 March 1990.
The red army's peaceful inaction pushed the other oppressed countries to refute the
communist regime and achieve independence from the USSR. Almost all countries
achieved their independence without a single casualty.

5. The Coup of 1991:

6
A trade union movement for the socialist cause.

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A gang of Soviet hardliners imprisoned Mikhail Gorbachev at his Crimean dacha in

August 1991, attempting to hold the USSR together by force. Faced with enormous
protests, they surrendered barely three days after gaining control, when the first
civilian blood was shed in Moscow. Following the collapse of the coup, the
Communist Party was banned, and the Soviet Union was officially disbanded later
that year, resulting in the formation of 15 separate republics.

6. Opposition against the Coup:

During the hard-line communists' short revolt against Gorbachev in August 1991,
Yeltsin resisted the coup leaders and galvanised Moscow's opposition while asking
for Gorbachev's restoration. When the coup fell apart just a few days after it began,
Yeltsin became the country's most powerful political figure.

7. Power shift from Soviet Center to republics:

In September 1991, the Congress of People's Deputies decides to dissolve the Soviet
Union. Then, on December 8th, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus sign an
agreement to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 25th,
Gorbachev resigns as Soviet President; the United States recognises the independence
of the other Soviet countries. Finally, on December 26, the Russian government takes
over the offices of the USSR in Russia.

AFTERMATH OF THE DISINTEGRATION OF USSR:

1. End of the Cold War:

The cold war was effectively ended when the former adversaries East and West
engaged in a process of peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation for
development, when the Berlin wall was demolished and the two German states
became one, when the Warsaw Pact was liquidated, and when the former adversaries
East and West engaged in a process of peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation
for development.
Despite the new liberalism, the presence of a Socialist USSR kept the possibility of a
new cold war alive. The prospects of a re-emergence of the cold war were ultimately
eliminated following the breakup of the USSR and Russia's helplessness to confront

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the West. We can say the final cremation of cold war took place with the collapse of
the USSR.

2. Transition to a Market Economy:

Buying and reselling products to make a livelihood became the norm for millions of
individuals learning to survive under the new conditions of a previously unknown
market economy after 1991.
This economic liberalisation did not appeal to all Soviet residents. Millions of people
lost their money as a result of rapid inflation, as the cost of commodities and products
increased tenfold or more. Following this, there was an increase in crime and
unemployment, and withheld pay became the new rule rather than the exception.

3. Changes in the Politics of Europe:

The fall of the Socialist bloc and the USSR coincided with the end of Russia's
influence in European politics. The development of non-communist administrations in
Eastern European states as a result of democratic and liberalisation movements
provided a fresh perspective on European politics.
The divide between Eastern and Western Europe began to blur, and all European
countries entered an age of peaceful coexistence and mutual collaboration for growth.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, the unification of Germany, the dissolution of the Warsaw
Pact, and the advent of democratic administrations in former communist republics all
contributed to a new look and content for European politics.
The United States of America grew interested in expanding its influence, notably its
economic power over the countries of Eastern Europe. The Western European
countries that formed the European Union recognised a fresh potential for economic
development by establishing high-level commercial and economic links with the
Eastern European countries.

4. Changes in Asian Politics:

Politics in Asia changed dramatically as a result of the fall of the USSR. India, in
particular, lost one of its "time-tested and trusted allies." Its foreign policy had to
rebalance relations with Russia and the other countries of the former USSR.
It took about a year for her ties to be adjusted and for socioeconomic-cultural
cooperation with Russia and other CIS members to be steered in the right direction.

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India also saw it as critical to strive toward bettering relations with the United States.
Its economic requirements, as well as shifts in its economic policies from public-
sector to privatization-oriented policies, necessitated an improvement in Indo-US
relations.
Following the demise of the Soviet Union, another major Asian force, China felt
alone as a communist state. It felt obligated to pursue quick economic liberalisation
and heal relations with India, Japan, Vietnam, and other Asian countries. It also found
it impossible to challenge the United States' domination of the UN Security Council.
Vietnam felt it was also necessary to leave Cambodia, heal ties with China, and create
cordial relations with other Asian countries. Similarly, Japan felt it necessary to
rethink and redefine its place in Asia in particular, and the globe in general. It made
the decision to expand its military strength in the new environment.

5. Rise of Uni-polarity in International Relations:

The bipolarity of the 1950s, which was succeeded by bi-multipolarity or polycentrism
in the 1960s, was replaced by unipolarity in international relations in the 1990s. The
dissolution of the communist bloc, the end of the Warsaw Pact, and the collapse of the
USSR established unipolarity in international affairs, with the United States of
America as the world's lone remaining superpower.
The continued presence of NATO7, the dominant position of the United States in the
world in general and the United Nations in particular, and the inability or
unwillingness of the major powers to oppose or challenge the United States' power in
the world all contributed to unipolarity in international relations.

CONCLUSION:
USSR has always had an impactful history. It was a nation so powerful and impactful that it
has always had an influence on global geopolitics. The focus area of this research paper was
to analyse the disintegration of USSR.

7
NATO is a military alliance comprised of 27 European nations, two North American countries, and one
Eurasian country.

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The disintegration of such a large nation is a historical event having wide range of causes as
well as effects. So firstly we delved into the major causes that led to this decline of USSR.
We came across various causes ranging from the internal factors related with political and
economic prospects to external influences such as the Afghan war and the Cold war.
After this we also researched about the significant events that happened during the decline of
USSR and were marked as historical events during this process. These began with the fall of
communism in Poland subsequently followed by the fall of Berlin Wall and ended with the
coup of 1991 leading to power shift from Soviet Center to Republics due to which Russia
finally dissolved on 25th December, 1991.
Since USSR had a major influence in the global geopolitics, its disintegration had a lot of
effects on the world. The politics of Europe and Asia went through major changes. Also the
cold war came to an end and with the fall of USSR, USA emerged as the only major power
leading to unipolarity in global geopolitics.
Thus the fall of USSR became a major point of study with respect to international relations
and geopolitical history.

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