Gorbachev-1985-1992

• Soviet Union could not afford to be a superpower:-

• War in Afghanistan provided crippling costs with very little reward
• Few exportable goods
• Most state industries were running at a loss

• Nowhere near being self sufficient

• Poor living conditions
• Big gap in standard of living between Communist East and Capitalist West (western countries were starting to use computers, shops in the USSR were still having to use Abacuses)
• Many workers were drunk at work
• Very poor life expectancy-62 at the same time in Uk it was about 72

• Space race-very very very expensive
• Arms race for 35 years-also very expensive
• Invasion of Afghanistan- by 1989 it had cost USSR 35bn roubles about £35bn

Lack of leadership

• During his reign Brezhnev didn't do much to help the USSR's problems, it is claimed that he was partially brain dead for 3 years before his death!

Openess not only in the USSR but with the World.

• Russia needed help from any country willing to help-friendliness was more likely to help
• Needed to reduce budget and wanted western investment and an arms limitation agreement

• Censorship relaxed
• Western ideas and culture flooded in eg. music, art, mcdonalds!
• KGB (secret police) abolished
• Free elections for local government

Perestroika-Economic restructuring

• Removal of price controls
• reduce state control of economy
• end monopolies
• small private businmesess were allowed
• Introduction of competition

Basically introducing capitilism into a Communist country-it wasn't going to work!!

• Glasnost fed people's hunger for more freedom
• opposition from Politburo for 'Westernising' USSR
• Russian people didn't understand capitalism and put their prices at extortionate rates and so inflation was rapidly increasing

• Slowly one by one each 'Satellite state' declared their independence( the Baltic states were first)
• Gorbachev lost control
• Members of the politburo organised a coup while Gorbachev was on Holiday
• Boris Yeltsin stopped it and all of the seperate states declared that they did not want to be involved anymore
• On christmas day 1991 Gorbachev resigned as president of a USSR that, effectively, no longer existed.