The Collapse of the USSR

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  • Created by: Alex2017
  • Created on: 26-04-17 17:37

Long Term Economic Weakness

  • Soviet economy was in decline when Gorbachev took over as Leader
  • Highlighted in the Novosibirsk Report of 1983
    • Drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture caused by the states inefficiency and inflexibility
    • The aging members of the politburo didn't understand the importance of this report or chose to ignore it.
  • The stagnant economy was partially caused by the limited productivity of the Soviet workforce
  • Between 1985-86 the deficit of the Soviet economy rose from 2.4%GPD to 6.2%
  • Ongoing war in Afghanistan was costly in terms of both money and lives
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Gorbachev's initial reforms

Disipline:

  • Echoed Andropov
  • continuation of anti-alcohol campaigns
  • Hoping that by improving the health of the Soviet workforce he could improve the productivity
  • April 1985 "We can't build Communism on vodka"
  • Legal drinking age was raised to 21
  • Number of retail outlets who sold alcohol was reduced
  • Vineyards destroyed and distilleries closed
  • Caused tax revenues from alcohol to drop dramatically
  • People began producing illegal moonshine in unhygienic conditions.
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Acceleration

Twelfth five year plan

  • Increased investment but was controlled by central planning
  • Focused on science and research, particularly engieering
  • Weaknesses:
    •  Investment in construction projects had the habit of going over budget
    • Used equipment that was out of date and prone to breaking down
    • Slow to use new technology
    • Agricultural sector swallowed vast sums of money that were not leading to any improvements
    • Focus remained on quantity rather than quality

Gorbachev's policy of acceleration did little to address the funamental weakness of the economy. Partially due to the level of opposition within Gosplan for any real change. Raather than de-centralise the system Gorbachev set up 'superministeries' to achieve better co-ordination and reduce waste. Unsuccessful as they were to be implemented by the people whose privileged positions the reforms were trying to reduce. As well as resistance from the military who wanted new investment as the USA had plans to develop the 'Star Wars' programme (Strategic defense for the development of anti-ballistic missile systems in space)

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Perestroika

January 1987 Gorbachev lauched his proposal for Perestroika. Introduced market mechanisms to allow an element of private enterprise to revitalised the economy

  •  Jan 1987- the encouragment of joint ventures: allowed foreign firms to establish buisnesses in the soviet union and encourage the use of modern technology
  • June 1987- the law on state enterprises: loosened state control over wages and prices which weakened the authority of Gosplan.
  • 1988- Cooperatives legalised: allowed small scale enterprises to be established. Quickly resulted in a flourishing sector in cafes, restaurants and small shops.

Thus Gorbachev was able to partly disguise the move to a more market based economy.

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Impact of Perestroika

Impact:

  • Food production showed a small increase- still inadequate
  • Enterprise was still subject to state interference
  • Stock was diverted to cooperatives whosed price was higher than state shops- therefore more productive.
  • Corruption: deals with rich areas leaving poor areas without food
  • Reforms undermined by officials
  • Encouraged hoarding and food rationing had to be introduced

Situation made worse by the falling price of oil which in 1984 had accounted for 54% of all Soviet exports.

Provided little replacement for Gosplan

1989- Soviet economy was masively in dept and approaching a crisis point

Strikes had increased due to food shortages and unpaid wages

Gorbachev's failure undermined his political power and position

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State Commission

July 1984 -Economic report concluded that a more radical solution was needed. Called for a move to a market led economy. This report split the politburo- Reform or no reform Gorbachev couldn't win over his whole government. 

October- his economic advisors put forward the 500 day programme which outlined a rapid move to a market economy. -was rejected by Soviet Government but accepted by the russian parliment. This divison led to chaos and economic collapse.

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Interpretation of Gorbachev's Economic Reforms

In the west, Historians have often argued that the liberal free market is the best way of achieving material growth and supplying the population with its needs and wants

Historians on the political left have view Gorbachev's reforms more positively, arguing that economic failure in itself was not able to have brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. As many bad governments have been able to hold onto power through periods of economic decline.

Others have drawn attention to the context within which Gorbachev was acting. He had a very unfavourable international climate: a war in Afghanistan, falling oil prices, a US embargo on imports of technology to the USSR and the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

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Glastnost

System needed streamlining as competition from different branches of administration had led to corruption and nepotism. This would also offer the opportunity to to remove officials who were against reform

It was difficult to Gorbachev to call a halt to Glastnost even if he wanted to. And the Chernobyl incident in April 1986 provided an urgent justification for Glastnost.

By 1989 the Soviet population was much more politicised, there were over 60,000 informal groups calling for political reform. But instead of Glastnost producing support for Gorbachev, it resulted in a wave of criticism against the party.

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Attempts to reform the party

  • Seperation of State and party
    • lines between the two were blurry due to the Nomenklatura system
    • Gorbachev's became President of the USSR while he was still the General Secretary
  • Shifting Power to the Soviets
    • Allocated more finance to the Soviets which gave them resources to support their role
    • Greater job security as Deputies of the Soviets were in power for 5 years rather than 2
  • Streamlining the party
    • Departments of the central committee were reduced from 20 to 9 
    • Noc 1985 Five ministeries were merged into one 'superministery' for agriculture
  • Clampdown on corruption
    • Attacks on corrupt party officials was popular with the public
    • Dec 1986 Kunayev was removed as first secretary in kazakhstan on the grounds of corruption, was replayed by Kolbin (a russian) caused riots which were only controlled after killing several hundreds of protestors. -blame was placed on G as he appointed Kolbin
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Democratisation and Impacts

  • 1987- idea of secret ballots for multi-candidate elections
  • Implemented in 1989 elections to new Congress of People's Deputies
    • CP able to control the nomination process
    • CP won 80% of seats
    • Yeltsin won 89% of votes in Moscow
  • Represented a significant change but irritrievably weakened the power of the party
  • Reforms were criticised as being little more than tinkering with the system
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Failure to reform the party

  • Left many reformers wanting to move towards pluralism
  • alienation of the Left
    • Realisation that party would not carry out reforms
    • Oct 1987 -Yeltsin openly attacked G's reforms for being too slow
    • Subsequently sacked as Moscow's first secretary
  • Alienating conservatives
    • A letter was published by a newspaper complaining about the constant undermining of Stalin and attacked glastnost for demoralising effect
    • Ligachev used letter to attack fast pace of reforms
  • Development of factions
    • Yeltsin formed Intra-regional Group and Conservatives formed Soyuz 
    • Both acted as unofficial opposition to the government
  • Article 6 (CP was the only legal party)
    • Was a symbolic target for critics, Left put pressure on G for it to be abolished
    • Conservatives thought it was non-negotiable
    • Gorbachev repealed it in march 1990

By the end of 1990 the CP was powerless, national groups grew. Power had shifted from the party centre to to regions.

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Interpretation of Gorbachev's failed Political Ref

  • Damaged his own authority as well as the Party's 
  • Western historians:
    • well meaning but unlikely to have ever brought success
  • 'Essentialist' historians:
    • The party was impossible to reform because it was incapable of producing anything other than a totalitarian state.
  • Others argue:
    • Gorbachev's political reforms were potentially workable, but was undermined by both Conservatives and Liberals within the party
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The ending of the Brezhnev Doctrine

  • Soviet Control had been enforced by military action under the Brezhnev Doctrine
  • Gorbachev decided that the USSR would not intervene in internal affairs
  • Refusing to use armed intervention as it was morally wrong
  • Instead he focused on the universal values of human rights to promote the interests of the people. 
  • Supporting satellite states had become increasingly expensive; $40 billion annually on propping up communist governments.

Consequences

  • Pressure to reform was driven by nationalist sentiments
  • But some leaders needed USSR intervention to prevent reform
  • 1989 -Hungary adopted multi-party elections and Polish elections returned a non-communist government the USSR took no action.
  • The result was the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe as national groups asserted their independence.
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Spread of collapse

  • Hungary
    • Pressure for reform within party
    • Hardline leader sacked 
  • East Germany
    • More reliant on Soviet regime as it was an artificial country
    • Mass demonstrations meant that pressure for reform became unstoppable 
    • Leader refused to sanction widespread repression 
    • 9th Nov 1989 Berlin wall was dismantled by 'people power'
  • Czechoslovakia
    • Nov 1989 -regime forced to make concessions in response to public demonstrations
    • Communists caved in under severe public pressure and reforms were introduced
    • Dec 1989 -Havel leading non-communist was elected President
  • Romania
    • Public discontent with food shortages and lack of consumer goods
    • Leader open fired on demonstrations which increased unpopularity of regime
    • By Dec 1989 even the army wouldn't support him
    • Executed 25th Dec which ended Communism in Romania
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Nagorno-Karabakh

  • Ethnic tensions arose over the desire of the Armenians to join the Armenian republic
  • 1988 -tensions erupted into violence
  • Illegal referendum held had been in favour of joining the Armenian republic
  • Indicated growing weakness of central soviet government
  • Armenia announced in november that Nagorno-Karabakh was under its control
  • As violence continued Soviet Gov felt compelled to intervene and impose direct control

Demonstrated the declining power of the central soviet government, backed by the spread of other ethnic clashes in Georgia (1989) and Kirgizstan (1990)

Clashes had the effct of destabilising central control, but they did not necessarily pose a threat to the USSR as a whole.

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Baltic republics

  • Had been independent before their incorporation into the USSR
  • Had higher levels of education than the Soviet average
  • More economically developed
  • Oct 1988 -Popular fronts established
    • called for protection of their native languages and cultural traditions
  • August 1989 the anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet pact was used to stage mass demonstrations
    • A human chain of the people from the baltic states was organised 
    • Stretched across the three countries as a show of independence
  • 1990 -popular fronts won a majority in the elections to the supreme soviet 
  • Lithuania took the lead in declaring independence and the other two soon followed

Soviet Government refused to acknowledge this declaration and in Jan '91 some pro-soviet supporters along with some red army troops attempted to over a tv station -13 were killed

Gorbachev denied giving orders for the Red army to use force -likely action taken by rogue elements

He issued a statement making it clear that the calls for independence would not be prevented as long as the correct constitutional channels were taken.

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Limits of Nationalism

  • Experience
    • Ukraine had limited experience of independence and therefore the nationalist organistation Rukh had little support in the eastern side of the republic
  • Degree of autonomous control
    • USSR had allowed some regional control accomodating the wishes of its national people
  • Republics had been net gainers of Soviet economic investment
  • Loyalty to local and tribal grouping was often stronger than nationalist sentiment
    • led to violence between different Muslim groups
  • Role of ethnic russians
    • 60 Million Russians lived in the other republics of the Soviet Union

March 1991 referendum indicated popular support for maintaining the USSR in all the republics outside Georgia and the Baltics.

Led to Gorbachev's new union treaty

There was plenty of evidence to indicate that the USSR could survive without the Baltics and Georgia. 

The collapse of the Communist party also didn't necessarily mean the collapse of the USSR

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Russian Nationalism

  • Doomed the Soviet Union
  • Yeltsin had been elected chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet and from there he was able to undermine Gorbachev's union treaty
  • Russian Nationalism largely confined to the intelligentsia as Russian institutions had been fused with Soviet ones
  • Yeltsin was happy to encourage Russian nationalism as a method of undermining the Soviet leader and the Communist Party
  • Used Support to undermine the new union treaty
  • For many who considered themselves Russian nationalist didn't want to see an end to a 'Great Russian empire'
  •  August Coup allowed Yeltsin to ban the CP in Russian and therefore put an end to the Soviet Union
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Interpretations of the role of Nationalism

West -tended to neglect the developments that occured in the individual republics of the USSR, but instead focused on developments in Moscow which lent itself to an unbalanced arguement.

Whereas Western Historians used the developments of the republics to explain the collapse. This approach was favoured by those who saw the collapse as part of the ending of the Cold War. However this is also problematic as the events of the Eastern Europe were in many ways different to those of the Soviet Union and it would be unwise to assume that they were replicated by developments witin the USSR itself.

Studies have also tended to be more cautious, often focusing on the success of the Soviet Union for maintaining unity for so long.

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Gorbachev's responsiblitiy

Internationalist historians approach the concept of causation in history through the actions of the invididual, yet their actions often produce results that are unintended and this suggests that is the context within which they operate.

Gorbachev became a figure of hatred within the USSR. But in the west he was the leader who had ended the Cold War. He recieved the nobel peace prize in 1990, and was also celebrated as a leader who ended a repressive communist system.

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Gorbachev's failings

  • Lack of vision
    • Uncertain of how to improve economy
    • implemented a series of uncoordinated polices
    • then experimented when these failed
    • an air of considered planning that didn't exist
  • Naivety
    • Making naive assumptions about the reforms likely impact
    • Didn't consider that Glastnost would path the way for attacks on the central position of the party
  • Powerbase
    • Attacking the base of his own power without ensuring an adequate replacement
  • Expectation
    • Reforms raised people's expectations but failed to satify them
  • Foreign Policy
    • Ending the Brezhnev doctrine on the naive assumption that Eastern Europe would become communist on popular support
    • Hadn't considered the alternative nor the impact on other nationalist groups
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Gorbachev's failings

  • Handling of national minorities
    • Made ill-judged decisions which harmed the relationship between central gov and republics
    • handling of ethnic clashed was hesitant
    • Imposed indirect control on Nagorno-Karabakh from moscow achieved little more than making tensions worse
    • Response to Baltic declaration of indepedence shows the governments lack of a clear strategy
  • Inconstitancy
    • G often gave mixed messages in speeches by trying to appeal to both sides of the party
    • Gorbachev's seemingly ever-changing position made him enemies on both sides
    • Made it impossible for him to work with Yeltsin
  • Indecision
    • At key moments G was hesitant
    • Often made poor choices in personnel that did little to strenghten his position

Led to a string of weaknesses consisting of 'destabilisation, delegitimation and disintegration'

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In defense of Gorbachev

Did not intend to bring down the communist state.

  • Error was to attempt economic reform, democratisation and decolonising the republics at the same time.
  • But they were intrinsically linked -Economic reform could not progress with political reform -which reduced the hold over the republics
  • Needed broad support for his reform which was a considerable challenge yet he managed it for most of his time as general secretary
  • Avoided using force to impose his will despite the pressure to do so
  • Undermined by a chance combination of internal factors that could not be foreseen
    • Afghan war, falling oil prices, US star wars kept pressure to maintain military spending.
    • Only by ending the cold war could focus shift to consumer goods
    • 1988 earthquake in Armenia resulted in 25,000 deaths which added to the pressure

Luck was not on his side! 

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Yeltsin

How did Yeltsin challenge Gorbachev's leadership?

  • Used his time out of the spotlight to establish fimer links with other reformers
  • Was an expert at using opportunities to appeal to the public for sympathy and support
  • Elections gave him an oppotunity to make a comeback -gave him a claim to legitimacy
  • Needed an alternative power to attack the Soviet central government- Elected chairman of the congress in May 1990
  • Passed a series of measures that undermined Gorbachev -declared that Russian laws were superior to Soviet laws -a move which G declared as illegal
  • encouraged nationalist movements in the other republics
  • Ability to attack the new union treaty after the August coup despite supporting and negotiating the Novo-Ogarevo agreement which formed the basis to the new union treaty
  • Some argue as a cynical manoeuvre to keep a weak Gorbachev in power until he was ready to destroy him
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August Coup

  • Last ditch attempt to preserve the USSR
  • A state of Emergency Committe was formed 
  • At a press conference Yanaev announced that Gorbachev was ill (was actually under house arrest)
  • A series of repressive measure was hastily announced, including a band on strikes and demonstrations

Impacts

  • Yeltsin stood against the plotters, demaned the G be released immediatly
  • Y quickly introduced a series of measures which sped up the fall of the USSR
    • Launched a programme of market reform
  • By summer 1991 -Article 6 was abolished, ending the CPs monopoly of power
  • November the CP had been banned in Russia
  • Followed the Ukrainian President and refused to sign the new union treaty 
  • Yeltsin organised the Comonwealth of Indepent States (CIS) 
  • When this was implemented in Dec 1991, the Soviet Union was no more
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August Coup

  • Last ditch attempt to preserve the USSR
  • A state of Emergency Committe was formed 
  • At a press conference Yanaev announced that Gorbachev was ill (was actually under house arrest)
  • A series of repressive measure was hastily announced, including a band on strikes and demonstrations

Impacts

  • Yeltsin stood against the plotters, demaned the G be released immediatly
  • Y quickly introduced a series of measures which sped up the fall of the USSR
    • Launched a programme of market reform
  • By summer 1991 -Article 6 was abolished, ending the CPs monopoly of power
  • November the CP had been banned in Russia
  • Followed the Ukrainian President and refused to sign the new union treaty 
  • Yeltsin organised the Comonwealth of Indepent States (CIS) 
  • When this was implemented in Dec 1991, the Soviet Union was no more
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Interpretations of Yeltsin's role

  • Post-collapse He was unable to effectively deal with the economic problems that face Gorbachev
  • Was Yeltsin more interested in his own power than principles?
  • Was Yeltsin prepared to sacrific the USSR for the sake of boosting his own political position
  • Did he control events or just make use of them?
  • Divisons in the party still would have existed without Yeltsin
  • Nationalist movements in non-Russian republics did not rely on Yeltsin for growth in their support.
  • He was well placed to take advantage of Gorbachev's weakness and the growing fragility of the Soviet Union
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