What caused the collapse of the Soviet Union?

Fundamentally speaking, first of all, during the Soviet period, people's living standards have never been high. Although developed heavy industry and the constant arms race have boosted the GDP, thus covering up this phenomenon. But this was not in the interests of the people and therefore led to dissatisfaction among the Soviet people. Secondly, the highly centralized political system lacks democracy, and the cadre class inevitably becomes increasingly bureaucratic. The party cadre group, which claims to represent the interests of the people, has gradually transformed into a privileged class that is opposed to the interests of the people. When the people increasingly feel that the privileged class is fundamentally contrary to their own interests, the decline and disintegration of this political system will become inevitable.

Secondly, the Soviet Union began to implement the New Economic Policy in 1922. Lenin reformed the wartime communist policy and emphasized the promotion of intra-party democracy. However, since Stalin came to power in 1926, a highly centralized political and economic system has been formed. Although the Soviet Union achieved industrialization under this system, by the 1950s, its shortcomings were increasingly exposed, hindering the Soviet Union's development. Subsequently, Khrushchev and Brezhnev carried out reforms successively, but their reforms were only minor repairs to the original system and did not fundamentally change the highly centralized political and economic system.

Again, Russia has repeatedly expanded abroad in history and conquered a series of other peoples. After the Russian October Revolution, it once recognized the right of all ethnic groups to self-determination, but the Soviet Union later still adopted the line of external expansion. From 1919 to 1944, it successively annexed the independent Khiva Khanate, Bukhara Khanate, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. , Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the People's Republic of Tuva and other countries, and through foreign aggression and threats of force, they annexed large areas of land including Romanians, Finns and other ethnic groups. During the Soviet period, the Russification policy was implemented. Nationalism was regarded as the opposite of the Soviet Union and socialism and was suppressed. Most of the political, cultural, and economic elites of various ethnic groups were executed, and national languages, cultures, and national consciousness were destroyed. During and after World War II, the Soviet Union also targeted Poles, Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Volga Germans, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, and Chechens within its territory. , Ingush people, Far East Koreans and other ethnic minorities have carried out brutal ethnic cleansing and ethnic migration.

In addition, the Soviet Union also committed many crimes against its own people and other countries, such as the deportation and massacre of the "kulak" class during the agricultural collectivization period, and the persecution of party members, intellectuals, soldiers and other innocent people during the Great Purge. The massacre of protesters, the Katyn incident in which Polish officers were collectively executed, and so on. These crimes were gradually made public with the process of "glasnost", which had a great ideological impact on the Soviet people and deepened the dissatisfaction of various ethnic groups.

Gorbachev's "Reform and New Thinking" attempted to fundamentally rebuild the socialist values ??and political system, completely abandon the political system legacy left by Stalinism, and establish a humane and democratic socialism. However, the suddenly liberalized atmosphere of public opinion left the public at a loss and easily captured by extreme ideological trends. In this context, the forces of the former Soviet Union and other countries, represented by Yeltsin, tried to lead the reforms to their own interests. favorable direction, thus contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

[edit] August 19th Incident

Main article: August 19th Incident

Tanks on the streets of Moscow during the August 19th Incident on August 19, 1991 , the conservatives in the Soviet Union launched an unsuccessful coup and placed Soviet President Gorbachev under house arrest, who was vacationing on the Black Sea at the time. They tried to take back the powers delegated to the Soviet Union and terminate the Unsuccessful economic reforms. However, due to the joint opposition of the people, the army and most Soviet Communist Party members, the coup failed after only three days. Although Gorbachev resumed his post after the coup, the alliance center was no longer able to control the separatist forces of the Soviet Union that had been greatly strengthened in the process of quelling the coup. Russian President Yeltsin ordered the Soviet Union to be declared an illegal organization and restrict its activities in Russia.

[edit] The independence of the participating communist countries

Before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Lithuania took the lead in declaring independence on March 11, 1990, and other communist countries also They followed suit one after another and issued statements announcing the restoration or recovery of sovereignty, and began to formulate steps and measures to achieve independence.

After the August 19 coup, all the member countries except Russia declared independence, and claims for independence also emerged in Tatarstan, Chechnya, Siberia and other places in Russia.

The independence dates of the participating countries are as follows:

Lithuania: March 11, 1990

Georgia: April 9, 1991

Estonia: August 20, 1991

Latvia: August 21, 1991

Armenia: August 23, 1991

Ukraine: August 24, 1991

Belarus: August 25, 1991

Moldova: August 27, 1991

Azerbaijan: August 1991 August 30

Uzbekistan: August 31, 1991

Kyrgyzstan: August 31, 1991

Tajikistan: September 9, 1991 Japan

Turkmenistan: October 27, 1991

Kazakhstan: December 16, 1991

Russia: The name of the country was announced on December 25, 1991 Renamed from "Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic" to "Russian Federation" (announced regaining sovereignty in June 1990)

[edit] The end of the Soviet Union

In 1991 At the end of the year, Russian President Yeltsin signed a contract with the presidents of Belarus and Ukraine in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States and replace the Soviet Union by establishing a structure similar to the Commonwealth. Except for the three Baltic countries and Georgia, other Soviet Union countries responded one after another and left the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was already in name only at this time. On December 25, 1991, Soviet President Gorbachev announced his resignation and handed over state power to the Russian President. The next day, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed a final resolution declaring the Soviet Union to cease to exist. From then on, the Soviet Union officially collapsed.

[edit] Impact

[edit] Politics

Long before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the socialist camp had become irreversible. The disintegration of the Soviet Union brought an end to the wave of coups in Eastern Europe that began in Poland. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the only superpower left in the world.

[edit] Economy

The disintegration of the Soviet Union had a huge impact on the economies of the former Soviet Union countries. Take Russia as an example. In 1985, the official exchange rate of the Soviet Union was 1 U.S. dollar for about 0.87 rubles. However, by July 1, 1992, after the disintegration, the official exchange rate had become 125.26 rubles for 1 U.S. dollar, and the exchange rate on May 31, 1993 had become 1 US dollar is exchanged for 1012 rubles. The ruble revaluation carried out by the Russian government still could not stop the wave of exchange rate depreciation. By January 1, 2000, 1 US dollar could be exchanged for 28.5 rubles, or 28,500 old rubles. Many Russian people's life savings were wiped out, and they had to flock to banks to exchange foreign currency.

[edit] Culture

Because the previous communist education was suddenly withdrawn, and the traditional Russian Orthodox Church could not quickly fill the gap, the generation of young people in the former Soviet Union formed ideological vacuum. The neo-Nazi group "skinheads" has even emerged among Russian youth.

[Editor] Notes

^ The official history of the Soviet Union should be counted from the formation of the alliance of Soviet Russia and other countries in 1922, not from the October Revolution. The Soviet Russia that emerged after the October Revolution was not the same as the later Soviet Union.