Fall of the USSR

8/6/2019 Fall of the USSR

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The Fall of the

USSRThe End of a Failed Experiment


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The USSR Had Been Built By Ruthless, Determined Men. One of

them, Stalin, Was Possibly the Most Murderous Leader in Human

History

Vladimir Lenin, ruled

1917-1924

Joseph Stalin, 1927-

1953

Nikita Khrushchev,

1957-1964


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Red Square: The Symbol

of Traditional Soviet

Russia, the Image of the

USSR Most People Had


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Soviet Leaders Wanted the World to See the Soviet Union

As a Powerful State


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But the USSR Was Stagnating Under Tired, Sick,

Elderly Leadership

Leonid Brezhnev,

ruled 1964-1982

Yuri Andropov,

1982-1984

Konstantin

Chernenko, 1984-

1985


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The Work of Aleksandr

Solzhenitsyn Shook the

Conscience of the

World


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Mikhail Gorbachev Was a New Style Soviet

Leader


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However, Gorbachev, Who Came to Power in

1985, Faced Major Problems


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The Horrendous

Environmental

Damage in andAround the Aral

Sea

The USSR

FacedEnormous

Ecological

Problems


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Levels of Pollution inMany Soviet Cities Were

Appalling


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The Chernobyl Disaster in 1986 Was a MajorBlow

to Soviet Energy (and to the Environment)


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The Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1979-1989:

More than 1,000,000 Afghans killed,

5,000,000 driven into exile. More than

15,000 Soviets killed, many more

wounded.


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The War Inflicted

Terrible Suffering On

Both Afghans andSoviets. Gorbachev

Terminated the

Soviet War in 1989.


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Alcoholism in the USSR Was Rampant


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Ethnic Violence Erupted Frequently

Violence Was ParticularlyFierce in the Caucasus

Region


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By the 1980s, 15 to 20% of the Soviet

People Were Muslim, and They Were

Increasingly Restless


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But Far and Away the Worst Problems

Facing the USSR Were Economic

By U.S. Standards, over 85% of all Soviet People Lived

in Poverty

The average Soviet faced chronic shortages of many

foodsHousing was largely dilapidated

The infrastructure of the USSR was

collapsing; the 1989 Trans-Siberian disaster

was a horrible example of this.


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In the 1970s, the USSR Stayed AfloatEconomically With Oil Production, But That

Could Not Be Sustained


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TABLE 5-2 Mortality Levels of Selected NIS Countries, 1979-1993

Life Expectancy at Birth

Male Male Male Female Female Female

Republic Year Total Urban Rural Total Urban Rural

Russia 1993 58.69 58.98 57.88 71.67 71.73 71.38

Russia 1989 63.95 64.51 62.34 74.31 74.34 74.00

Ukraine 1989 65.59 66.10 64.35 74.67 74.57 74.52

Lithuania 1989 66.78 68.01 64.19 75.99 76.61 74.73

Moldova 1989 64.49 66.04 62.94 71.32 73.11 69.92

Azerbaijan 1989 64.20 64.49 64.21 72.07 73.04 71.35

Kyrgyz 1989 62.13 63.00 61.87 70.43 72.42 69.37

Uzbekistan 1989 63.99 63.41 64.94 70.25 71.10 70.06

Turkmenistan 1989 59.53 58.47 60.73 66.44 67.41 65.59

Tajikistan 1989 63.74 62.74 64.78 69.35 71.38 68.74

Russia 1979 60.80 61.60 58.79 72.24 72.32 71.71

Ukraine 1979 63.85 64.24 62.97 73.18 72.85 73.32

Lithuania 1979 64.92 66.16 62.59 74.79 75.44 73.65

Moldova 1979 59.80 62.11 58.42 66.27 69.41 64.53

Azerbaijan 1979 59.62 60.24 59.66 67.29 68.38 66.80

Kyrgyz 1979 58.31 59.75 57.88 67.41 69.94 66.26

Uzbekistan 1979 61.64 60.50 63.09 68.28 69.26 68.04

Turkmenistan 1979 59.70 58.32 61.24 65.87 67.28 64.66

Tajikistan 1979 59.74 58.00 61.31 65.50 66.96 65.14


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The USSR Was HeadedThe USSR Was Headed

forforCollapseCollapse


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Gorbachev Advocated Two NewGorbachev Advocated Two NewPolicies to Attempt to Reform thePolicies to Attempt to Reform theUSSRUSSR

GLASNOST, the RussianGLASNOST, the Russianword for opennessword for openness

PERESTROIKA, the RussianPERESTROIKA, the Russianword for restructuringword for restructuring


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Gorbachev Tried to Deal With the U.S.s Forceful

President, Ronald Reagan


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Revelations About the USSRs Past

Began Flooding Out The massive crimes

of Stalin were

revealed to many for

the first time The leader of the

USSRs democratic

movement, Andrei

Sakharov, wasreleased from exile.

Sakharov


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In the Late 1980s, Gorbachev Let the East

European Leaders Know That the USSR Could No

Longer Help Them

Poland was already breaking away under the

force of the Solidarity Movement and the

Inspiration of a Polish Pope, John Paul II

East Germanys Leaders Were Bluntly Told That

Their Problems Were Their Own

East Germans Began Fleeing in Droves.

Independence Movements Began to GrowThroughout Eastern Europe, especially in

Czechoslovakia


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The Fall of the BerlinWall, November 1989


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A Powerful Rival to Gorbachev

Began to Emerge

Boris Yeltsin


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Communist Hardliners Tried to Remove

Gorbachev in a Coup in August, 1991


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The Coup Collapsed in Three Days,

and Gorbachev Returned


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But Gorbachevs Power

Continued to Slip The Baltic States Announced They Were

Leaving the USSR

The Ukraine Announced That It, Too, WasSeceding from the USSR

Yeltsin was challenging Gorbachev for

control of the nations political leadership


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Collapse of the Soviet Union

Contemporary Context:

Revolution swept through East Europe in 1989; the USSR fell with stunning swiftness

two years later. The official end of the USSR was 25 December 1991


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The New Flag of Russia

Flew Over the Kremlin


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What Did the Russians Get for 74

Years of Communist Rule?

30-40 million murdered citizens

A major world war that killed 30million more

Widespread economic collapse

A devastated environment

The rise of a new Mafia that

controls much of Russias economy

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Fall of the USSR