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Summary Collapse of the USSR and New World Order
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Chloe van Beukering Grade 12 History SyllabusCollapse of the USSR and New World Order
The Political and Economic Weaknesses in the USSR
- The one-party system was introduced in 1917, which turned the Soviet Union into a police state
and a dictatorship
- People scared to criticise how the economy was run and were unwilling to take risks
- Factory managers routinely lied about the amount of good they were producing and used all
kinds of tricks to disguise their shortcomings with fraudulent statistics so that they would not be
punished
- In a centrally planned economy the state controls all the main aspects of the economy from the
supply of raw materials, to factories, to the manufacturing process and the distribution of goods
to retail outlets and to consumers at an affordable price
- While centralised planning was highly effective in expanding production in heavy industry like
steel making and in extractive industries like coal mining
- Much less effective for the production of consumer products like shoes or televisions
- The ‘Five Year Plan’ set ambitious targets — with heavy penalties for failure — described more
in terms of quantity than quality
- As a result, all kinds of short cuts and fraud resulted in poor quality goods
- Was also a wasteful system
The Impact of the USSR’s Invasion of Afghanistan
- Afghanistan was strategically important to the Russians because it was situated on the USSR’s
border
- Received aid from the Soviet Union from 1953 onwards
- Bring it under the soviet sphere of influence and to counterbalance the pro-American states
of Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Iran that belonged to NATO or CENTO (Central Treaty
Organisation)
- Afghanistan had been a monarchy but became a republic under Muhammed Daud Khan
- Under his leadership, Afghanistan continued to receive Soviet aid
- However, he increasingly developed an independent foreign policy and tried to play the two
superpowers off against each other
- Khan also began to repress the Communist People’s Democratic Party
- Afghan communists infiltrated the army and overthrew Muhammed Daud in 1978
- Installed a communist government in his place
- New government introduced land reforms which angered powerful landowners and clergy who
then encouraged rioting in the towns and countryside
- The Soviet Union worried that the Islamic revolution in neighbouring Iran, where the Shah was
overthrown and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini — a mullah or religious leader — would
spread to Afghanistan
- An Islamic revolution could then spread from Afghanistan to the Islamic republics of the
USSR such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
- New government seemed unable to repress the riots and, under a new leader called Hafizullah
Amin, became increasingly hostile to the Soviet Union
- These developments threatened the unity of the Soviet Union
- If Islamic revolution spread to its Islamic republics, the leaders of these republics could
declare independence and secede from the USSR
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,Chloe van Beukering Grade 12 History Syllabus
- Even more worrying about half of the Soviet armed forced came from its poorer Muslim
republics and secession could lead to civil war and a dramatic weakening of the Soviet armed
forces
- As pro-islamic resistance grew in Afghanistan, the USSR manipulated events so that it appeared
that the Afghan ruler Amin requested their help to put down growing rebellion
- Over 85 000 Soviet troops entered Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, in late December 1979
- Shortly after, Amin was executed by Soviet forces and replaced by Babrak Karmal, a more
compliant, pro-Soviet leader
- The USA, under President Jimmy Carter strongly condemned what it called the Soviet
‘invasion’ of Afghanistan and cut off US grain sales to the USSR
- The USA also boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and several pro-Western countries
followed suit
- America secretly funded the Mujahideen fighters by about one billion dollars a year, ensuring
that sophisticated American military equipments were smuggled into Afghanistan through
Operation Cyclone
- Afghanistan became the USSR’s ‘Vietnam’ and was described by one Soviet official as a
‘bleeding wound’
- The war used up vital resources from the ailing Soviet economy, deepening the USSR’s
economic problems
- The Islamic Arab states of the Middle East and many Third World countries condemned the
Soviet Union
- At its peak, 110 000 Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan and altogether about a million Soviet
citizens served there during the war until 1988
- Over 15 000 Soviets dead and 50 000 wounded
- The war cost the USSR an enormous sum of money and lasted more than twice as long as WW2
- Broke the spirit of the Soviet people and contributed to the apathy of its workers during the
1980s
- The movement of troops to Afghanistan also weakened the USSR’s control over its East
European allies, especially Poland where the trade-union movement, Solidarity, challenged the
Communist Government
- War negatively influenced the USSR’s economy and made its economic difficulties worse,
forcing new leaders particularly Gorbachev, to consider sweeping economic changes and
political reforms that ultimately unravelled the Soviet Union
The Role of Gorbachev and Reagan as Leaders
- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev both played critical roles in ending the Cold War in
1989
- Reagan heralded in a new era of Cold War politics when he gained the presidency in 1981
- From the beginning he made his attitude towards the Soviets and Communist regimes clear —
would not be tolerated
- When Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the reins of power in the Soviet Union in 1985, no one
predicted the revolution he would bring
- In many senses, it was the combination of this reform on the one side and the belligerent
aggression on the other that brought an end to the conflict
US President Ronald Reagan and the New Arms Race
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, Chloe van Beukering Grade 12 History Syllabus
- Ronald Reagan became President of the USA after defeating Jimmy Carter in 1980
- One of the reasons that Reagan won the presidential race was that he convinced the American
voters that Carter was ‘soft’ on communism and had allowed the Soviet Union to ‘overtake’ the
USA in terms of nuclear warheads and missiles
- Reagan argued that a dangerous ‘window of vulnerability’ had opened where, until the USA
could design and build a new generation of advanced weaponry, the Soviet Union had a
military advantage and could use this to promote communism
- Suggested that the Soviet Union would be able to wipe out the US nuclear weapons
capabilities in a single pre-emptive first strike attack
- Would leave USA unable to defend itself
- Critics pointed out that this was not true, the USSR simply didn’t have this capability
- Condemned Reagan as a ‘Cold Warrior’ and a ‘cowboy’
- Reagan’s critics warned that he would end détente with the USSR and star a ‘Second Cold
War’
- Under Reagan’s administration, B-1 Bomber that used ‘stealth’ technology to make it virtually
invisible to radar was put back into production after being shelved by Carter
- The Trident submarine was to be developed along with its D-5 missiles to replace the ageing
‘Polars’ submarine-launched ballistic missiles
- Reagan proposed a new defence system where ‘killer satellites’ would be established in orbit
and would use lasers to shoot down incoming Soviet missiles
- Reagan called this the Strategic Defence Initiative but critics referred to it derisively as ‘Star
Wars’
- The Soviet Union’s economic troubles meant that it simply couldn’t compete with the USA in
this new Arms Race
- Also lacked the technology ability to develop defences against these new American weapons
- To halt this new Arms Race, Gorbachev offered political reforms, allowing greater democracy
and allowed a greater role for the market in the Soviet economy
- Gorbachev went to great lengths to restore détente with the USA
- Made him reluctant to use repression against dissidents in Eastern Europe or in the USSR and
may have led to the collapse of communism in 1989
- Gorbachev’s reforms, in turn, unleashed nationalist forces that the Soviet government could not
control
- Led to the collapse of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Gorbachev’s Reforms and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
- Mikhail Gorbachev became General-Secretary of the USSR in 1985
- Gromyko introduced him to his colleagues by saying, “He has a nice smile, but his teeth are
made out of steel”
- Meant that Gorbachev was a charismatic man but that he was a committed Marxist who
would take firm action to achieve his goals
- Gorbachev in his early 50s while most of the members of the politburo (highest decision
making body) were over 70
- Determined to introduce wide-ranging reforms because he believed that these were necessary
to save the communist system
- From 1982 to 1985 the USSR buried 3 of its General-Secretaries: Brezhnev, Andropov and
Chernenko
- Ordinary people getting tired of state funerals and embarrassed by their aged leaders
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