Question

What were the causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union?What role did Gorbachev Play in that process?

Answer 1

The main causes that led to the collapse of Soviet Union are:

1. Nationalist movements – Soviet Union was a nation that consisted of 15 republics. Each republic was radically different from the other. This led to multiple ethnicities, languages, as well as culture across the nation. This magnitude of diversity led to incompatibility between different republics. 1989 onwards nationalist movements and separatists movements started gaining prominence and this culminated with the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991.

2. Western aggression – Soviets were attacked by Western countries (particularly U.S.A). The attack was not only in the form of military attack but was also an attack on the economy of Soviet Union. This led to a slump in oil prices and the declined oil revenue led to the fall of Soviet Union.

3. Five year plans of Stalin – These plans focused on production of capital goods for Soviet Union. Too much focus on industrialization led to shortfall of consumer goods and people were not able to maintain their standard of living. This eventually led to revolution.

Gorbachev played a pronounced role in the entire process of collapse of Soviet Union. Gorbachev came to power in 1985. His plan was based on the ideological platforms of perestroika and glasnost. Under his idea of perestroika Gorbachev envisioned moving the nation towards a hybrid Communist-Capitalist system. The ideology of glasnost was to remove the restrictions on freedom of speech, press and religion that was imposed on citizens. These reforms contributed to the fall of Soviet Union and as controls were loosened citizens gained more power and they used this new-found power to criticize the government and make the government weak and vulnerable.