Question

1. Briefly explain the political and economic reasons for the revolts against Communism that led to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.

2. Analyze the two major factors for the population increase in the 20th century.

3. Explain briefly the five major trends of global concern.

Answer 1

Following are the Political and Economic Reasons that resulted in Collapse of Soviet Bloc:

Political Factors:

• Mikhail Gorbachev was named general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) on March 11, 1985, his primary domestic goals were to jump-start the declining Soviet economy and to streamline the cumbersome government bureaucracy.
• His initial attempts of reforms failed to yield significant results. So, he adopted two policies named as glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”).The main purpose of glasnost was to foster dialogues.The perestokia aimed at introducing quasi free market policies to government-run industries.Glasnost led to criticism of the entire Soviet apparatus.The state lost control of both the media and the public sphere, and democratic reform movements gained steam throughout the Soviet bloc.Perestokia also did not perform well on capitalist and communist front.Price controls were lifted in some markets, but existing bureaucratic structures were left in place, meaning that Communist officials were able to push back against those policies that did not benefit them personally. Bot these failed to create renaissance in the communist thought.
• In the end, Gorbachev’s reforms and his abandonment of the Brezhnev Doctrine led to fall of the Soviet empire.

Economic Factors

• Black Market was one of the major economic factor resulting in collapse of Soviet Bloc. By 1990 Soviet economy was the second largest.There was shortage of consumer goods and this resulted in hoarding.Soviet black market economy was the equivalent of more than 10 percent of the country’s official GDP. Soviet economy faced economic stagnation and perestokia added fuel to the fire.There were wage hikes and this resulted in printing of more currency notes and increase in money supply which further resulted into inflation. Fiscal policy was mismanaged. The sharp drop in the oil prices proved determinal for Soviet economy. The oil price plunged from $120 a barrel in 1980 to $24 a barrel in march 1986. This gave a severe blow to Soviet economy by drying up the external capital and resulted in fall of Soviet Bloc.