In Rock and Roll in the Rocket City, Zhuk explains the history of the Brezhnev’s era. “Dniepropetrovsk’s transformation into an important center of the Soviet military-industrial complex was also related to the sudden rise of Leonid Brezhnev to power in October 1964” (Zhuk). After reading this section it was interesting to read how Brezhnev can go from being elected a member of the Dniepropetrovsk City Council, to being elected a member of the regional committee of the Communist Party, to being an officer in the ideological division. “I don’t think we should compare the current stagnation to that of…
Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States who ran a total of 2 terms from 1981 to 1989. He is well known for being one of the oldest serving presidents, and also having a great impact on the Cold War towards the end. This is what Ronald Reagan did, and how he continued with the downfall of the Soviet Union. In the beginning, Ronald Reagan was originally a politician where he served as California's 33rd governor from 1967-1975. He was even an actor earlier on in his career, where he was the president of the Screen Actors Guild.…
Throughout the period 1856-1964 there was much continuity in the needs of the Russian people. The world around Russia was constantly developing, and Russia was increasingly falling behind. The Russian people needed a strong and stable leader that would address all of the needs of the Russian people, including political, social and economic issues. Not all of the issues were being addressed continually throughout the period as different leaders concentrated on specific problems that they felt would benefit Russia the most. For example, Tsar Alexander II made many social reforms whilst Khrushchev concentrated on political issues. The ruler who was most successful in meeting…
Khrushchev had a lot of good ideas that he wanted to implement but due to the bureaucratic nature of the Soviet party officials weren’t keen on implementing certain reforms which offered no benefits to them despite being good for the population…
Another “weapon” used to fight the Cold War was political alliances. The U.S. was allied with France and the U.K. In order to keep these countries from falling to communism, the U.S. lent them money for rebuilding their economy (Doc. A). In addition, the U.S. also made alliances with Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Republic of Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Greece. These democracies formed a treaty called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) (Doc. D). The U.S. helped several European democracies, especially the U.K. and France, to rebuild their countries after WWⅡ. The democratic alliance, NATO, agreed that if one of them was under attack, then the other countries would help them. But unfortunately, the Soviet Union…
Due to problems in Russia originating from the slow recovery from WWII, Gorbachev made changes and saw how the country was falling. Citizens were in desperate need for supplies, shelter, and allies. United States President at the time, Ronald Reagan, demanded that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall which divided Germany in two for both the U.S. and Russia. Gorbachev knew his country wouldn't be able to survive the war so he tore down the wall and the peace between Russia and the rest of the world slowly started to build. The Russians were able to become friendly with citizens from other countries which enabled the country to flourish.…
Many people considered Khrushchev reckless because he tore the ideas of communism down. He allowed freer expression of opinion, made modest efforts to meet the demand for more consumer goods, decentralized economic planning, and removed many restrictive regulations on private cultivation.…
Following World War II, tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. These tensions soon lapsed into a Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev emerged as leader of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War following Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. On occasion, the new leader threatened to make this cold war a hot one and was even close to instigating a nuclear war. Due to Khrushchev's unpredictable nature, he was responsible for escalating the Cold War.…
was rather abrupt. The end of the K.G.B. was caused by a failed coup carried out by hard line communists, military officials, as well as the K.G.B. It was an attempt to avert new liberalized union treaty and return to old ways of old communists. The failed coup also meant the end of the communist party, and the fall of Soviet Russia. Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Parliament at the time, played the ant-coup role. He took the chance to promote both himself and Russia. He later demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev return as the Soviet president, but when Gorbachev returned from house arrest in Crimea, Yeltsin demonstrated that he was the more powerful leader by banning the communist party and seizing all of its property. The K.G.B. fell along with…
Several WAISers disagreed with Christopher Jones, who denied Reagan's role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Harry Papasotiriou writes: "The Soviet Union certainly collapsed of its own weight, but Reagan helped speed up the process. The following paragraphs are from a forthcoming book that I am co-authoring. Reagan’s conviction that the Soviet Union was both a dangerous military power and a collapsing economic system derived not from any deep knowledge of the Soviet Union. Yet he proved to be the proverbial right man in the right place at the right time.…
The cold war was a conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. The conflict was about democray and communism. In the late 1950's the "Red Scare" came upon The US. The "Red Scare," in the US was the fear of being taken over by communists. In the US communism was viewed as treason. One of the causes of the "Red Scare," were the Roseber trial. The Rosenbergs were thought to have given high classified information to the Soviets.Some of effects were internationally, The Iron Curtain,which was an imaginary line separating communist and democratic countries was created. The Berlin Airlift which was the US helping countries with goods that they needed. The were cut off from countries around them that were communistic. The Korean war, which…
Nikita Khrushchev won the struggle for power and in 1958 becomes the Premier of the USSR. As Premier, Khrushchev was known for the destalinization of…
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was in a period of domestic crisis, and it took a toll on Soviet society (25-7). The people from the Caucasus and Baltic states demanded more freedom from Moscow, and the Kremlin lost control over certain regions and elements in the Soviet Union (Lumen, Fall of the Soviet Union). The Soviet Union eventually collapsed in 1991, leaving the land to be governed by independent states. China also went through a similar period of instability, but it took longer than their Russian comrades. Their government survived the Cultural Revolution in 1966 by evolving into a combined Leninist command economy with modern Western capitalistic practices, and they crushed a protest movement in 1989 while asserting the dominance of…
From Revolution to Ruin: Unraveling the Complex Forces Behind the Soviet Union's Dissolution The collapse of the Soviet Union, a transformative event marking the end of a geopolitical era, was primarily driven by a combination of internal economic inefficiencies, failed political reforms such as Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost, and the exacerbating effect of external pressures including the arms race and global shifts towards neoliberal policies. These factors, compounded by the rise of nationalist movements within its republics, not only highlighted the systemic flaws inherent in the Soviet economic and political structure but also significantly undermined the legitimacy of the Soviet state, leading to its eventual dissolution in 1991. Economic…
Nikita Khrushchev, though not the most likely successor to Stalin, became the leader of the USSR in 1953 and was toppled from power in 1964 after a Coup in which his policies were attacked by his colleagues. They accused him of being contradictory towards Lenin’s teachings, especially in his agricultural and industrial policies, in being an unfitted leader and erratic in his approach, as well as being reckless over the Cuban Missiles Crisis and West Berlin and ignoring advice. The cause of Khrushchev’s downfall is a contentious issue among historians. Some historians such as Martin Page argue that it was as unhappiness among party hardliners with his reforms that led to him losing power. Upon…