Collapse of the Soviet Union
Collapse of the Soviet Union For most of the 1900’s, the Soviet Union was one of the most powerful countries in the world. They fought in both World Wars and they also helped to defeat the Nazis in World War 2. Even with all of their achievements, the Soviet Union’s government began to disagree with the people and even force their will upon them in the mid to late 1900’s and they finally collapsed in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union was caused mainly by internal issues that developed long before 1991, like the government keeping secrets from the people, or the government disagreeing with the people.
Many of the common people were angry with the president and the government for hiding secrets from them. Chernobyl was a huge nuclear explosion that resulted from an accident at a nuclear reactor; it wiped out everyone within miles and there is still nuclear fallout there today.1 The government was so intent upon making people think that the Soviet Union was the best country in the world that they attempted to cover up anything that was or looked like an accident. The citizens of the Soviet Union eventually found out about Chernobyl, but it was not until days later after many hundreds of people had been killed or made extremely sick by their exposure to the radiation. The Soviet people did not even find out from their own government, it was Sweden that saw abnormally high levels of radiation in that specific area of Russia and they alerted the Russian government. When the Russian government told them that they were taking care of it but still did not tell the people, the Swedish government took matters into their own hands and alerted the entire world about Chernobyl. The Soviet government also attempted to freeze prices when they knew that the economy was collapsing.2 They did this because they did not want the people to worry about the economy and they wanted them to still think that they had a great economy and everything was going fine. If they had not
Many of the common people were angry with the president and the government for hiding secrets from them. Chernobyl was a huge nuclear explosion that resulted from an accident at a nuclear reactor; it wiped out everyone within miles and there is still nuclear fallout there today.1 The government was so intent upon making people think that the Soviet Union was the best country in the world that they attempted to cover up anything that was or looked like an accident. The citizens of the Soviet Union eventually found out about Chernobyl, but it was not until days later after many hundreds of people had been killed or made extremely sick by their exposure to the radiation. The Soviet people did not even find out from their own government, it was Sweden that saw abnormally high levels of radiation in that specific area of Russia and they alerted the Russian government. When the Russian government told them that they were taking care of it but still did not tell the people, the Swedish government took matters into their own hands and alerted the entire world about Chernobyl. The Soviet government also attempted to freeze prices when they knew that the economy was collapsing.2 They did this because they did not want the people to worry about the economy and they wanted them to still think that they had a great economy and everything was going fine. If they had not
Bibliography: Carr, E.H. The Russian Revolution. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1979. Cold War Museum, "The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster." Accessed 02 May 2014, http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/ChernobylNuclearDisasterApril261986.asp. Kort, Michael The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, New York, Franklin Watts, 1992. "Text of Gorbachev 's Farewell Address." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Dec. 1991. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Winters, Paul A. The Collapse of the Soviet Union. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1999.