End Of Cold War Summary
End of Cold War
Summary
1. Why wasn’t the commie system working?
2. Gorby’s reforms
3. Fall of Soviet Union & Failure of Gorbachev
Background info:
Soviet Union was made up of 15 satellite states ruled by the Communist Party.
Gorbachev: Leader of Soviet Union until 1991. S.U. broke up then, into smaller, separate republics. Played a part in breaking up USSR. Did not cover up S.U.’s mistakes and problems. Correct intentions but USSR had too many problems piled up since Stalin, so he couldn’t solve most of them.
1. Why wasn’t the Communist system working?
The S.U. had a large supply of resources b/c of large land mass, but did not utilize them properly or channel them into the right areas, so they were poor. (Still part of ‘poor …show more content…
Insufficient economy
• Inefficient economy as USSR used money wastefully
• Resources not used where citizens needed them the most. People could not get basic goods such as food, housing and clothing.
• Command economy: Economic system where decisions pertaining to production and investment are decided by the central government.
• USSR’s policy of command economy showing signs of inefficiency as people’s needs not met. Why was the command economy inefficient?
i. Poor and slow decisions by the Central Government
• C.G. did not always make the right decisions.
- Did not know local conditions in factories in diff. parts of SU
- Local conditions all diff., as USSR was ginormous
• Factory managers had to wait for the C.G. to set quotas
- Had to wait a long time for decisions
- People waited even longer b/c of that
• However, factory managers in the west made decisions w/o the govt breathing down their necks.
- Western consumers did not have to wait as long for products
ii. No quality control
• Focused on targets easy to measure
- Easy to check if targets had been met
- C.G set the targets for …show more content…
Years of Cold War competition bankrupted the SU
• Arms race with USA
• Struggling to pay from late 1970s
• ‘60s: USSR was the leader in tech
• 12 April 1961: First man in space
• By ‘70s, Western countries caught up. USSR lagging
• USA tried to weaken USSR econ.
- Prevented sale of computers and tech to them
- Collab w/ Saudi Arabia to reduce oil prices so that Russia could not gain an edge in economy
- Stopped USSR from earning the money they would have gotten
- Also tried to pressure Western EU countries from building pipeline that would bring natural gas from USSR to West
• Thus in 1980s USA prevented Russia from earning
• USSR forced to spend more money on Afghanistan invasion and Star Wars programme
• 1985 when Gorbachev gained power, he knew they had to stop spending on military, which had been trying to be a superpower for 40 years
iv. Rise of Nationalism
• SU loosened control on republics
• Republics called for independence, break up of SU
• Gorby not willing
• SU troops sent to prevent them from declaring independence 7 Jan
Summary
1. Why wasn’t the commie system working?
2. Gorby’s reforms
3. Fall of Soviet Union & Failure of Gorbachev
Background info:
Soviet Union was made up of 15 satellite states ruled by the Communist Party.
Gorbachev: Leader of Soviet Union until 1991. S.U. broke up then, into smaller, separate republics. Played a part in breaking up USSR. Did not cover up S.U.’s mistakes and problems. Correct intentions but USSR had too many problems piled up since Stalin, so he couldn’t solve most of them.
1. Why wasn’t the Communist system working?
The S.U. had a large supply of resources b/c of large land mass, but did not utilize them properly or channel them into the right areas, so they were poor. (Still part of ‘poor …show more content…
Insufficient economy
• Inefficient economy as USSR used money wastefully
• Resources not used where citizens needed them the most. People could not get basic goods such as food, housing and clothing.
• Command economy: Economic system where decisions pertaining to production and investment are decided by the central government.
• USSR’s policy of command economy showing signs of inefficiency as people’s needs not met. Why was the command economy inefficient?
i. Poor and slow decisions by the Central Government
• C.G. did not always make the right decisions.
- Did not know local conditions in factories in diff. parts of SU
- Local conditions all diff., as USSR was ginormous
• Factory managers had to wait for the C.G. to set quotas
- Had to wait a long time for decisions
- People waited even longer b/c of that
• However, factory managers in the west made decisions w/o the govt breathing down their necks.
- Western consumers did not have to wait as long for products
ii. No quality control
• Focused on targets easy to measure
- Easy to check if targets had been met
- C.G set the targets for …show more content…
Years of Cold War competition bankrupted the SU
• Arms race with USA
• Struggling to pay from late 1970s
• ‘60s: USSR was the leader in tech
• 12 April 1961: First man in space
• By ‘70s, Western countries caught up. USSR lagging
• USA tried to weaken USSR econ.
- Prevented sale of computers and tech to them
- Collab w/ Saudi Arabia to reduce oil prices so that Russia could not gain an edge in economy
- Stopped USSR from earning the money they would have gotten
- Also tried to pressure Western EU countries from building pipeline that would bring natural gas from USSR to West
• Thus in 1980s USA prevented Russia from earning
• USSR forced to spend more money on Afghanistan invasion and Star Wars programme
• 1985 when Gorbachev gained power, he knew they had to stop spending on military, which had been trying to be a superpower for 40 years
iv. Rise of Nationalism
• SU loosened control on republics
• Republics called for independence, break up of SU
• Gorby not willing
• SU troops sent to prevent them from declaring independence 7 Jan