How Did The Soviet Union Break Up

The break-up of the Soviet Union (USSR) occurred in 1991 after the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the various Republics declaring independence. The term “break-up” can be unpacked to entail the unpopularity of the leadership within the party and Politburo, which led to the attempted August Coup of 1991 by the more conservative elements of the Politburo who were unhappy with Gorbachev’s reforms; the unpopularity of the leadership within the people, which led to Boris Yeltsin getting elected as the President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) which gave him sufficient power even though he resigned from the Politburo in 1980 as well as the breakaway of the Republics as they declared and demanded independence. Such events were caused by an unintended result of changes introduced by the leadership, especially Gorbachev, namely Perestroika and Glasnost as well as other factors such as the long-term structural political and economic problems plaguing the USSR since the era of Leonid Brezhnev as well as the role the United States (US) had to play. Thus, the scope investigated needs to start before 1985, as early as 1964, when Brezhnev came to power. Furthermore, the term “unintended” entails the investigation of the original intentions of Gorbachev’s policies and examining whether these intentions eventually came to fruition.