Term Paper on "Collapse of Soviet Union Chou En Lai"

Term Paper 4 pages (1459 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Collapse of Soviet Union

Chou En Lai, the Chinese Premier and Foreign Minister under Mao Tze Deng, when asked to comment about the effects of the French Revolution on the European history had famously remarked, "It is too early to say." By such an analogy, analysis of the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 is best left to the historians of the future generations. However, a number of long and short-term factors have been identified by political commentators and historians to explain one of the pivotal events of the 20th century that has changed the history of the world. These have been discussed below:

Flawed Ideology number of people, particularly the ones who are firmly opposed to Marxism, argue that the Soviet "experiment" was doomed to fail from the start. They consider the Marxist ideology -- the very basis of the formation of the Soviet Empire -- as inherently flawed. Hence an imminent collapse of the Soviet Union was predicted by a number of Western writers from the beginning who believed that it was only a matter of time before the contradictions of an "unnatural" system caught up with it. To them the collapse of Soviet Union was no surprise; the real surprise was how it survived for such a long (74 years) period. Historian Martin Malia is the chief proponent of this theory who believes that the utopian Soviet dream of building a "maximalist" socialist society of equality and abundance was 'fatally flawed' and flew in the face of all historical precedent as well as human nature. The attempt to achieve the impossible dream through a "mixture of ideological illusion and raw coercion" was thus, "....a fragile affair, a permanent house of cards awaiting its natural fate." Little wonder that the system collapsed with a startling absence of resistance. (Quoted by Strayer, 1998, pp. 35-36)

Weakness of the Economy

Most of the territories under the Russian Empire that became the Soviet Union after the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution were underdeveloped and the majority of the population consisted of the rural poor. In the initial years, the new Socialist state made remarkable progress as the Stalinist regime transformed a backward rural economy into an industrial one. Such progress, however, was achieved at great social cost through extreme draconian measures. Victory in the Second World War, again achieved at great cost, gave the country a lot of confidence and the Soviet Union emerged as a world power in the war's aftermath. Its economy continued to grow at a satisfactory rate through the 1960s. From the 1970s onward, it began to falter and towards the end of the Brezhnev era the Soviet economy was running hidden budget deficits of 7-8% of GNP, and suffering from extreme inflation that took the form (because of price controls) of chronic shortages of consumer goods in the mid 1980s. (Lovell, 1997; "The End of the Cold War," 2003)

Push by the United States

The United States, through its own intelligence sources was aware of the economic difficulties being faced by the Soviet Union. From 1980 onwards, the Reagan administration exploited the Soviet economic vulnerability ruthlessly to hasten its collapse. It tightened controls on the export of strategic technologies to the Soviet bloc. The CIA persuaded Saudi Arabia to drive down the price of oil, which denied the U.S.S.R. The foreign exchange funds it desperately wanted to earn from its petroleum exports. The U.S. pressured its European allies to cancel or delay a major Soviet pipeline project from Siberia. It provided massive arms and strategic support to the Afghan Mujahideen to help bleed the Soviets in Afghanistan. Reagan tightened the screws further by declaring the Soviet Union an 'evil empire' and upped the ante by announcing his American Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a high-tech antimissile defense system. An already strained Soviet economy that was already spending as much as 30% of its GNP on defense found this hard to match and pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Gorbachev's Reforms: The "Toppling from Within"

When Gorbachev took over as Secretary General of the Communist Party in 1985, he felt that radical reforms were needed in the country to save its faltering economy. He face the classic "dictator's dilemma" of how to tackle the situation in the information age. He opted to pursue the policies of "glasnost" (openness) in political and cultural affairs and "perestroika"… READ MORE

How to Reference "Collapse of Soviet Union Chou En Lai" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Collapse of Soviet Union Essay

Fall of the Soviet Union

Today, Communism is no longer synonymous with a specific country or even a specific threat. Indeed, it has simply become an ideology that could be… read more

Essay 2 pages (652 words) Sources: 0 Topic: World History

---

Soviet Union and the New Russia Research Paper

Soviet Union and the New Russia as a U.S. Security Threat

At the end of World War II, roughly Summer 1945, Europe was in shambles. Millions had been killed, many… read more

Research Paper 15 pages (6363 words) Sources: 11 Style: APA Topic: World History

---

Organized Crime Break Up of Soviet Union Research Paper

Organized Crime -- the Fall of the Old Soviet Union

How much influence did organized crime have on the collapse of the old Soviet Union? Did organized crime flourish during… read more

Research Paper 10 pages (3248 words) Sources: 6 Style: MLA Topic: World History

---

Gorbachev and Soviet Union Term Paper

USSR Float

Historical precedents leading to the fall of socialism in Soviet Union

At the dawn of 20th century, modern society had witnessed a radical shift in the social order… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (769 words) Sources: 0 Topic: World History

---

Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe Term Paper

Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989 / 90 was one of the key events of the 20th century, marking the end of the Cold… read more

Term Paper 1 pages (414 words) Sources: 1 Style: APA Topic: World History

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>