End of Cold War Flashcards
(5) Russian foreign policy failure-Put pressure and caused it end at this time
Failed invasion of Afghanistan
By the mid-1980s, the United States was spending approximately 6 percent of its 5 trillion dollar Gross National Product (GNP) on defence while the Soviet Union’s defence spending was roughly a quarter of its 1.4 trillion dollar GNP led to overtaxing
Most of the Soviet defence infrastructure was located in the new republics of Russia and the Ukraine US intelligence estimated that Russian military procurement for the first quarter of 1992 was cut by a whopping 80 percent, failure to intervene put them out the cold war
1990s NATO mission in Yugoslavia displayed the complete loss of international political and military power that Russia suffered due to the disintegration of the Soviet Union
Protected domestic markets but not minds from seeing inferiority of Soviet system
(6) Individuals- Allowed the cold war to end
By 1989 the budget deficit reached 14 percent of GNP. This represented the failure of Gorbachev’s perestroika and last attempt to reform communist economic system to make it competitive to fulfil needs of people and therefore people turned against the system
Gorbachev was caught in a cycle, his reform policies caused unrest, to react he enacted more reforms, which in turn caused more unrest
Gorbachev put a referendum to the people on the 17th of March 1991 for a federation based on democratic principles did not realize his communism was the unifying force of the USSR, without communist ideology, the people of the Soviet republic turned to nationalism
Glasnost fuelled nationalist views as the populations of the USSR’s fifteen republics began to resent Soviet rule and question the legitimacy of their annexation
Reagan’s early aggressive stance made USSR disarmament and perestroika unfeasible putting Soviet system unsustainable and self-destructive trap
Reagan support for Arab and Afghani resistance to invasion created more dissolution
(4) Internal problems- Fundamental cause
Gorbachev thought by reform the Soviet system would become more popular among E.European’s but underestimated the depth of popular East European disillusionment with and opposition to any form of communism that meant USSR couldn’t exist unless maintained by force, this meant when glasnost was introduced USSR fell apart
Gorbachev reigned on the 25th of December, 1991 and his successor Boris Yeltsin reformed Russia to become a market economy ending communism
Economic stagnation of 2% growth in 1970’s never recovered, the inefficiency and technological inferiority of the Soviet system drove population to capitalism
In 1985 USSR had 50,000 computers compared to US 30million, couldn’t compete with US without dangerous reform
Ideology only incentive however Marxism dead among senior party officials March 1991 referendum could have still preserved USSR as 70% of Soviet Republics believed they should still have strong ties with the USSR even with autonomy however fragmentation of party and unwillingness of conservative elite to concede power led to coup which destroyed party legitimacy and led to rise of Boris Yeltsin who secretly dismembered the USSR (caused loss of 50% OF GDP)