Main reasons for the collapse of the USSR? Flashcards
What year did the USSR collapse
1991
what where the main reasons in why the USSR collapsed
Gorbachev political
Gorbachev- economic
Yeltsin
Nationalism
long-standing problems faced by the USSR, (economic, political problem)
The cold war
the collapse of the soviet empire in Eastern Europe
what report highlighted economic weakness and what did it highlight?
Novosibirsk Report of 1983, the report drew attention to the inefficiency and inflexibility of agriculture
what long term economic weaknesses did the USSR face?
legacy of the Stalin era, as the economy was geared to rapid growth and industrialisation it was hard to move to efficiency and quality as the highly centralised government was inflexible and bureaucrats were resistant to change.
problems with command economy, central governments never encouraged initiative or creativity, central planning wasn’t adequate in new advanced economy as demand was ever fluctuating and once targets were set they couldn’t be changed leading to shortages.
social contract, government would provide employment and living standard in return for worker compliance so they would never shut down any inefficient factories or firms so many peasants did little.
lack of investment, chronic underfunding of agriculture meant shortages of storage facilities and reliable machinery
outdated technology, they couldn’t keep up with west in modern society by 1980 most of soviet tech was outdated and worn out
military style complex, 18% of soviet resources and 30 million people were employed by the military where it should be been spent on consumer goods and industry
who tried to reform the economic weaknesses and decline
Mikal Gorbachev
what where Gorbachev’s two initial economic reforms
discipline and acceleration
what did Gorbachev initially tackle and how
Gorbachev initially tackled alcoholism problem as in 1980 15% of household spending was on alcohol (due to lack of other consumer goods)
to do this legal age of drinking was risen to 21, number of retailers who could sell alcohol reduced, vineyards destroyed, cost of vodka tripled
what was the result of the alcohol campaign
tax revenue reduced so their was a shortfall in the budget losing around 67 million rubbles in possible tax rev
illegal moonshine produced in unhygienic conditions
what was the focus of the twelfth (last) 5 year plan?
to improve growth, by increasing investment ( on science, research and engineering) which was hoped to accelerate the economy.
was the twelfth year plan successful or not and if so/not why?
no,
projects would normally overspend due to normally being construction based projects,
factories still used old equipment and technology so unproductive,
agriculture was invested in but didn’t produced improvement in productivity
still focused on quantity not quality
furthermore Gosplan didn’t allow change as many of the reforms took away power from those implement them so were never used.
he tried to set up super ministries to stop wastage but this failed.
military and industry were powerful and gobbled up investment so other sectors suffered e.g. consumer goods so soviet went into budget deficit which made things worse
war in Afghanistan increased war spending.
what was introduced after the initial economic reforms by Gorbachev
perestroika
what was perestroika
opening of the market mechanism by allowing private enterprise to revive the economy by incentivising production and giving greater flexibility to economy to meet demand
what where the key names reforms during perestroika
the encouragement of joint ventures, Jan 1987, allowance of foreign firms e.g. McDonalds in 1990 so USSR could get more modern tech
the law on state enterprise June 1987 loosing of state control over wages and prices which weakened Gosplan factories could produce what they want if targets by state met
co operatives were legalised 1988, small scale private enterprise was established which developed cafes and restaurants.
basically all the reforms were disguises in moving towards a market economy by adding buzz words such as ‘Co-operatives’ to please the party.
what was the success of perestorkia
food production grew around 1-2% from 86-87
what were the failures of perestroika
food production still inadequate
