The fall of the USSR (1985-91)

Question 1

tWhat evidence was there for economic decline?

Answer 1

• The Novosibirsk report of 1983 highlighted long term economic weakness highlighted inflexibility and inefficiency causing damage to agriculture
• Politburo read this report and ignored it apart from Gorbachev who started a period of trial and error

Question 2

How did Gorbachev strengthen his position before launching economic reforms?

Answer 2

• Gorbachev fired his biggest rival grigory romanov 1985 and promoted allies such as Yegor Ligachev and Boris Yeltsin to the central committee in 1986

Question 3

What evidence was there for alcoholism in the soviet union?

Answer 3

• Mid-1980’s 15% of soviet household spending was on alcohol and most workers turned up to work drunk

Question 4

What was done to curb alcoholism in the soviet union?

Answer 4

• Legal drinking raised to 21
• Alcohol retail outlets reduced
• Vineyards and distilleries closed and destroyed
• Vodka costs tripled

Question 5

Was the campaign against alcoholism successful in raising production?

Answer 5

• Taxes from alcohol reduced meant less state budget
• Drinking levels began to rise again due to illegal moonshine

This showed relying on the workers to raise production was naive

Question 6

What was the aim of the 12th year plan?

Answer 6

(1986-80)
To increase economic growth in the soviet union the party feel back on traditionalism through central planning and increased investment in science, research and engineering.

Question 7

What were the key weaknesses of the 12th five year plan?

Answer 7

• Focus on spending towards construction meant overspending on factories to equip workers
• Factories used outdated equipment causing low production
• Slow to use new technology and importing it meant less imports of food.
• Investment into agriculture wasted showing no growth
• Focus on quantity not quality

Question 8

Why did the 12th 5 year plan fail?

Answer 8

• Resistance from the military, other sectors had to fail in order for the growth of weapons
• The government attempted to go into a deficit hoping the economy to improve soon but it didn’t and from 1985-86 the deficit increased by 3.8%
• The war in Afghanistan and funds to defend against America’s star wars campaign

Question 9

What was economic Perestroika?

Answer 9

1987, Soviet economy needed restructuring by introducing market mechanisms showing a slight return to capitalism which would retreat from central planning encouraging flexibility and incentives

• Proposed at the 1987 plenum of the central committee

Question 10

What were the key factors of Perestroika?

Answer 10

• Joint ventures, 1987, this allowed foreign businesses to open in the USSR such as the first Mcdonalds in 1990 which Gorbachev hoped would open the state to more modern tech.
• Law on state Enterprise, 1987, less state control on wages and prices, Once targets had been met factories could produce what they wanted and managers were elected weakening authority of Gosplan
• Co-operatives legalised in 1988, allowed small private enterprises and they could set their own prices producing a growing tertiary sector.

Question 11

What were the impacts of perestroika?

Answer 11

• Food production increased 1% in 1986-87 but 20% of food still imported
• Enterprises subject to resource allocation by state meaning centralisation still remained
• Co-operatives held most of the food with high prices causing inflation and resource inequality among poorer people
• Co-operatives sold to the highest bidders meaning poor areas were deprived of goods
• Productive Co-operatives attracted corrupt party members asking for bribes and criminal gangs who used them fro racketeering
• Food rationing in response to hoarding, 1988 meat rationed in 26/55 regions of Russia
• Electing managers caused a 13% wage rise in 1989
• FDI put off by state involvement deterring companies completely with only 3000 joint ventures in the USSR in 1990 having little impact on the economy
• Some cities ignored, sabotaged or watered down reforms such as Leningrad burying all the sausages
• Made worse by drop in oil prices as in 1984 oil counted for 54% of soviet exports

Question 12

What conflict was there between national governments and central planning after Perestroika?

Answer 12

1989, state commission for economic reform issued a report calling for a market led economy splitting the politburo

• Shatalin offered a 500 day programme moving to a market led economy which was accepted by Russian parliament but rejected by Soviet government causing arguments and then the downfall of the soviet economy

Question 13

What was Glasnost?

Answer 13

A response to the inflexibility, corruption and nepotism of the party

• Complete reform of the system allowing the public to criticise and put forward new policies and remove those who were against reform

Question 14

What were the key criticisms of Glasnost?

Answer 14

• Poor housing
• Revealed details of Stalin’s mass terror such as the famine of the 1930’s and the Katyn massacre
• Heroism of the 2nd WW undermined by amount of lives lost
• Environmental problems brought up such as the aral sea irrigation scheme.

Question 15

How did the Chernobyl incident justify Glasnost in the eyes of Gorbachev?

Answer 15

• April 1986
• No official announcement of the radioactive fallout increasing birth deformities and leukemia among the soviet population damaging giving a need for glasnost
• All deficiencies of the plant such as outdated equipment and poor management were hid by secrecy giving a need for glasnost

Question 16

By 1989, What was the impact of glasnost on the soviet public?

Answer 16

• They became highly politicised with over 60,000 informal groups asking for political reform in various ways
• Most criticised Gorbachev for not pursuing political reform and many soviet reformers left the party as they were unwilling to to defend the communist party

Question 17

How did Gorbachev attempt to reform the party?

Answer 17

• Defining party and state in the 19th conference 1988, the line between the two had become blurred due to the nomenklatura system promoting people in the state when they were loyal to the party such as Gorbachev being president of the soviet union while being general secretary of the party
• Shifting power from the party to the soviets, allocating more finance to soviets to support their role and were elected every 5 years instead of every 2 in order to give them greater security to their role
• Clampdown on corruption, Brezhnev’s son in law served 12 years in prison which was popular with the public but dangerous, e.g
• 1986, Kunayev was removed as general secretary in Kazakhstan for corruption and replaced by Koblin, an ethnic Russian which angered the Kazakhs. Order was only restored when hundreds of protesters killed. Gorbachev was blamed for the sacking and appointing of both secretaries showing the dangers of reform

Question 18

How did Gorbachev begin democratising the communist party?

Answer 18

• Early 1987, central committee meeting , secret ballots discussed for multiple candidates
• June 1987, small elections for local soviets with multiple candidates. small but significant
• 1988, 19th party congress, nationwide elections for the congress of people’s deputies to supervise the party independently as well as the union of writers etc. The CP nominated 100 candidates for 100 seats but the writer’s union and trade unions gave a choice of 12 people for each seat. The CP could control the nomination process as the only legal party but it got the population engaged

Question 19

What were impacts of the democratisation of the communist party under Gorbachev?

Answer 19

• The population got a taste for democracy and irretrievably weakened the CP
• Reforms were criticised for being too small scale but they were a step in the right direction

Question 20

What were the impacts of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the communist party?

Answer 20

• Reformers pointing towards pluralism to solve the issues facing the communist party
• Increasing divisions, liberals and conservatives were alienated undermining Gorbachev’s attempts to unite them
• Alienating reformers, Yeltsin felt reform was too slow, attacked Gorbachev at the central commttee plenum in 1987 resulting in him being sacked as party first secretary in Moscow and removed from the Politburo in 1988
• Alienating conservatives, 1988, Gorbachev was in Yugoslavia and a newspaper published a letter criticising glasnost and the undoing of Stalin’s work which Ligachev, acting as leader, attacked the pace of reform which gained support from Gorbachev’s own supporters
• Development of factions, liberals and conservatives opposed each other forming unofficial groups such as Yeltsin forming an inter regional group and conservatives forming Soyouz forming unofficial opposition to the government
• Abolition of article 6, the article ensured a one party state and became a symbolic target for those who wanted democracy. March 1990, Gorbachev repealed the act allowing parties to participate in elections

Question 21

What was the impact of the abolition of article 6?

Answer 21

• 1990, Communist party were losing elections all over the country with Leningrad being 60% opposition
• Non-Russian national parties grew in the satellite states, especially the baltic states
• Yeltsin’s democratic platform party won in the congress of people’s deputies resigning from the communist party showing a shift of power
• Theoretically, power had shifted to the state when Gorbachev was appointed as president by the congress of people’s deputies
• In reality power had been decentralised from the centre to the regions

Question 22

What was the Brezhnev doctrine?

Answer 22

• Allowed military control over the Eastern European countries
• Introduced in 1968 preventing Czech Communists introducing liberal reforms under popular protest
• Again, prevented popular unrest in Poland 1980-81 with the Polish government declaring martial law in order to stop soviet invasion
• Despite this, Gorbachev would not uphold the right of the USSR to intervene in foriegn affairs

Question 23

How was the Brezhnev repealed?

Answer 23

• 1985, Chernenko’s funeral, all leaders of states were told by Gorbachev that the USSR would no longer intervene in foreign affairs
• This would allow the government to spend the annual $40 billion on domestic reform rather than the satellite states with the hope others would follow this economic reform

Question 24

What was the impact of the repeal of the Brezhnev doctrine?

Answer 24

• 1989, Polish communist government allowed elections due to pressure of independent workers council, solidarity
• Solidarity won by a landslide with the Communist party collapsing with the approval of Gorbachev
• This sent a message to the Eastern European states the USSR no longer would intervene in foreign affairs

Question 25

How did communism collapse in Hungary?

Answer 25

• 1988, Ladar, leader since 1956 was sacked by reformers within the party.
• Reformers dominated the party allowed other political parties to contest elections

Question 26

How did communism collapse in East Germany?

Answer 26

• As an artificial country, East Germany relied on USSR support
• 1989, Gorbachev encouraged reform in East Berlin causing mass demonstrations
• Egon Krenz, leader in 1989, allowed travel across the Berlin wall due to popular protest

Question 27

How did communism collapse in Czechoslovakia?

Answer 27

• 1989, reformative concessions made under public process
• organisation Civic Forum pressured against communism,
• Due to pressure, communism opposer Havel was elected president in 1989

Question 28

How did communism collapse in Romania?

Answer 28

• Repressive government, food shortages and fake democracy
• Ceauescu fired against protestors during the peak in 1989 and by December even the army wouldn’t support him and he had to flee the country in Bucharest by helicopter
• Ceauescu was executed on Christmas ceasing communism in Romania

Question 29

What was the impact of the communist regimes falling in Eastern Europe?

Answer 29

• 1989, every pro-soviet communist government collapsed in Eastern Europe
• This shows that Gorbachev’s foreign policy was a deciding factor in the increase of nationalism and independence of satellite states

Question 30

What factors encouraged the growth of nationalism within the USSR?

Answer 30

• Environmental concerns, Soil erosion due to diversion of rivers ravaged central Asia and industrial pollution was big in the Baltic states giving people a focal point to rally against the central government
• Insecurity of local party leaders, Brezhnev’s ‘trust in cadres’ empowered local communists but Gorbachev threatened them giving them a reason to support local process
• Culture and language, 145 million Russians and 141 non million Russians with a range of slavic and non-slavic people each with a strong sense of national and cultural identity

Question 31

What is Nagorno-Karabakh and how does it reflect the powerless nature of Gorbachev’s USSR?

Answer 31

• Autonomous region in Azerbaijan populated largely by Armenians causing ethnic tensions due to them wanting to join the Armenia
• 1988, tensions turned to violence causing an unofficial referendum to form ending in the majority wanting to join Armenia and Armenia announcing control over the region in 1988
• Violence continued prompting Moscow to impose direct control of the region further inflaming the situation
• 1989, clashes in Georgia, Kirgizstan 1990 and tensions in Moldavia were all impacts of the decentralisation of power from Moscow

Question 32

How did the Baltic republics represent territorial insecurity for the soviet union?

Answer 32

• Estonia, Latvia and Estonia had been independent before 1939 with people who remembered this
• Baltics had a higher average education than the soviets so they could promote their culture in a better way
• More economically developed than most other USSR regions