Decline of the Soviet Union

1
Decline of the Soviet Union
2
The Brezhnev Era

• Alexi Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev replaced Nikita
  Khrushchev when he was removed from office in
  1964
• Brezhnev emerged as the dominant leader in the
  1970s
• He was not interested in any reforms and believed
  that Eastern Europe needed to remain in Soviet
  control
• Brezhnev Doctrine ? Soviet Union has the right to
  intervene if communism was threatened in another
  communist state

3
The Brezhnev Era

• Brezhnev benefitted from détente (a relaxation of
  tensions and improved relations between the
  United States and the Soviet Union
• In the 1970s, the two superpowers signed SALT
  (strategic arms limitation treaty) I and II and
  the Ballistic Missile Treaty, which limited
  nuclear arms
• With the feeling of being more secure, Soviet
  leaders relaxed their authoritarian rule and
  allowed more access to Western music, dress, and
  art
• However, dissidents (people who spoke out against
  the regime) were still suppressed

4
The Brezhnev Era

• In his economics policies, Brezhnev continued to
  emphasize heavy industry
• However, two problems weakened the Soviet
  economy
• The central government was a huge, complex, but
  inefficient bureaucracy that led to indifference
• Many collective farmers preferred working their
  own small private plots to laboring the
  collective work brigades
• By the 1970s, the Communist ruling class become
  complacent and corrupt
• Party and state leaders, army leaders, and secret
  police (KGB), enjoyed a high standard of living
• However, Brezhnev did not want to tamper with the
  party leadership and state bureaucracy

5
The Cold War Intensifies

• By the 1970s, détente allowed U.S. grain and
  consumer goods to be sold to the Soviet Union
• However, détente collapsed in 1979 when the
  Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan
• The Soviet Union wanted to restore a pro-Soviet
  regime in Afghanistan and the U.S. viewed it as
  an act of expansion
• To show his disapproval, president Jimmy Carter
  canceled U.S. participation in the 1980 summer
  Olympics in Moscow
• He also placed an embargo on the shipment of U.S.
  gain to the Soviets

6
The Cold War Intensifies

• Relations worsened when Ronald Reagan became
  president
• He called the Soviet Union an evil empire and
  began a military buildup and a new arms race
• Regan also gave military aid to the Afghan
  rebels, helping to maintain a war that the Soviet
  Union could not win

7
Gorbachev and Perestroika

• By 1980, the Soviet Union had a declining
  economy, a rise in infant mortality rates, a
  dramatic surge in alcoholism, and poor working
  conditions
• A small group of reformers emerged and,
  eventually, Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen as
  leader in March 1985
• Perestroika ? restructuring of the Soviet system
• At first, this meant restructuring the economy
• Gorbachev wanted a market economy that was more
  responsive to consumers
• It would have limited free enterprise so that
  some businesses would be privately owned and
  operated
• However, he realized that this would not work in
  the established political system

8
Gorbachev and Perestroika

• Glasnost ? a policy of perestroika that
  encouraged Soviet citizens and officials to
  discuss openly the strengths and weaknesses of
  the Soviet Union
• At the 1988 Communist Party conference, Gorbachev
  set up a new Soviet parliament of elected
  members, the Congress of Peoples Deputies
• It met in 1989, the first such meeting in the
  country since 1918
• He then created a new state presidency
• Under the old system, the most important position
  was the first secretary of the Communist Party

9
End of the Cold War

• Mikhail Gorbachevs rise to power in the 1980s
  brought about a drastic end to the Cold War
• His new thinking his willingness to rethink
  Soviet foreign policy led to many changes
• Gorbachev made an agreement with the United
  States in 1987, the Intermediate Range INF Treaty
• Eliminated intermediate range nuclear weapons
• Both superpowers wanted to slow down the arms race

10
End of the Cold War

• Gorbachev stopped giving Soviet military support
  to Communist governments in Eastern Europe
• This led to the potential of overthrowing those
  governments
• A mostly peaceful revolutionary movement swept
  through Eastern Europe in 1989
• The reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990,
  was a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War
• In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved
• The long rivalry between the superpowers was over

11
End of the Soviet Union

• The Soviet Union included 92 ethnic groups and
  112 languages
• As Gorbachev relaxed the control of the Soviet
  Union, old ethnic tensions grew
• Nationalist movements began throughout the former
  republics of the Soviet Union
• The conservative leaders of the traditional
  Soviet institutions the army, government, KGB,
  and military industries were worried that the
  breakup of the Soviet Union would end their
  privileges

12
End of the Soviet Union

• On August 19, 1991, a group of these conservative
  leaders arrested Gorbachev and tried to seize
  power
• The attempt failed when the new president of
  Russia, Boris Yeltsin, along with thousands of
  Russians, resisted the rebel forces in Moscow
• The Soviet Republics eventually moved towards
  full independence
• Ukraine voted for independence on December 1,
  1991 and Belarus did the same weeks later

13
Russia Under Yeltsin

• Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991 and he
  turned over his responsibilities to Boris
  Yeltsin, the new president of Russia
• Yeltsin was committed to introducing a free
  market economy as quickly as possible
• Economic hardships and social disarray were made
  worse by a rise in organized crime

14
Russia Under Yeltsin

• Yeltsin also faced a problem in Chechnya, a
  province in the south that wanted to secede from
  Russia and become independent
• Yeltsin used brutal force against the Chechens to
  keep the province as part of Russia
• Yeltsin also dealt with former Soviet satellite
  states, like Poland, Hungary, and the Czech
  Republic, who wanted to join NATO

15
Russia Under Putin

• At the end of 1999, Yeltsin resigned and was
  replaced by Vladimir Putin, who was elected
  president in 2000
• Putin, a former KGB officer, was widely seen as
  someone who wanted to keep a tight rein on
  government power
• In July 2001, Putin launched reforms to boost
  growth and budget revenues
• The reforms included the free sale and purchase
  of land and tax cuts

16
Russia Under Putin

• Putin also applied for Russias admission to the
  World Trade Organization and worked out a special
  partnership with the European Union
• Despite the changes, the business climate
  remained somewhat uncertain, and this stifled
  foreign investment
• Since Putins reforms, Russia experienced a
  budget surplus and a growing economy
• Much of this growth is due to oil and gas exports

17
Russia Under Putin

• Russia often uses its supplies of oil and gas as
  a political lever to wield power over former
  Soviet states and to influence world energy
  prices
• A trans-Siberian oil pipeline, which was
  completed in 2009, had Asia more dependent on
  Russian oil
• Chechnya and terrorism also continues to be a
  problem for Russia
• In 2002, Chechen terrorists took about 600
  Russian hostage in a Moscow theater
• Between 2002-2004, terrorist attacks in Russia
  killed an estimated 500 people

18
A New Russia

• Russia still faces problems like rising
  alcoholism, criminal activities, and a decline of
  the traditional family system
• In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev became president of
  Russia
• Putin could not run for reelection because of
  limits in Russias constitution
• Many question the validity of the 2008
  presidential because few opposition candidates
  participated
• Putin became prime minister and it is unclear how
  much power they share
• In 2012, Putin became president of Russia once
  again