Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?
Collapse of the Soviet Union resulted from the processes of system disintegration, which took place in the public and political sphere of the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the end of the USSR on December 26, 1991. As a result, 15 independent republics appeared on the world arena. In this paper a short overview of the USSR history will be presented along with the possible reasons for the Soviet Union collapse and description of the collapse process.
USSR inherited a large part of the territory that the Russian Empire possessed, as well as its multinational structure. Between 1917 and 1921 Finland and Poland received independence, and Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Tuva declared independence. Between 1939 and 1946 some territories were added to the USSR. After the World War II the Soviet Union possessed a huge territory in Europe and Asia, having access to seas and oceans, to colossal natural resources. Its economics was of socialistic type, based on regional specialization and interregional economic relations (Hankin, n.d.). In 1970s-80s interethnic conflicts (such as mass demonstrations of 1978 in Georgia, etc.) were not very widespread, and the Soviet ideology emphasized that USSR is a friendly family of brotherly nations. The Soviet Union was headed by representatives of different nations. Russians, who were the most numerous among the nations and lived not only in the RSFSR, but also on the territory of other republics. Each republic had its hymn and party management. Management of the USSR was centralized – the central bodies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held under control the entire hierarchy of the authorities. Heads of the brotherly republics were approved by the central party management, which was slightly different from the idealistic construction described in the USSR Constitution. After Stalin's death there occurred certain decentralization of power. In particular, it became a strict rule to appoint for the post of the First Secretary in republics a representative of the titular nationality of the corresponding republic. The Second Secretary of the Party in the republics was a Central Committee’s protege. This led to the fact that local officials had a certain independence and absolute power in their regions. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of these leaders were transformed into the Presidents of the corresponding states. However, in the Soviet times, their fate depended completely on the central management.
Thus, what are the actual reasons that led to the USSR collapse? Today there is no unified point of view considering the main cause of the USSR collapse among historians, as well as considering the assumptions as to whether it could have been prevented or stopped (Aron, 2011). Several possible reasons will be presented below. It could happen because of centrifugal nationalist tendencies inherent to each multiethnic country and manifested in the form of ethnic conflicts and desires of individual nations to develop their own culture and economy. Authoritarian nature of the Soviet society, in particular its church persecution, dissidents’ pursuit by the Committee for State Security, forced collectivism, domination of one ideology, prohibition of communication with foreign countries, censorship, lack of open discussion of alternatives (especially important for intellectuals) could also be a reason. Growing popular discontent because of shortages of food, especially in the era of stagnation and restructuring, and of the most necessary goods (refrigerators, TVs, toilet paper, etc.), the prohibitions and restrictions (the size of a garden site, etc.) a constant gap between the living standards of USSR and the developed Western countries could have led to the dissolution as well (Hankin, n.d.). Extensive economic disparities (typical for the entire USSR existence), a consequence of which became a constant shortage of consumer goods, the growing technological gap in all areas of manufacturing industry (it is possible to compensate it in the conditions of extensive economics only by expensive mobilization measures; a set of such measures was adopted in 1987 under the general title "Accelerating ", but there already weren’t economic opportunities for its realization). Crisis of confidence in the economic system: the 1960s-70s the main way to deal with the inevitable shortages in the necessary consumer goods under the planned economics conditions the mass, simplicity and low cost of materials was chosen. The majority of companies worked in three shifts, producing similar products from materials of low quality. Quantitative plan was the only way to assess the efficiency of enterprises, quality control was minimized (Aron, 2011). This resulted in a decrease in the quality of consumer goods produced in the Soviet Union. The crisis of confidence in the quality of goods became a crisis of confidence for the economic system as a whole. Among the possible reasons there is a number of man-made disasters (plane crashes, the Chernobyl accident, the crash of "Admiral Nakhimov", gas explosions, etc.) and concealment of information about them. There also were unsuccessful attempts to reform the Soviet system, leading to stagnation and eventually collapse of the economy, which led to the collapse of the political system (economic reform in 1965). Decrease of the world oil prices initiated by the U.S. government, faltering economics of the USSR. Monocentrism of decision-making (in Moscow alone), which led to inefficiency and wasted time. Afghan War, the Cold War, the continuing financial assistance to socialist countries, the development of defense industry to the detriment of other areas of the economics ravaged budget.
In order to better understand the reasons, it is necessary to analyze the process of Soviet Union collapse in detail. The collapse of the Soviet Union took place against the background of general economic, foreign policy and demographic crisis. In 1989 beginning of the economic crisis in the USSR was officially announced for the first time (economic growth followed by decline). In the period between 1989 and 1991 the main problem of the Soviet economy – a chronic goods deficit – reaches its maximum: almost all of the major products except bread disappear from the free market (Aron, 2011). Practically in all the country’s regions normalized supply in the form of coupons is introduced. Since 1991, the first recorded demographic crisis took place (excess of deaths over births). Non-intervention in internal affairs of the other countries entails a massive drop in the pro-Soviet Communist regimes in the Eastern Europe in 1989. In Poland, Lech Walesa, the former leader of "Solidarity" trade union, came to power (on December 9, 1990), in Czechoslovakia – a former dissident Vaclav Havel (December 29, 1989). In Romania, unlike the other Eastern European countries, the communists were ousted by force, and President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were shot by the sentence of the tribunal. Thus, there is an actual collapse of the Soviet sphere of influence, established on the basis of the Second World War outcome. In the USSR a number of ethnic conflicts flared up (Foust, 2007). The first manifestation of tensions in the period of perestroika were the events in Kazakhstan. On December 16, 1986, in Alma-Ata a protest demonstration took place after Moscow tried to approve for the post of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR its protégé Kolbin, who previously worked as the first secretary of the Ulyanov Regional Party Committee and didn’t have any relation to Kazakhstan. This demonstration was suppressed by the internal troops. Some of its members disappeared, or were sent to jail. In June 1989, ethnic clashes break out in the New Uzen between Kazakhs and Caucasians, for the suppression of which armored fighting vehicle were involved, as well as tanks, armed helicopters and other military equipment. On July 15-16 in Sukhumi clashes between Georgians and Abkhazians took place. The Karabakh conflict that began in 1988 was one of the most acute. Mutual ethnic clean-ups take place, while exit of Armenians from Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis with Muslim Kurds from Armenia starts. In 1989, the Armenian Supreme Soviet declared the joining of Nagorny Karabakh. During the same year, the Armenian SSR introduces a blockade of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Popular Front of Azerbaijan in response declares an economic blockade of Armenia. In April 1991, the war begins between the two Soviet republics (Foust, 2007). Disorders took place in the Fergana Valley, where several nations live together. At the end of May 1989 in the Fergana region of the Uzbek SSR relations between Uzbeks and Meskhetian Turks become more strained. In June there were massive riots and killings of Meskhetian Turks, known as "the Fergana events", which resulted in mass evacuation of Meskhetian Turks from the country. In May of the next year in the Uzbek city of Andizhan a massacre of Jews and Armenians took place. A month later, on the territory of the Kyrgyz SSR, Kyrgyz-Uzbek confrontation took place. The decision to rehabilitate peoples deported by Stalin led to an increase of tension in some regions, particularly in the Crimea – between Crimean Tatars who returned and Russians, and in the suburban district of the North Ossetia – between Ossetians and Ingush people that returned. Against the background of the crisis popularity of the radical democrats is growing, led by Boris Yeltsin, which reaches maximum in the two largest cities – Moscow and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).
On February 7, 1990, the Central Committee announced the weakening of the monopoly of power, and within weeks the first competitive elections took place. Many places in the parliaments of the Union republics were given to liberals and nationalists. During 1990-1991 there was a so-called "Parade of sovereignties", in which all the Union republics (one of the first was the RSFSR) and many of the autonomous republics adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty, which challenged the priority of all-union laws over republic, which was the beginning of a "war of laws" (Foust, 2007). Also, actions were taken to control the local economics, including rejection to pay taxes to the Union and the Russian federal budget. These conflicts put an end to many of the economic relations, which further worsened the economic situation in the USSR. The first Soviet territory that declared independence in January 1990 in response to the events in Baku, was Nakhichevan ASSR. Prior to the August coup, two Soviet republics declared the independence (Lithuania and Georgia), four other countries – Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, Armenia – refused to engage in the proposed new union. With the exception of Kazakhstan, none of the Central Asian Soviet republics had organized movements or parties, seeking to achieve independence. Except for the Azerbaijan Popular Front among the Muslim republics the movement for independence was only in one of the autonomous republics of the Volga – the party of "Ittifaq" of Fawzi Bayramova in Tatarstan, which in 1989 stood for the independence of Tatarstan. In March 1991, a referendum on the preservation of the USSR as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics took place, where more than 76% of respondents voted for it (including more than 70% of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR). In six of the union republics (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia), which declared independence and transition to independence, all-Union referendum was virtually absent (the authorities of the republics didn’t form the Central Electoral Commission, there was no general voting) with the exception of certain territories (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdniestria), but at other times referenda on independence took place. Based on the concept of the referendum and taking into account its results formation of a new alliance – the Union of Sovereign States (SSG) – was planned for August 20, 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to preserve the Soviet Union faced a serious obstacle when the election of Boris Yeltsin took place on May 29, 1990 for the post of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (Foust, 2007). These elections were held in a persistent struggle, and from the third attempt Boris Yeltsin won by a margin of three votes over a candidate from the conservative part of the Supreme Council, Ivan Polozkov. Russia was a part of the USSR as one of the union republics, representing the vast majority of the USSR population, its territory, economic and military potential. The central authorities of the RSFSR were also in Moscow, as well as the all-union ones, but traditionally they were seen as minor compared to the Soviet authorities. With the election of Boris Yeltsin as the head of the government, the RSFSR took a course on the proclamation of sovereignty within the USSR, and recognition of the sovereignty of the Union and the rest of the autonomous republics. On June 12, 1990, the Congress of People's Deputies adopted the Declaration on State Sovereignty, setting the priority of the Russian laws over the Union ones. Since then, the all-union authorities began to lose control of the country and the "parade of sovereignties" increased (Stoner-Weiss & McFaul, 2009). On January 12, 1991, Yeltsin signed a treaty with Estonia on the basis of interstate relations, in which the RSFSR and Estonia recognized each other as sovereign states. As the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin was able to achieve the establishment of the post of the RSFSR President, and on June 12, 1991, he won the general election for the position. A number of state and party leaders under the slogan of preserving the unity of the country and restoring the strict party-state control over all spheres of life made an attempt of coup d'etat, also known as "the August coup". On August 19, 1991, a group of politicians from Gorbachev’s environment announced the creation of the State Emergency Committee (GKChP). They demanded from the president who was on vacation to introduce a state of emergency in the country or temporary transfer of power to Vice President Gennady Yanayev. Only two Soviet republics - Azerbaijan and Byelorussian SSR supported the GKChP; the other republics - Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Estonia - rejected the acts of GKChP. Following the announcement of the creation of the GKChP and the isolation of Gorbachev in Crimea, Yeltsin headed the resistance to the plotters and turned the House of Soviets of Russia in the center of resistance. Already on the first day of the coup, Yeltsin, speaking from a tank in front of the White House, called the GKChP the coup d'etat, and announced a series of decrees on the non-recognition of the GKChP. On August 23, Yeltsin signed a decree suspending the activities of the RSFSR, and on November 6 he terminated the CPSU operation. The defeat of the coup, in fact, led to the collapse of the USSR central government, subordination of the power structures of the republican leaders and accelerate the dissolution of the Union. Within a month after the coup, declared independence one after the other authorities of almost all Soviet republics. Some of them to give legitimacy to those decisions held referendums on independence.
References
Aron, L. (2011). Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong. Retrieved from http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/everything_you_think_you_know_about_the_collapse_of_the_soviet_union_is_wrong
Foust, J. (2007). Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Retrieved from http://www.registan.net/index.php/2007/06/14/why-did-the-soviet-union-collapse/
Hankin, T. (n.d.). Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse? Retrieved from http://reality.gn.apc.org/polemic/whydid.htm
Stoner-Weiss, K., & McFaul, M. (2009). Domestic and International Influences on the Collapse of the Soviet Union (1991) and Russia’s Initial Transition to Democracy (1993). Retrieved from http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/22468/No_108_Stoner-Weiss_domestic_and_international_influences_on_collapse_of_USSR.pdf
