Cold War

A)

USSR Post-Stalin
a. 2014 History MYEs
i.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was mainly due to the
leadership of Gorbachev. How far do you agree with the
statement? Explain your answer.

[13]

b. 2012 History EOYs

i.

Gorbachevs reforms of perestroika and glasnost were a success.

How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.
[13]

Causes of collapse
1. Gorbachevs reform of glasnost heightened tensions between the Russians and nonRussians, leading to revolutions and secessions of the non-Russian republics.
Glasnost and political freedom brought festering enmities to the surface, with popular
i.

fronts forming to express the ethnic grievances of the non-Russians.

The Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) who had never fully accepted their 1940
incorporation into the USSR, began to demand autonomy and then full secession in a

ii.

series of peaceful revolutions.

In 1989, the Soviet army had to be called in to deal with massive demonstrations in
Tbilisi (Georgia's capital). This was as Abkhazia was demanding secession from Georgia
causing Georgia to denounce Moscow for encouraging the Abkhazians.
These ethnic conflicts cast doubt in the viability of the USSR as a federation of ethnically
named republics.
These conflicts also brought about a greater awareness to Russians that the non-Russian
republics were becoming less hospitable homelands for them. Russian political

i.

movements sprang up and gained the support of the Russians.

In 1990. Democratic Russia Election Bloc won 300 out of 1068 seats in the election for
Congress of People's Deputies (CPD) - the equivalent of a parliament of RSFSR (Russian
Soviet Federal Socialist Republic) - on 26 March 1990. It also won majorities in key local
Soviets, including Moscow and Leningrad, as well as Sverdlovsk and other major cities.

2. Gorbachevs policies of perestroika and glasnost made people lose faith in the
government
With the Soviet public becoming more disenchanted with their secretive government,
Gorbachev attempted to compensate by committing to openness and transparency with
the media. However, this backfired as the public learned of long-standing political cover
ups revealing past and recent atrocities, missteps by leadership, social and health
failures of the USSR and the true extent of national economic problems. This further
eroded support for the regime.
The nuclear power plant accident in the Ukraine town of Cherynobyl. It was initially
covered up by the Soviet government, compounding the health crisis, while further
sowing the seeds of distrust within the constituency, as the extent of the disaster and the
cover-up came to light.
3. (long term) USSR economy stagnated during Brezhnev's era
Era of stagnation (1973): too much focus on foreign policies and nuclear field, too little
focus on domestic economy - lack of spending on consumer goods and domestic
economy in general
The Soviet Union had grown to a size large enough to the point where it became
cumbersome to continue state planning. The massive and intricate Soviet economy
became too large to manage by state planners, who were unwilling to enable more
autonomy at mid-managerial level to remain responsive down to a localized level. This
resulted in failed economic policies (failure to respond timely to continuous changes),
while thwarting innovation. Managers commonly fudged numbers to show that quotas
and goals were being met.
industrial and agricultural output was declining - grain was imported from North
America
workers had little incentive to work harder or produce better goods (low labour morale,
high absenteeism, high alcoholism) -> low industrial/agricultural output!
In 1973, the Soviet economy slowed and began to lag behind that of the Western due to
the high level of expenditure on the armed forces and too little spending on light
industry and consumer goods.
Soviet agriculture could not feed the urban population, let alone provide for the rising
standard of living, which the government promised as the fruits of "mature socialism",
and on which industrial productivity depended.

 From 1966 to 1970 under Leonid Brezhnev, the Gross National Product (GNP) grew at a
i.
ii.
iii.

rate of around 5.3 percent per year.

1971 - 1975: growth declined to an average of 3.7 percent per year.
After 1975: GNP fell to a growth of between 2.6 and 2.7.
In comparison, production around the world was growing rapidly, with the average
annual GNP growth rate for the world at 6.2 % in 1973.
Even though the Soviet Union was keeping up with the United States in the production

i.

of steel, pig iron, cement and oil, the future lay in electronics and specialty chemicals.
The Soviet Union was not keeping up with sophisticated techniques in computers,
software and communications electronics or the design and manufacturing of
automobiles. The Soviet Union lost its second place standing in manufacturing, falling
behind the losers of World War II, Japan and Germany, and falling behind Britain and
Italy. The Soviet Union's biggest customer for its manufactured goods was its military,
and manufacturing for the military continued to use the Soviet Union's most skilled
people, to the detriment of production for civilians.
In the Soviet Union, the managers at various production plants were protected from
international competition. They had no competition from within the Soviet Union. Their
thinking was not geared to consumer choice, and without a free market they had little
notion of what was in demand and what was not. Bureaucrats were deciding what was
to be manufactured, and they were not keeping up with the changing needs, which
resulted in poor economic co-ordination, sometimes seen in the form of metal goods
rusting away at railway sidings.
By the 1970s, low morale of the Soviet Union's work force was hurting its economy.
*Workers were given goals that seemed abstract or remote from tangible benefits.* The
massive effort in the Soviet Union in education to create a skilled work force could not
compensate for an economy that functioned poorly. Instead, education was producing
talent that was being poorly employed.
The agricultural sector of the Soviet economy was also functioning inefficiently. Under
Brezhnev, most farming remained collectivized (little change from Stalin's command
economy), with four percent of the Soviet Union's arable land being farmed on the side

as privately owned plots with this four percent producing around twenty-five percent
of the Soviet Union's agricultural output. Before World War I, Russia had been one of
the greatest food exporters in the world, but now it had become one of the world's
greatest importers of food. After decades of collective farming, agricultural workers in
the Soviet Union had developed poor work habits. And with distribution and
transportation a problem, some harvests rotted on their way to market, and sometimes
as much as forty or fifty percent of a crop might rot in the fields.
During the Brezhnev years mining for oil and natural gas was becoming more
expensive, these supplies now deeper in the ground or located in permafrost regions.
Scarcer supplies of fuel were now adding to the cost of production. A decline in sales of
its oil abroad and the purchasing of food from abroad was a trade imbalance that was
costing the Soviet Union hard currency and gold. Increases in the printing of money
were contributing to the declining value of their currency (inflation), the ruble.
In the eyes of the common Soviet citizen, corruption was growing alongside economic
stagnation. According to Business Week (20 January 2009), Brezhnev contributed to the
ruination of the Soviet Economy by not having started reforms in the early 1970s.
Reforms are too slow
Refers to economic reforms enacted by Gorbachev in 1987, in an attempt to
reverse the Soviet Union's sliding economy. Some free market elements were
added, but not enough to bring about reform. The free-market policies were
enough to result in failed businesses, but shortages became common as price
controls were kept in place. With price ceilings limiting profits, the incentive to
produce sufficient quantities was removed.
u The gradual market reforms and decentralization of the economy (perestroika)
were too slow and failed to keep pace with the crisis and his people's demands.
u The Soviet Union was suffering a deterioration of economic and social
conditions and a fall in the GNP.

u The gradual market reforms and decentralization of the economy (perestroika)

were too slow and failed to keep pace with the crisis and his people's demands.
u The Soviet Union was suffering a deterioration of economic and social
conditions and a fall in the GNP.