Reasons for the Collapse of the Soviet Union
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Tearing down of the Berlin Wall
- Instead of the better Soviet Russia that Gorbachev was hoping for, his reforms brought economic turmoil.
- Shortages grew worse and prices soared.
- Factories that could not survive without government help closed, leading to high unemployment.
- The reforms were denounced by old-line Communists and bureaucrats whose jobs were threatened. At the same time, other critics like the popular Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, demanded even more radical changes.
- Problems increased as glasnost fed unrest in the multinational Soviet empire.
- The Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which had been seized in 1940, regained full independence in 1991. IN Eastern Europe, countries from Poland and East Germany to Romania and Bulgaria broke out of the Soviet orbit.
- In response, hard-liners tried to overthrow Gorbachev and restore the old order. Their attempted coup failed, but it further weakened Gorbachev.
- In 1991, as more Soviet republics declared independence, Gorbachev resigned as president. After 74 years the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
- This website chronlogocialy gives the breakdown of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It includes information on the years 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, and 1991. It also contains details on the chronology of independence declarations and the legacy of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
- This website gives a condensed summary of the fall of the Soviet Union.