Collapse of soviet Union
Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism, and evidence of the superiority of capitalism over socialism. The United States rejoiced as its formidable enemy was brought to its knees, thereby ending the Cold War which had hovered over these two superpowers since the end of World War II. Indeed, the breakup of the Soviet Union transformed the entire world political situation, leading to a complete reformulation of political, economic and military alliances all over the globe.
> Soviet Union breaks up into 15 republics
> Russian republic approves a new constitution
> Changeover to market economy in Russia
> Cold War ends
> War in Chechnya
> New republic struggle to achieve democratic reforms
> Difficulties adjusting to a free-market economy
> Increased danger of ethnic and religious conflict
Time-Line Of the fall
> 1983: President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative
> 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union
> 1986: Oil prices fall to almost half of their 1985 average, and stay low for the rest of
the decade. Soviet oil production falls steeply from 1987 onward.
> 1986: Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites
> 1989: Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan (15,000 dead and missing, over
400,000 incapacitated by disease or serious illness).
> 1989: Solidarity movement in Poland wins congressional elections; next year, its
leader, Lech Walesa, won the Presidency.
> 1989 Berlin Wall falls (November), and in the next month, communist governments
fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.
> 1990 In March, the East German communist party loses its hold in congressional
elections, and in October, re-unites with West Germany.
> 1990—Soviet Union passes a law allowing republics to break away with a 2/3
majority in a referendum. In June, Boris Yeltsin (Russian President) leads its
congress to declare its sovereignty over Russia (removing the largest SSR from
the sphere of the USSR). In August, a coup led by military hardliners attempts
to seize power in Moscow to stop the decline of the USSR and Gorbachev’s
“giveaway” of control. Coup leaders, however, are arrested and Yeltsin replaces
regional leaders who supported it.
> 1990-91 USSR pulls out its nuclear and conventional forces from Warsaw Pact
> 1991-- Belavezha Accords declare the USSR dissolved, and form the Commonwealth
of Independent States with Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. In July, the Warsaw
Pact is dissolved.
> 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union
> 1986: Oil prices fall to almost half of their 1985 average, and stay low for the rest of
the decade. Soviet oil production falls steeply from 1987 onward.
> 1986: Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites
> 1989: Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan (15,000 dead and missing, over
400,000 incapacitated by disease or serious illness).
> 1989: Solidarity movement in Poland wins congressional elections; next year, its
leader, Lech Walesa, won the Presidency.
> 1989 Berlin Wall falls (November), and in the next month, communist governments
fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania.
> 1990 In March, the East German communist party loses its hold in congressional
elections, and in October, re-unites with West Germany.
> 1990—Soviet Union passes a law allowing republics to break away with a 2/3
majority in a referendum. In June, Boris Yeltsin (Russian President) leads its
congress to declare its sovereignty over Russia (removing the largest SSR from
the sphere of the USSR). In August, a coup led by military hardliners attempts
to seize power in Moscow to stop the decline of the USSR and Gorbachev’s
“giveaway” of control. Coup leaders, however, are arrested and Yeltsin replaces
regional leaders who supported it.
> 1990-91 USSR pulls out its nuclear and conventional forces from Warsaw Pact
> 1991-- Belavezha Accords declare the USSR dissolved, and form the Commonwealth
of Independent States with Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. In July, the Warsaw
Pact is dissolved.