Communist Union And The Soviet Union

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government

Joseph Stalin was one of Russia’s most powerful and ruthless leaders. With his economic policies, he attained the favour of the struggling working class people and with the power he obtained from being a leader he eliminated the opposing party members. The concept of a ‘Five-Year-Plan’ was adopted by the Soviet Union as they sought escalated industrialization and controlled the economy where peasantry was directly in political power.

The people were in a state of famine, the political government was weak, and the economy was in shambles with inflation as high as can be. As Stalin rose in power, this would all change in both positive and negative aspects. One of Josef Stalin’s first methods of rebuilding broken Russia was through what he named to be the Five-Year economic Plans. Through these plans, Stalin would induct a Command, or a Socialist, Economy. This Command Economy would involve a society in which the government would make all economical decisions, controlling nearly all aspects of societal life. As seen in Document One, Stalin believed that implementing a “Socialist economy” would prevent from Russia “[lagging] behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years.” It would bring them up to pace with the surrounding capitalist economies, keeping Russia as a world power. The Five-Year Plans also included the increase of quota in both industrial and agricultural positions. If quota were increased, industrial increase would soon follow. Seen in Document Eight, “the fulfillment of the first and second Five-Year Plans strengthened the U.S.S.R.’s economic position.” The Five-Year Plan would cause for Russia to rise to become a modern industrial society, as well as

In 1945, one major war ended and another began. After World War II, the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union were involved in what became known as the Cold War, which was a period of mutual fear and distrust. The war was given the name "cold" because the two sides never actually came into direct armed conflict; it was a war of words and ideologies rather than a shooting war (Crawford, 2009, p. 6). The Soviet Union and the United States came out from World War II as the new world superpowers, and despite their common victory with the defeat of their enemies, their primary bond was broken. There were deep-rooted ideological, economic, and political differences between the United States and the Soviet Union prior to the Second World War. Their differences, most notably their political systems and their visions of a postwar Europe, were intensified as a result of their mutual suspicions and during and after the Second World War drove the allied nations into an ideological conflict that lasted for 45 years.

A command economy is one in which the co-ordination of economic activity is controlled and undertaken through administrative means rather than through the market mechanism (Ericson, 2005). Many aspects of the Soviet economy fit this description such as its organisational structure, the methods by which aims and directives were carried out and its lack of a use of pricing within its financial mechanisms, thus it can be argued that the term command economy is an accurate description. However there are another of other aspects to consider such as the use of bargaining to develop a second ‘economy of agreement’ and the

The Cold War was a state of economic, diplomatic, and ideological discord among nations without armed conflict. The Cold War was between the United States and the USSR because these were the two major powers after WWII. Basically, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars that had taken place back in time involving surrounding countries. One of the main causes for Cold War was that the Soviet Union was spreading communism and the United States didn’t like that so they were trying to contain communism. However, in the end they failed. Many events took place in other countries. In Korea, Vietnam, Latin America, and China, communism took over; however, before it did, major wars had taken place. The cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union worsened the condition of countries involved. The Cold War broke countries into two parts that turned against each other, the United States and the Soviet Union used these countries to fight their war and caused a big disturbance to daily life, and the Communist States fought the Non-Communist States; however, the end results of these wars only caused more damage in these countries.

The Cold War, in fact didn’t take place in the winter season, but was just as dangerously cold and unwelcoming, as it focused on two contrasting powers: the U.S. and the Soviet Union. After World War 2, the Cold War influenced capitalist U.S. and communist Soviet Union to engage in disagreements causing many disputes having to use military, economic and humanitarian aid. With different goals, the contrasting powers prove through the Marshall Plan, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and SALT that communism really can’t coexist with capitalism.

Due to the onset of the Cold War and the early 1960s, the popular and political climate in the United States changed. The relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States was directed by ideological, political and technological factors. The rivalry between the two powers rooted from their contrasting ideological principles since the United States was a democratic republic where the people believed that every citizen had equal representation in the government and the Soviet Union was a communist nation. The US embodied the principles of a democratic nation believing in the ideals of "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" as well as having an economy that was based on capitalism. In contrast to the ideology of the US, the Soviet Union fell under communist rule during the Russian Revolution of 1917, which was based on the idea that all assets should be owned by the government and then divided among the citizens of the nation. The Soviet Union took communism a step further as the many of the leaders were totalitarian during the 20th century, meaning that "all power was in the hands of the ruler". In 1946, Churchill declared the separation between the east and west by saying that an iron curtain had descended through the middle of Europe (Churchill Delivers Iron Curtain Speech 1). Even though the Soviets and the US fought together in WWII, the eastern communistic ideology had clashed with western democratic principles. Furthermore, the two powers were in a nuclear

After World War II, the world was in a state of heightened suspicion that was lead by ideological differences. There were two main “superpowers” that shaped perceptions of the rest of the world. One was the United States, who had come out of the war fairly unscathed, which was due to little to no conflict directly on its soil, in addition to the possession of atomic weapons and a strong navy and air force. The other major player was the Soviet Union, whose industry was recovered during the first few years of the war in addition to a powerful army. These superpowers had a large impact on other countries due to their ideological differences: the United States favored a capitalistic democracy while the Soviet Union believed in communism. One country that was heavily influenced by both superpowers at the same time was Korea, which was ultimately split into two halves. The United States had a heavy impact on the south while the Soviet Union had an effect on the north. During the Cold War from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, The Soviet Union and the United States wanted to set up spheres of influence in foreign countries so that they could observe what the other was doing, which ultimately lead to the exploitation of North and South Korea.

The economy could not keep pace with the United States. The standard of living for Soviet citizens were steadily declining since the 1970s (Miller 2016, 17). The military was embroiled in the Afghanistan conflict which was producing massive causalities for the Soviet public and consuming scarce resources for its military that was needed for domestic consumption (Gaddis 2007). Secondly, the Soviet Union was plagued by appointing leaders who had fought in World War II, but with Gorbachev, they appointed a younger generation to take the mantle of leadership of the Soviet Union (Gaddis 2007). Gorbachev announce his economic restructure, Perestroika, and openness of the government, glasnost. Perestroika started the process of introducing market based principles into the operation of the state (Miller 2016, xii). State industries were allowed to determine output based on the will of the consumers as along as the orders from state bureau were fulfilled. Individuals would have the ability to own small-scale businesses and the property rights of those businesses would be respected (Miller 2016, 89). It also introduced competition in terms of foreign trade by allowing each ministry to pursue policies in their direct control when dealing with foreign companies and nations (Miller 2016, 71). The last major element of this would be allowing foreign investment by coupling Soviet resources such as

The Soviet Union was none the less held together by "…powerful central institutions, pressure for ideological conformity, and the threat of force." (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) Therefore, these new reforms could not overpower the previous ‘seventy years' of soviet rule.

Imagine being a third world country involved in having Capitalists vs Communists and fighting back and forth not knowing if you will gain power or lose it. It all depends on your decision of what side you choose and what choices you make. Knowing what side you are on is important, and to say what country you are from and what kinds of leaders you withhold all shows were you and your people stand and what you will do for your country and your rights as one body. The opposing ideologies of the United States and Soviet Union affected political, cultural, and economic developments in the Third World by enhancing divisions within other countries which caused even more tension and rivalry. In the following, I will be discussing how countries were

Russia had many complications before Mikhail Gorbachev came into power for the Soviet Union. During 1939 through 1945, Russian took part in World War II heavily and were led by Dictator Joseph Stalin. Following the war, Russia was in a nuclear arms race with America, riding on everyone’s fear of there being a World War III and a nuclear war. Post World War II Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union had very poor living conditions due to the mass of poverty. In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, which was also known as the October Crisis. This was when American President John F. Kennedy was informed that there were Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba where he then made a deal with Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev where America would not invade Cuba as long as the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles. Following this was the Brezhnev Era, Soviet Union circa 1964 through 1982, in the Soviet Union.

As one of the most ruthless Communist dictators of all time, Joseph Stalin only strived to lead the Soviet Union in becoming a powerhouse and a key player in the global market. Stalin concluded that in order for the Soviet Union to compete against the economic successes of the Western world, rapid industrialization needed to occur. In 1928, Stalin switched the economic plans from Lenin’s NEP (New Economic Policy) to the Five Year Plan. The plan’s goal was to convert the Soviet Union from an agricultural state to an industrial country through urbanization. Before Stalin came to power, the Soviet Union was almost a medieval country where the roads were not paved and the people lived in villages deprived of electricity. However, the Five Year Plan was Stalin’s attempt to transform the Soviet Union’s economy.