For fifty years the world lived under the shadow of the Cold War, fearing a fatal confrontation between the American and Soviet Union. Millions of individuals lived and suffered under the seventy-year reign of the USSR, crushed under the dead weight of a stagnant empire. But the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev to the supreme leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985 began a tumultuous period that culminated with the fall of the realm founded by Lenin and Stalin. On Christmas Day in 1991, the Hammer and Sickle Flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the last time above the Kremlin and replaced with the Russian flag. As the world watched in amazement, the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. 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.
The answer that led to this monumental historical event is a very complex one, and can only be arrived at with an understanding of the peculiar composition and history of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was built on approximately the same territory as the Russian Empire which it succeeded. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the newly-formed government developed a philosophy of socialism with the eventual and gradual transition to Communism. The state which the Bolsheviks created was intended to overcome national differences, and rather to create one monolithic state based on a centralized economical and political system. This state, which was built on a Communist ideology, was eventually transformed into a totalitarian state, in which the Communist leadership had complete control over the country.
However, this proved problematic for several reasons. First, the Soviets underestimated the degree to which the non-Russian ethnic groups in the country (which comprised more than fifty percent of the total population of the Soviet Union) would resist assimilation into a Russianized State. Second, their economic planning failed to meet the needs of the State, which was caught up in a vicious arms race with the United States. This led to gradual economic decline, eventually necessitating the need for reform. The ideology of Communism, which the Soviet Government worked to instill in the hearts and minds of its population, never took firm root, and eventually lost whatever influence it had originally carried.
By the time of the 1985 rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s last leader, the country was in a situation of severe stagnation, with deep economic and political problems which sorely needed to be addressed and overcome. Recognizing this, Gorbachev introduced a two-tiered policy of reform. On one level, he initiated a policy of glasnost, or freedom of speech. On the other level, he began a program of economic reform known as perestroika, or rebuilding. What Gorbachev did not realize was that by giving people complete freedom of expression, he was unwittingly unleashing emotions and political feelings that had been pent up for decades, and which proved to be extremely powerful when brought out into the open. Moreover, his policy of economic reform did not have the immediate results he had hoped for and had publicly predicted. The Soviet people consequently used their newly allotted freedom of speech to criticize Gorbachev for his failure to improve the economy.
Gorbachev’s decision to not use military force to put down revolutions in Eastern Europe further eroded the power of the Soviet Union during 1989 and 1990. The fall of the Berlin Wall and communist governments throughout the old Soviet Bloc generated demands for reforms to the Soviet government as well. Non-Russian minority groups throughout the Soviet Union agitated for independence during this period. The Baltic Republics led the way in demanding freedom from Soviet occupation.
The tensions in the Soviet Union came to a head in August 1991 when a group of right wing military and KGB leaders staged a coup in Moscow while Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimea. Boris Yeltsin gained international acclaim when he occupied the Russian White House and faced down the threats of the leaders of the coup. At one point Yeltsin climbed atop a tank and rallied the people to oppose the coup. Lacking organization and support by the military itself, the coup collapsed after three days. Gorbachev was forced to greatly reduce the power of the Communist Party in order to prevent further attempts to seize power. Unwilling to consolidate his power by using brute force, Gorbachev was unable to reestablish real control over the nation following the coup.
Although Gorbachev was the nominal chief of state, Boris Yeltsin now had immense popular support and wielded more substantial power. Over the next four months, Gorbachev and Yeltsin negotiated the transition of power made inevitable by the will of the people. Although Gorbachev tried to preserve some form of socialism and strongly urged that the individual Soviet republics retain close relations, he was unable to convince either Yeltsin or representatives from the republics. On December 1, 1991 all non-Russian republics of the Soviet Union declared independence. On that historic Christmas Day of 1991, the long and sad history of the Soviet Union came to a final and peaceful end.
