Fall of the Soviet Union The once great nation, crippled by its own corruption, economical problems, collapse of allies and Foreign pressure. Leading to its eventual collapse and dismantlement.

The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan The war in Afghanistan had many poor effects upon the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, The war provided a bad image that connected corruption and invasion with the USSR, true or not true. The war also cost the Soviet Union fifteen thousand soldiers and forced them to pour billions of Rubles into the invasion. With this invasion being a defeat they gained nothing from all the money and men spent to try and claim the land and its resources from the Mujahedin. With the rebels fighting against them in small bursts of raids, they never dealt massive damage to their forces and had supplies stolen from them by the Arab resistance, costing them more money for the goods and weapons stolen from them. The war was waged to reinstall a Communist ally in Afghanistan after its last ruler installed in the 1970’s fell due to lack of popularity and little military strength; Having control over Afghanistan gave direct accessibility to the Persian Gulf for oil, it also was direct passage to its comrades in Iran. Giving them the ability to protect them from western influence or invasion. Because this besiegement failed they did not gain a new ally and lost its easy access to oil and their comrades in Iran.

Early Collapse of Soviet Allies in Europe The communist nation of the Soviet Union was built up of 15 unified Countries; the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, its neighbors to the west Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, its Southern European comrades of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, and its countries bordering the Middle East Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Not to mention its many allies behind the Iron Curtain. For example Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. To sustain its large population and because trading with outside western nations was out of the picture, the Soviet Union relied on its allies behind the Red Line for supplies and trade. So when its allies began to fall victim to revolutions and revolts the trade between the Union and its allies was split. These revolutions also gave hope to those who believed that they lived under oppression, starting a domino effect of collapse of communist nations seeking freedom from Russian placed puppet leaders. Poland is not always given credit for it but was one of the first to protest change and push for the freedom of its nation from the hold of the Reds. The Soviet Union’s allies for most split up rather easier than it ever could have predicted. This changed when the revolt began in Romania. Crippled with blood shed and civil war, the Romanians fought to remove their Totalitarian Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Killing him and his wife on christmas, The Soviet’s Allies began to disappear; Europe was no longer under their control and their economy was crushed from the loss of its partners in trade.

External Pressure Upon the Soviet Union The US has been against Communism forever. And during the Cold War the US was trying to stop countries going to communism and if they are communist, they try and get them to be democratic. Which explains that when Gorbachev came into power and came up with these ideas to strengthen the nation through democracy, the US was all for it, but they also put too much pressure on the country do to the United States paranoia. In 1989, George Bush met with the Soviet Union to negotiate an agreement called START which was an agreement on arms and nuclear missiles which would later come into effect when the US decided to go through with signing the treaty. The US sensed that the USSR was falling, so they signed the treaty and talked to Gorbachev, but they also worked more closely with Yeltsin because they either wanted the Soviets to become democratic or not be in existence anymore. And because the US did not trust the economy of the USSR, they opted to work with Gorbachev on the treaty and help Yeltsin in bringing the union down. Once the unsuccessful coup happened, it was downhill from there and the US did not do anything more to harm or hurt the USSR. But on December 25, it fell.

Internal Political and Economical Problems Due to democratization by Gorbachev, nation tore itself apart on top of their political problems Part of what led to the fall was there succession in the space race, which caused them to put a large amount of money in the race. Also the USSR invaded Afghanistan which caused the USSR to focus their time and money on the invasion and less of their time and money to other problems in the nation

Gorbachev and his Reforms, effects on the people and Political Leaders When Gorbachev became President, he introduced new policies that would ultimately lead to democratization. These reforms, such as the perestroika which simply meant to reconstruct the country of economical and political problems and a glasnost, which meant openness. Although these reforms brought about trouble in the country. Because now Gorbachev gave the country freedom to speak what is on their mind, there were riots in the street, protesters, and many other forms other violence to speak against what Gorbachev is doing to this country. These reforms not only hurt the people of the nation, but the political leaders did not care for these reforms either because of the violence it caused and made the economy worse than it was already.

Coup Against Comrade Gorbachev Boris Yeltsin slowly rose to power and became a traitor to the USSR because of the coup placed against Gorbachev. Hard line communists kidnapped him and forced him to resign from presidency. But because this coup was so poorly planned the only thing they did was force him in house arrest. and turned to be unsuccessful. The US played no part in the coup. However they did gets tips saying there would be one months before it happened. The US sent officials to warn Gorbachev to place security to watch out many times. It is even said that the last time the US sent a very serious phone call to him Gorbachev actually laughed and called them “naive Americans.” But this coup did not bring the Soviet Union down however it hurt them significantly because the country was already falling but this just hurt them worse because Yeltsin was out to get them and wanted them to fall.

Boris Yeltsin The leader of the newly freed Russian Federation, the man that saved Russia from communism and then pushed it into a depression arguably worse than what the Americans faced in the 20s-30s. Boris Yeltsin was born in the Soviet Union and was an avid communist, moving through the ranks of command with ease. He worked side by side with Gorbachev during the time of the signing of the New Union Treaty, which would overhaul the relations between the republics and the central government and when Gorbachev desperately tried to fix the Soviet Union but keep it communist. While Gorbachev past ideals and resolutions that did push for a better Union, Yeltsin wanted the country to completely split like the Americans wanted and were already pushing at Gorbachev for. Yeltsin listened to what Gorbachev wanted and agreed with him in private but then proceeded to go behind his back to push against all of his plans, even planning and executing a coup against Gorbachev. With his anti-Red policy gaining him favor he organized the split of the 15 republics and pushed for the eventual step down of the last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Gorbachev.