WH+42

...................................................................................................................................................... **World History II 43> ** media type="custom" key="29542021" align="right" =**Analyze the consequences of the Soviet Union’s breakup **=
 * <World History II 41 **

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//Focus Question: What were the consequences of the breakup of the Soviet Union?//
Post-Soviet States: 1) Armenia, 2) Azerbaijan, 3) Belarus, 4) Estonia, 5) Georgia, 6) Kazakhstan, 7) Kyrgyzstan, 8) Latvia, 9) Lithuania, 10) Moldova, 11) Russia, 12) Tajikistan, 13) Turkmenistan, 14) Ukraine, 15) Uzbekistan


 * The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 can be traced to three core issues:**

1. The //nomenklatura//, or the Soviet bureaucratic elite who were attempting to accumulate and privatize property and wealth, rather than protect what was already established.

2. Mikhail Gorbachov's mishandling of his political and economic reforms (specifically his market economy plans).

Click here for a song on the Fall of the Soviet Union from the History Channel. Click here for candid photos of the Soviet Union during its collapse. Students recreate Soviet Union break up. Map Detailing Soviet Union Break Up
 * The economic structure of the Soviet Union relied too heavily on agriculture to become a global market force.
 * The government spent large amounts of capital on building factories, while worker productivity could not keep up.
 * This article describes the failed economic policy of the Soviet Union.
 * Gorbachev introduced democratic policies, undermining the communist system of government.
 * Gorbachev liberalized the economy, permitting individual enterprise, giving factories more power, and legalizing co-operatives.
 * Read the details of Gorbachev's economic reform program called Perestroika.
 * Read the details of Gorbachev's political reform program called Glasnost.
 * Click here to read about Glasnost and Prestroika.
 * [[image:Multimedia.png]]Click here for a video specifically about Glasnot and Prestroika.

2011: Russians regret Soviet Union collapse, and in 2012: support dwindling for USSR but still 56%.

media type="youtube" key="4KRTPh1PAek" width="425" height="350"
 * Backlash against Gorbachev: Attempted Coup of 1991**

3. The power displacement resulting from Boris Yeltsin overthrowing the Soviet state to replace the president, Gorbachev.

Click here for a biography on Boris Yeltsin.

From Foreign Policy: Everything You Know about the Soviet Break Up in Wrong.


 * Consequences of the break up:**

//A. the development of market economies//
 * Prior to the break up of the USSR all the countries contained within this area were socialist economies.
 * A socialist economy is one in which the means of production are controlled by the state.
 * The market prices of all goods are set by the state
 * After the fall of the USSR, most of the region abandoned socialism.
 * wanted to make a move towards capitalism.
 * The way to do this is to attempt to implement a [|market economy].
 * A market economy is essentially the polar opposite of what this area had before.
 * In a market economy the means of production are controlled by the free market.
 * The free market is also what sets the prices of goods.
 * So Russia and the other former nations of the USSR were moving from a situation where the government set the prices to one where prices are set by the market.
 * The Transition to a Market Economy in Russia, from Foreign Affairs.
 * The Russian economy after the Soviet collapse.

//B. political and social instability// [|Events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall]. Click Here to watch NBC Footage of the Fall of the [|Berlin Wall]. For more on the Berlin Wall, see WHII.32.
 * the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.


 * Soviet violence in Baku, Azerbaijan against the Popular Front, an organization fighting for independence from the Soviet State, resulting in over 100 deaths.
 * Learn more here.

//C. the danger of the spread of nuclear technology and other technologies of mass destruction to rogue states and terrorist organizations// Click here to read about the atomic bombs that were lost after the USSR collapse.
 * The collapse of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics radically changed the world's economic and political environment.
 * No other conflict of interest dominated the post World War Two world like the Cold War did.
 * One man is widely associated with the ending the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev.
 * This however was not the biggest event Gorbachev was part of during his time in power.
 * The end of the cold war was a by-product of the other major event he was involved with.
 * That is the fall of communism in the USSR and the collapse of the USSR itself.
 * During 1994, the Russian Federation and NATO signed an agreement called the "Partnership for Peace".
 * It was hoped that this agreement would help forge ties between the old Warsaw Pact nations and NATO.


 * Effect on Cuba**
 * Fall of the Soviet Union had a huge impact on Cuba
 * Called the "Special Period"
 * Lost 80% of imports and exports
 * Lost import of oil, medicines, and food
 * People began to starve
 * GDP fell by 34%
 * Transportation and agriculture were slowed or stopped completely
 * Power outages were common
 * Malnutrition became more common

Click here for more information.

Article detailing the situation in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union.



Cohen, Stephen. The breakup of the Soviet Union ended Russia's march to democracy. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/dec/13/comment.russia
 * Sources**:

Brown, Archie. Reform, Coup, and Collapse: The End of the Soviet State. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/soviet_end_01.shtml http://www.historyorb.com/russia/intro.shtml