Lecture 18: Collapse of
the USSR
May 7, 2010
Romania under Ceausescu
The Wise Shaper of
The Nimbus
The Creed Helmsman Victory
The Architect
The Son of the Sun
The Visionary
A Danube of Thought
The Tallest Mast
Costs of the Cold War
Total cost of the Cold War (1948-1991) for US
in 1996 dollars = $13.1 Trillion.
US Average annual military spending during
Cold War = $298.5 Billion
Shevardnadze: 50 percent of Soviet national
product was spent on defense, on arms and the
armed forces
Casualties: millions
Historical Lessons from the Cold
War
Dominant narrative in U.S.: “We won.” Why? Reagan
stood up to the USSR.
We spent them into oblivion
But Soviet decline started long before
Reagan didn’t plan to end Cold War, USSR
Gorby selected for internal reasons
But Reagan enabled Gorbachev to withdraw troops—
by being reassuring, not threatening
What if he had tried “rollback”?
What lessons for today?
Back to the USSR:
Problems at Home
Economic stagnation
Corruption
Hollowness of Communist ideology
“Social contract” under threat
Perestroika (1986)--restructuring
Command economy inefficient
Bureaucracy can’t deal with increasing complexity
No competition low quality
“We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us”
Decentralize decision making
Free wages and prices
Problems: opposition; took too long
Glasnost (1988)--openness
Allow (limited) criticism to improve economy
Gradually eased censorship
Independent civic organizations formed
Elections to Congress of People’s Deputies
Nationalist movements formed, demonstrated
Nationalist Mobilization
The Unraveling
Lost control over economy
Lost control over republics
Gorbachev tried to salvage looser union
Divided between reformers, hardliners
August 1991 coup…failed
Reformers prevailed, Gorbachev resigned,
republics declared independence…
The End of Bipolarity: Implications
Changed the international distribution of power
unipolarity
End of competing models
3rd world finally on its own
What next…?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRTPh1PAek&f
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