5 - fall of the ussr

Question 1

What were the long term economic weaknesses in the USSR?

Answer 1

• The 1983 Novosibirsk Report drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture caused by state inefficiency and inflexibility.
  –> Most of the ageing Politburo ignored it, apart from Gorbachev.

Question 2

How did Gorbachev target discipline in the workforce?

Answer 2

• The legal age for alcohol consumption was raised to 21 and the price of vodka tripled.
  –> As a result, tax revenues fell significantly which caused a shortfall in the budget, and illegal moonshine liquor was produced in large quantities.

Question 3

What were the features of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan?

Answer 3

• Focus was on science and research, especially engineering.
• Investment was wasted in construction projects, which often led to extra spending, and agriculture, which didn’t lead to increases in productivity.
• Factories relied on old equipment and became increasingly unproductive, and industry was slow to use new technology, with imports of foreign technology draining foreign exchange.
• ‘Superministries’ were set up to achieve better coordination of economic activity, however they failed.
• The main obstacle to Gorbachev’s reforms was the fact that they were to be implemented by the people whose power the reforms were trying to reduce. The military also resisted change and by giving into their demands, the budget and other sectors suffered.
• Between 1985 and 1986, the deficit rose from 2.4% of GDP to 6.2%.

Question 4

What were the features of economic perestroika?

Answer 4

• Joint ventures were encouraged from January 1987: foreign firms were allowed to establish businesses in the USSR (McDonald’s 1990).
• Law on State Enterprises, June 1987: state control over wages and prices was loosened. Factories were given the right to produce what they liked once the targets set by the state had been met.
• Co-operatives were legalised in 1988: these small scale private enterprises could set their own prices.

Question 5

What was the impact of perestroika?

Answer 5

• Food production only increased from a growth rate of 1% to 2% from 1986-87.
• Enterprises were still subject to state interference who decided the allocation of materials.
• Co-operatives resulted in corruption, with government officials demanding a bribe for permission to operate, and criminal gangs extorting the businesses.
• By the end of 1990 there were 3,000 joint ventures in the USSR but most were small-scale operations that had little impact on the economy.
• By the end of 1989 the Soviet economy was massively in debt.

Question 6

What was the impact of the State Commission on Economic Reform’s suggestion?

Answer 6

• In July 1989 the SCoER called for a move to a market-led economy.
• This split the Politburo, and Stanislav Shatalin’s 500 Days Program further created divisions between the central Party leadership and the leadership of national republics. This caused the economy to collapse.
• Soviet output declined by 20% between 1990 and 1991.

Question 7

What was the impact of glasnost?

Answer 7

• The population started to criticise the Party after details of Stalin’s mass terror, famine of the 1930s, damages to the Aral Sea and the Katyn Massacre were revealed.
• By 1989 there were 60,000 informal groups and clubs holding meetings to call for political reform.

Question 8

How did Gorbachev attempt to reform the Party?

Answer 8

• Gorbachev aimed to separate the Party and state at the 19th Party Conference.
• Gorbachev shifted power from the Party to Soviets by giving them more finance and resources.
• The Party was streamlined, with the departments of the Central Committee reducing from 20 to 9
• At the 19th Party Conference Gorbachev announced multi-candidate elections for the new Congress of People’s Deputies. Elections began in March 1989.

Question 9

What was the impact of Gorbachev’s failure to reform the Party?

Answer 9

• Alienating reformers
  —> Reformers like Yeltsin realised that the Party would not carry out their reforms.
• Development of factions
  —> Arguments between liberals and conservatives, and democratisation led to informal gatherings starting to emerge during the elections for the Congress of People’s Deputies.
• The abolition of Article 6 in March 1990
  —> This ended the political monopoly of the Party, and now other political parties could be established.

Question 10

How did the different Eastern European countries react to the ending of the Brezhnev Doctrine?

Answer 10

• Hungary (1988) and Poland (1989): the government allowed other political parties to contest elections.
• East Germany (1989): Berlin Wall dismantled on November 9th after Egon Krenz opened access across the wall.
• Czechoslovakia (1989): Civic Forum coordinated a campaign to remove the communist government, and consequently reforms were introduced and Vaclav Havel was elected.
• Romania (1989): Nicolae Ceausescu was arrested and executed December 25th 1989 after opening fire on demonstrations.

Question 11

What factors encouraged the growth of nationalism in the USSR?

Answer 11

• Environmental concerns: soil erosion damaged parts of Central Asia and industrial pollution was a major concern in the Baltic States. These issues provided a focal point for people to rally against.
• Insecurity of local Party leaders: Gorbachev’s reforms threatened the power of local Party leaders who then gave their support to local concerns.
• Culture and language: by the 1980s, the USSR was divided into 145m Russians and 141m non-Russians, who had a strong sense of their own identity.

Question 12

Where did ethnic clashes take place and how did they show the decline in power of the Party?

Answer 12

• Georgia 1989, Kyrgyzstan 1990, Romania, Nagorno-Karabakh 1988.
• Armenia announced that Nagorno-Karabakh was under its control after an unofficial referendum was held. Soviet intervention had little impact.

Question 13

How did the Baltic republics promote their nationalist feelings?

Answer 13

• Between April and October 1989, Popular Fronts were set up that became mass organisations and called for protection of their cultural traditions.
• In August 1989 a mass demonstration of independence was staged for the anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, with Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians holding hands in a human chain.
• In 1990, Popular Fronts won majority elections in all three Baltic republics, who proclaimed their independence.

Question 14

What were the limits of nationalism?

Answer 14

• The republics had limited experience of independence.
• The Soviet Union allowed a degree of autonomous control.
• The republics had been net-gainers of Soviet economic investment.
• A referendum in March 1991 indicated popular support for maintaining the USSR in all republics apart from Georgia and the Baltics.
• Gorbachev’s Union Treaty provided enough concessions for preserving language and customs to keep support for a union alive.