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Christmas Day 1991 Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev announced we are
living in a new world and with these
seven words the Soviet Union was
dissolved and Gorbachev stepped down
from his post after 40 years of the Cold
War and the threat of a nuclear
holocaust the world's largest communist
state broke up into 15 independent
republics meaning the USA was now handed
the accolade of new world superpower at
its strongest the Soviet Union had over
5 million soldiers stationed around the
world and they all stepped down without
a shot being fired under the new regime
today we will explore exactly what came
to pass in this episode of the
infographic show how and why the disso
Viet Union collapse in the late 1980s
the Soviet Union appeared to be somewhat
of a powerhouse exhibiting a rigid
recovery from the invasion of
Afghanistan and with an economy that
appeared to be performing well the union
appeared from the surface as powerful as
it was back in the 1950s but looks can
be deceiving
beneath the facade the Soviet Union was
splitting apart and it had been
happening for decades although there
were many factors at play some reasons
were as follows Mikhail Gorbachev rose
to power in 1985 with plans to reform
the nation with a hybrid communist
capitalist system similar to modern-day
China he also planned to ease
restrictions on freedom of speech and
religion before this millions of Soviets
were arrested for speaking out against
the state however his plan backfired as
he discovered that the loosening of
control over the people and reforming
political restrictions meant the people
used their newfound powers to critique
the government until they eventually
succeeded in pushing for a reform this
brand of communism had operated
historically on tight central control
the loosening of control led to the
abandonment of the entire construct back
in the days of Vladimir Lenin Leon
Trotsky and Joseph Stalin the Soviets
were led with strong ideological beliefs
type to Marxism by the 1960s
the radical policies of the past leaders
were abandoned in favor of a more
conservative approach by the 1970s the
Soviet people noticed the rise of the
political elite who lived in posh homes
aid in fancy restaurants and spent their
vacations at luxury ski resorts while
millions of average joe's died from
starvation younger generations were less
keen to toe the line as their parents
had and were willing to step forward and
protest for change these newer
generations were more in tune with world
events and slowly but surely began to
pull at the strands of the political
regime Cold War tensions with the United
States rose in the 70s and 80s and with
Ronald Reagan's leadership and the
resulting increase in military spending
it seemed that the u.s. had won the
nuclear standoff the Strategic Defense
Initiative or SDI claimed to be able to
blast Russian missiles as they fell
meaning in theory the US could win the
long-running battle of whit's Reagan
also managed to isolate the Soviets from
the rest of the world economy and
without export sales in oil the Soviet
economy was severely weakened and
limited the Soviets were unable to turn
a corner and in the 1980s bread lines
were commonplace as poverty soared many
people didn't have basic clothing or
shoes and under these conditions it is
only a matter of time before the people
call out for regime change and then
there is the nations structure itself
when you have 15 radically different
Republic's under one flag with different
ethnicities cultures and languages there
are bound to be inherent tensions 1989
nationalist movements brought about
regime change in Poland and
Czechoslovakia as the Soviet satellite
nations began to split away as these
nations began to pull away the central
apparatus was weakened until it finally
collapsed due to all these factors by
1991 the Soviet Union was unable to
maintain a normal functioning economy
and run a huge military simultaneously
Gorbachev unwilling to go to war like
his predecessors Lenin and Stalin might
have done instead pulled the plug on the
military and the 15 republics went their
separate ways although a devoted Marxist
Gorbachev was an independent thinker who
respected the need for reform and
planned a restructuring of the economy
this along with his vision to lessen the
control held by central government and a
move towards uncensored media laid the
path for total reform the seeds were
planted and the Soviet Union was no more
so today we looked at the downfall of
the Soviet Union but if you want to know
more about specific stories during the
Cold War we suggest listening to an
audio book on audible called stalking
the red bear the true story of a US cold
war submarines covert operations against
the Soviet Union audible is offering our
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go to audible.com slash infographics or
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you think can communism work as a
political model for the countries that
still operate under this system what is
the future hold for them let us know in
the comments also be sure to watch our
other video called most common ways
people died in the Middle Ages thanks
for watching and as always don't forget
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