Soviet Union Dissolves

Source: Education Encyclopedia: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
From: World History, pp. 116–117
Date: 2000. Author: Chu Ming-chu

After Brezhnev’s death in 1982, the Soviet Union entered a period of transformation. In 1985, Gorbachev came to power and the government moved toward democratisation — the era of “glasnost” (openness) and “perestroika” (reconstruction). He permitted the formation of private cooperative enterprises and met with American Presidents Reagan and Bush to conduct arms-reduction negotiations. Gradually, cracks appeared within the Soviet Union. In August 1989, Poland held a citizens’ election, with a non-communist elected as prime minister for the first time. On November 9, 1989, a symbolically momentous event occurred: the Berlin Wall — built in 1961 between East and West Germany to prevent East Germans from fleeing westward — was torn down. Over the following months, communist regimes collapsed in succession. In December, anti-communist dissident Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia. The regime of Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown. Democratic governments were established in Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and East and West Germany announced reunification. Within the Soviet Union, the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia achieved independence in 1991. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev also announced his resignation. One by one, the former republics became independent states; twelve of them allied to form the Commonwealth of Independent States.

 

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External Links

• Dissolution of the Soviet Union (Wikipedia)
• Russian Scholar Recalls the Soviet Dissolution: The Impact Was Traumatic (Global Times)
• Why Did the Soviet Union Dissolve? What Were the Real Reasons? (Lecture transcript of David Kotz, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, at Tsinghua University)