Communism from Crisis to CollapseIB History: Communism in Crisis

About the Unit...• In the unit we will compare how the two largest communist countries in the

history of the world, the Soviet Union and China, dealt with problems that challenged both communism and thus their existence.

• Topics

• Introduction

• Soviet Economy and Politics

• Soviet Economy and Politics under Gorbachev

• Gorbachev, Cold War, and Eastern Europe

• China and Struggle for power after 1976

• Chinese Economy and Politics under Deng Xiaoping

• Communism from Crisis to Collapse

What caused the collapse of

communism?• Communism collapsed because of economic and political weaknesses, not because of the United States.

• Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was gone, China had to radically alter its economic approach to survive, and only a handful of countries officially claimed their ideology as communism or socialism after 1991.

• There were clear internal economic and political weaknesses that contributed to the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the changes made in China.

• Government control of the economy

• Undemocratic political systems

• Despite clear attempts to contain the spread of communism and to provoke unrest amongst citizens in communist countries, the United States did not have the power to bring about changes within communist countries.

Collapse of Communism changes

history• The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe caused the end of the Cold War, which caused the end of an economic and political era that had lasted the previous 46 years, and quieted the capitalism vs. communism debate.

• The world no longer had two superpowers, but rather the United States was the long superpower.

• There were not longer two major military alliances throughout the world, but rather only NATO, the US led military alliance remained.

• Finally, some historians argued that this settled the “Great Contest” between “capitalism” and “communism” that started in 1917 when the Soviet Union was founded as the first communist country.

• However, with capitalism as the dominant economic system of the world today financial crises have occurred and income inequality is at its highest which leads other historians to argue that the “Great Contest” is not over.

Video

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ty4AmrO6EI

Summary

• Communism collapsed because of economic and political weaknesses, not because of the United States.

• The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe caused the end of the Cold War, which caused the end of an economic and political era that had lasted the previous 46 years, and quieted the capitalism vs. communism debate.