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My name is Joel Espinoza I am currently in the 7th period class of World History taught by Mr. Collins. This is my Hall of the Fall of the Soviet Union.

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Nationalism

ETHNIC FRAGMENTATION

The USSR used “Slav Nation/Pride” propaganda as justification in creating a unified Slav state. However, Russia was clearly the favored and dominant state, while others (including Turkish/Central Asian constituents) were oppressed. Russians clearly viewed themselves as superior, despite asking client states to buy into Slav unity/patriotism/pride, which became a transparent effort to draw other Slav nations in under a false romantic ideal. As a result, non-Russians were quick to separate from the Soviet Union when it entered troubled waters.

Image acquired at: http://tiigs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/USSR_Ethnic_Groups_1974.jpg

Main Hall

Citation:

CHERNOBYLOn April 25, 1986 an accident of

several mistakes at a nuclear plant site 15km of Chernobyl caused a massive explosion of the reactors at the plant and had an immediate effect on the environment near it which included the old town of Chernobyl. The accident caused the largest uncontrolled radioactive release into the environment ever recorded for any civilian operation, and large quantities of radioactive substances were released into the air for about 10 days. It was a direct consequence of Cold War isolation and the resulting lack of any safety culture.

Image acquired at: http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/chernobyl_25th_anniversary/bp2.jpg

Main HallCitation: "First Half of Chernobyl Cover on the Move." Chernobyl. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident/>. Website

USSR AND CHINA BREAK TIES

There were many reasons for the break up of relations between the two nations but the main causes of the broken relations is that for one Joseph Stalin thought very lowly of China’s communist leader Mao Zedong who was born in to a peasant family. Secondly there were ideological differences such as Nikita Khrushchev’s policy of peaceful coexistence and lastly the feeling of being exploited by the USSR during the Korean War and the Treat of Friendship (1950).

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Citation: "Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.worldology.com/Europe/Europe_Articles/causes_soviet_collapse.htm>.

GLASNOST

With the Soviet public becoming more disenchanted with their secretive government, Gorbachev attempted to compensate by committing to openness and transparency with the media. However, this backfired as the public learned of long-standing political cover ups revealing past and recent atrocities, missteps by leadership, social and health failures of the USSR and the true extent of national economic problems. This further eroded support for the regime.

Main Hall

Citation: "Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union." Causes of the Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.worldology.com/Europe/Europe_Articles/causes_soviet_collapse.htm>.

Image acquired at: http://www.cvce.eu/obj/cartoon_by_cummings_on_glasnost_24_august_1988-en-1fb4c805-0b4a-46e5-ae86-758692ff7cd4.html

PERESTROIKA

Economic reforms enacted by Mikhail Gorbachev to turn around the USSR’s failing economy. He added free market policies to help but this wasn’t much as it caused businesses to still fail and shortages were quite common due to low prices and in turn these prices were lowering profits so the incentive to produce sufficient quantities was removed.

Image acquired at: http://sobrehistoria.com/perestroika/

Back to RoomCitation: "The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union." The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.

MILITARY COSTS

In the middle 1980's about seventy percent of the industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military.

With the costs of the cold war affairs during the last years of the cold war the planners and decision-makers had to face the fact that it was economically impossible for the Soviet Union to increase the share of its output going to the military.

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Citation: "The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union." The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.

LACK OF IMPERIALISTIC TRADE

The Soviet Union never received imperialist profits to offset the cost of military production. Throughout the post-war period, Soviet trade with socialist partners has been structured to benefit the other socialist countries. Their purpose was reasonable: to build up the economies of the other socialist countries and create a thriving world and socialist economic system as an alternative to that of the capitalists. This was most marked in Soviet trade with Cuba and Vietnam, but it could be seen as well in trade with Eastern Europe which received Soviet oil at below-market prices. Thus the USSR is losing it’s profit as a result.

Image acquired at: http://origins.osu.edu/review/failed-empire-soviet-union-cold-war-stalin-gorbachev-new-cold-war-history

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Citation: "The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union." The Economic Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.

UNSTABLE ECONOMY TO BIG TO HANDLE The Soviet Union’s

economy had grown to a size large enough to the point where it became cumbersome to continue state planning.

This resulted in failed economic policies while thwarting innovation, and managers commonly made up fake numbers to show that quotas and goals were being met.

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THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

The Soviet-friendly Afghan government was threatened by anti-communist insurgents, which grew to outnumber the Afghanistan army. The USSR supplied tens of thousands of troops and war machines. However, support transformed into an invasion followed by occupation of various cities and towns, bogging the Soviets down into a guerilla war with an increasingly growing and zealous Afghan resistance movement. By the time of the Soviet withdrawal from 1987-89, nothing concrete had been gained, and the USSR left damaged and humiliated.

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THE KOREAN WAR

In 1949 most all the U.S. and soviet forces withdrew from the Korea’s and the USSR not thinking the U.S. would not intervene in foreign affairs in Korea they supplied communist North Korea with tanks, planes, and other kinds of military weapons. The plan was for the whole Korean peninsula to be communist ruled but it did not turn out this way as the U.S. responded by aiding south Korean forces and halting the total domination of the peninsula. By 1953 the peninsula divided at the 38th parallel and which still stands today with communist and very dangerous North Korea on top and democratic South Korea on bottom.

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Citation:

VIETNAM WAR

The soviet unions influence in the Vietnam War was actually very big even though the USSR was not openly acknowledged to rendering aid, the ideals of communism that developed during the Cold war usually came from the soviet union and this uprising of communism in Vietnam added to another struggle to the containment of communism in Europe and Asia. This also caused somewhat of a feeling of betrayal for China and the soviet union since the soviets had seemed to render more aid to Vietnam than to China during its time of need and the support that was given the Chinese were charged for it.

Image acquired at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Soviet_liberators_marching_through_the_Korean_county_road._October_1945.jpg

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Citation:

GREEK CIVIL WARThis civil war lasted from 1941-1971 this was

not all based on military actions it was the unrest between communist leaders and Nationalists parties. The communist leadership was of course backed by the USSR and the nationalist party was backed by Britain. The post war agreement between the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill agreed to give Stalin power in Romania if he gave Churchill power in Greece and with at this point the communist party having no one to back them up the government turned to a nationalist controlled government and then to having free elections that resulted unfortunately in communist rule again the U.S. then stepped in and rendered aid to help Greece reach a democracy that still stands today.

Image acquired at: http://hellenicgenealogygeek.blogspot.com/2010/04/life-magazine-1944-civil-war-breaks-out.html

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Citation: "The Cold War Museum." Cold War Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.coldwar.org/articles/40s/GreekCivilWar1945-1949.asp>.

SOVIET POLICY

The triumph of the October Revolution and collapse of the Russian empire increased national movements among the different nationalities that lived in the country. The Bolshevik government based its nationalities policy on the principles of Marxist-Leninist ideology. According to these principles, all nations should disappear with time, and nationalism was considered a bourgeois ideology.

However, the Bolshevik leaders saw that the revolutionary potential inherent in nationalism could advance the revolution, and thus supported the ideas of self-determination of the nations.

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NATIONS RESIST SOVIET REGIMEThe resistance of the various nations was not

strong enough to defend their independence. When the Ukraine National Republic declared independence in 1918, Soviet Russia began its aggression against the newly minted country. The resulting civil war in Ukraine continued for more than three years and ended with the annexation of Ukraine by Russia.

As the Soviet regime was established in Central Asia, native military units called Basmachi reclaimed those territories from the communists. During the fall of 1921 most of eastern Bukhara was under control of the Basmachi rebels. The Basmachi movement was divided, and its lack of unified leadership contributed to its defeat. But the resistance of the Central Asian nations against the Soviet regime continued until the middle of the 1920s.

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CHAUVINISM

Chauvinism was the Militant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism. In the official Soviet ideology there appeared the term "unreliable" nationalities or chauvinism. Accused nationalities were the subject of deportation and collective punishment, based on allegations of collaboration with the Nazis. As the result of this policy, the Volga Germans, Chechens, Crimean Tartars and dozens of smaller nationalities were deported from their homelands to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Under Stalin, fifty-six nationalities, involving about 3.5 million people, were deported to Siberia and Central Asia.

Image acquired at: http://ir.blogs.ie.edu/files/2011/06/soviet_aron_849272.jpg

Back to RoomCitation: "The Cold War Museum." Cold War Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.coldwar.org/articles/40s/GreekCivilWar1945-1949.asp>.

CIVIL RESISTANCE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA During the reign of Leonid

Brezhnev, and the Czechoslovakian communist leader Alexander Dubcek, there was loosening of controls on censorship to embrace socialism . This period of reform, when Czechoslovakia’s capital bloomed with new ideas, became known as Prague Spring. However, it did not survive the summer. On August 20, armed forces from the Warsaw Pact nations invaded Czechoslovakia. Brezhnev justified this invasion by claiming the Soviet Union had the right to prevent its satellites from rejecting communism, a policy known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Image acquired at: http://commieblaster.com/images/velvet-revolution/velvet+revolution.jpg

Back to RoomCitation: "First Half of Chernobyl Cover on the Move." Chernobyl. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident/>. Website