On December 26, 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decided to terminate the existence of the Union. All the republics that were part of it became independent and sovereign states. Mikhail Gorbachev announced the termination of his presidency the day before. Historians identify a number of possible reasons for the collapse of the USSR.
Instructions
Step 1
The political reason is that all more or less significant decisions in all areas of the life of the Soviet republics were made in Moscow, despite the fact that each republic had its own leadership. The incompetence of the central apparatus, the unwillingness to transfer part of the power to the republican governing bodies led to ineffective management, loss of time and resources, and discontent of the population and the leadership of the republics.
Step 2
In many republics, on the wave of Gorbachev's democratic reforms, centrifugal nationalist tendencies appeared and gained strength, interethnic contradictions began to emerge, aspirations for the earliest possible separation from the USSR and for the independent development of their country. Many internal national conflicts - the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Transnistrian conflict, the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict - are closely linked to the aspirations of national self-determination and self-government.
Step 3
Economic reasons, which consisted in the disproportionate development of the national economy. The arms race, the space race, the war in Afghanistan, endless assistance to the countries of the socialist camp demanded more and more monetary investments, which was reflected in the production of consumer goods. The military budget exceeded the social budget by 5-6 times. The technical lag in the field of civilian industry has long been evident and has only grown over the years. Economic disproportions were also expressed in the inequality of the development of the republics of the USSR, in terms of the shortage of goods and the development of the shadow economy.
Step 4
Gorbachev's reforms of the CCCP not only did not lead to positive results, but even accelerated the collapse of the Union. As already mentioned, democratic changes have led to national tensions. An attempt to close the technical gap with the help of a set of measures called "Acceleration" failed due to the weakness of the Soviet economy.
Step 5
Most of the consumer goods produced in the USSR were of the same type, simplified to the limit, made of cheap materials. Production efficiency was measured by the quantity of goods produced, and quality control was minimal. All this, together with periodic interruptions in food and consumer goods, together with various bans and restrictions, together with the constant lagging of the standard of living from the West, gave rise to dissatisfaction among Soviet citizens with the socialist way of life.
Step 6
The next reason is the artificially created "iron curtain": difficulties in traveling abroad, even to the countries of the socialist camp, a ban on listening to "enemy voices", difficulties in purchasing high-quality imported goods, a strict ban on currency transactions. All this, together with the insolvency of the Union's economy, gave rise to an active growth of the shadow economy - clandestine production and sale of various goods and services.
Step 7
Tough censorship in the media, hiding information about internal problems in the USSR and the life of Western countries, banning the publication of a number of works, unknown facts of Soviet history, hiding information about man-made disasters - all this was intensified by the US information war against the USSR.
