The Collapse of the Soviet

Union

By: Hayley K.

The Ruling Committee of the Communist Party

Tore Russia apart for three years

After November, 1917, many people opposed Lenins Bolsheviks.
They formed groups of monarchists, militarists and for a short time foreign
nations.
They were known as the Whites.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk showed the Whites how weak the Reds (Bolsheviks) were.
Lenin wanted peace at any price.
Whites looked to western powers for help.
Men joined to Red Army because Lenin feed the Army first.
Lenin used an iron grip on places the Reds controlled.
The groups who made up the Whites did not like each other and had trouble working together.
The Whites had a massive blow to their campaign when the Allies withdrew from Russia after
the end of WWI on November 11, 1918.
Lenin decided to cut his losses and agreed to the Treaty of Riga.

Designed to promote industrial growth and force an industrial revolution and expand industrial
production.
Soviet Union gave rights to women.
Thousands died from accidents, starvation or cold.
Housing and wages were terrible.
No consumer goods were produced.
Strikers were shot and slow workers could be executed or imprisoned.

Hitler hated Stalin and wanted the land in Eastern Europe.

The Russian Army collapsed under the German onslaught.
When the Russians retreated, they created a policy known as scorched
earth
where they destroyed anything that could be useful to the
Germans, such
as bridges, buildings and railways.
They also poisoned the water supply.
The Germans did not expect this.
When winter came, the Germans did not have enough warm clothing
because
Hitler thought the attack would be over before cold weather.
Many German soldiers froze to death.
This was a turning point in the war in Russias favor.
The defeat of Germany by the Russians was vital to the Allies overall victory in Europe.

The Soviet Union was trying to build a replica of the Fat Man bomb.
The West named it Joe-1.

On August 12, 1953, the Soviet Union detonated a hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk test
site in Northern Kazakhstan.
Work on the bomb started in 1946.
The project was organized by the First Chief Directorate under Lavrentil Beria, Minister of
State Security (MGB).
Project headed by Igor Kurchatov.
Bomb design was based on the layer cake concept.
As a result of the Cold War, the Soviet Nuclear Arms program became a number one priority of
Stalin and was continue after him.

The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellite nations signed the treaty establishing the
Pact.
Put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.
Treaty was signed in Warsaw and remained intact until 1991.

Worlds first artificial satellite that was successfully launched into space.
Size of a beach ball, 58 cm in diameter.
Weighed 83.6 kg/183.9 lbs.
Took 98 minutes to orbit the earth.
It started the Space Age.

Laika was the first dog/living thing to go into space on November 3, 1957.
The rocket was just big enough for her to stand or lay down.
The plan did not include a way for Laika to return home.
She lived six days into the trip because life-support systems failed.
Sputnik 3 came back into the atmosphere on April 14, 1958 but burned up.
Laikas death sparked animal rights debates but proved that living beings could enter space.

After WWII, Berlin was separated into East Berlin and West Berlin.
Families were divided overnight.
Thousands of East Berliners lost their jobs in West Berlin.
WIthin weeks the wire fence was fortified with concrete.
People who tried to escape East Berlin were shot on sight.
The area between was known as The Death Strip.
The Wall included 79 miles of fencing, almost 300 watchtowers, more than 250 guard dog
runs, 20 bunkers and 65 miles of anti-vehicle trenches.

The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crackdown on
reformist trends in Prague.
The action succeeded in stopping the pace of reform in the country.

SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty.

The United States learned that the Soviet Union had started to create a massive
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) that could reach the U.S.
In January, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that the Soviet Union had began to
construct a limited Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) defense system around Moscow.
The ABM system could allow one side to launch a first strike and then prevent the other from
retaliating by shooting down incoming missiles.
Johnson called for SALT to gain control of the ABM race.
President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the ABM treaty
and interim SALT Agreement on May 26, 1972 in Moscow.

SALT II initially focused on limiting and then reducing the number of Multiple Independently
Targeted ReEntry Vehicles (MIRVs).
At the November, 1974 Vladivostok Summit, President Gerald R. Ford and Brezhnev agreed on
the basic framework of SALT II.
This included a 2,400 limit on strategic nuclear delivery vehicles for each side; a 1,320 limit of
MIRV systems and limits on the deployment of new types of strategic offensive arms.

A nine year war during which about 1

million civilians were killed, 90,000
Mujahideen fighters, 18,000 Afghan
troops and 14,500 Soviet soldiers.

New General Secretary

Youngest leader since Stalin
Young people liked him better than old Bolsheviks did
Wanted to pursue new ideas

Means openness
Brought remarkable change
Churches opened
Dissidents released from prison
Books published by previously banned authors
Reporters investigated problems and criticized officials

Economic restructuring
Local managers gained greater authority over their farms and factories
People were allowed to open small private businesses
Gorbachev wanted to make a more efficient and productive economy

Chernobyl Power Complex is located 130 km North of Kiev,

Ukraine and 20 km south of Belarus.
As the result of a flawed reactor design operated by badly
trained workers at a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl.
Steam explosion and fires released at least 5 percent of the
radioactive core into the atmosphere and down wind.
Two workers died that night and 28 more within a few weeks
because of acute radiation poisoning.

Democratization by the gradual opening of the political system.

New legislative body elected.
Voters could choose from a list of candidates instead of approving candidates chosen by the
Communist party.

The people formed a 600 km human chain, sang songs of protest, national songs and Roman
Catholic hymns.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the wall in which he told Gorbachev to tear
down that wall.
Two years later people from both sides started to tear down the wall.
On October 3, 1990 East and West Germany were officially reunited after 30 years.

Being able to vote gave people more freedom and was encouraging to them.
They could vote for who they wanted to be part of the Communist party.

Assault on Lithuania and lack of progress hurt Gorbachevs

popularity.
People went to Yeltsin for leadership.
He was former Mayor of Moscow and a member of Parliament.
Yeltsin criticized the crackdown on Lithuania and the slow
progress of reforms.
Yeltsin was the Federations first directly elected President.
When Yeltsin resigned as President in 1999, he named
Vladimir Putin as Acting President.
Putin is still President.

During the August Coup Gorbachevs resignation was demanded.

Hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles came into Moscow.
Soviet people were no longer afraid of the Party.
They wanted their freedoms and were willing to defend them.
Protesters gathered at Boris Yeltsins office in the Russian Parliament.
Yeltsin declared that the people could keep their freedoms.
Troops ordered to attach Parliament Building but they did not.
It changed everything.

The Soviet Union collapsed after the August Coup failed. Also, because of the freedoms people
got under Gorbachevs leadership. I do not believe the Soviet Union could survive when the people
learned what it was like to have more freedom. They were no longer afraid of the Communist Party
and started to fight back from its restrictions. They continued to push for more participation in
their country and the old way of running the country could not continue.