Even though the USSR made decent missiles, jets, rockets and tanks, why did it completely fall apart?

Answer 1

i see your still waitnig for someone to say the u.s is greater than any country,typical, i bet you think you know the answer, well i hope it maes u feel better.......but i'll answer your question since im an expert in this field.the u.s.s.r haven't completly fallen apart,russia still dominates and influences it's neighbours,i.e ukraine, kazkistan, bellarrus,uzbekistan,etc, yes they are not part of the former u.s.s,r. but they are still coperating together.russia's economy has been boosted when the oil prices rocketed, they hve cancelled all forghn debts and also third world debts,which the u.s refuses to do.and if your asking if russia is finished well your totaly wrong,remember kosovo, when the russians went into prestina ,america asked the french and british commanders to attack the russians, so if your a superpower like the u.s are makeing them selves to be, they would hve attacked them selves.remeber russia's millitary is back to its former strenght, with modern weapons far superior then american ones. if america attacks iran u will see them in action.

Answer 2

People will tell you that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War by out-spending the Soviets on weapons. No one was more surprised than he (unless it was the C.I.A,) when it happened, and his spending on weapons was peculiarly concentrated in his home state of Calif.

The Soviet Republic fell apart not under weapons threats nor financial crises. It was popular feeling that pulled down the edifice. It was, after all, just an enormous Potemkin Village held together by propaganda and terror. What undermined all that was not diplomacy or missiles. It was blue jeans and rock music. It was the indisputable evidence of life in the West that bled through on TV, especially for the young. When the nationalism of the component nationalities was coupled with hope youth had of escaping the soviet culture constraints, the house of cards came tumbling down.

Of course there is more to it than this, but be sure that Reagan had and will be historically found to have had, very little impact on the stability of that regime. Hell, he thought in the fantasy idiom of the film industry where he was also a second rate performer

Answer 3

The USSR's land mass was too large for successful governing and the ethnic diversity of the population was too great; not to mention the various hostilities acquired by local patriots as the Russian regimes rolled over their homelands and cultures.

In a society there has to be a chance for individuality to blossom or the people lose incentive. Unfortunately the communistic theories of Lenin and Stalin, while seeming to be ideal, were not feasible in the working world. People have to be able to set goals for themselves and rise above their circumstances or nothing really gets done. If there is no individual initiative, the products and goods manufactured are sub par.

Answer 4

I am born Russian. It is not about the weapons that a country makes but about the people that live in the country. Would anyone be happy living in a place where the goverment doesn't want to listen to what people have to say. A country that doesn't listen to the people and makes a lot of weapons is bound to fall apart, even after they try to fix it. Look at China, they are the only communist country left and why?, because the goverment listens to what the people want and how they would like to live. Yes, there are certain restrictions that have to apply, but still the politics are different. In order to survive in the gorvement and be liked by the people you have to have a steel fist, a good ear and a heart of an angel, then people will like you.
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Answer 5

Actually, it probably was all the missiles, jets, rockets, and tanks that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The arms race with the West taxed its resources, and diverted energy away from the agricultural production that the U.S.S.R. really needed.

The republics inside the U.S.S.R. began to break away from the union in the 1980s because the overly political and bureaucratic Soviet government didn't know how to handle their problems. A failed coup attempt by Communist Party hardliners pretty much ended the Soviet Union.

Answer 6

There's a couple of reasons why the Soviet Union collapsed.

First, economics. Now, economics is tied in with certain political situations that I won't assume you know about, so let me explain.

The Soviet Union was made up of Russia and a number of other border states that were part of the Union (Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, et cetera). There were other countries involved too - puppet states. One of them was East Germany. East Germany was the economic powerhouse of the Soviet Union. In East Germany the city of Berlin was still divided between East and West Germany and the Berlin Wall was built to keep people from escaping to the west via West Berlin. In August of 1989 Hungary, as a result of a big electoral mistake on the part of the USSR, opened their borders with Austria. Austria was more than willing to allow East Germans (and Soviets) into their country and twice as willing to allow them to leave on planes headed west. The Berlin Wall was useless and in November it finally came down.

Not to put too much emphasis on the fall of the Berlin Wall - it was more a sign of the times than the cause of them. However, there is a lot to be said for the failing of East Germany. For example, in the 1980's East Germany was the largest producer of computers for the USSR. They were underpowered and hugely expensive, but they did the job. You'll hear history teachers talk about "guns and butter" saying that the Soviets were forced by the Americans to choose guns (weapons) over butter (food for the people) and caused the fall of the USSR, but it should be noted that in reality it was guns, butter, or computers. The Soviets simply couldn't keep up with the Americans when it came to computers, and spent ridiculous amounts of money making subpar computers. That, combined with the pressure to choose between weapons and domestic support, caused an economic crisis in the USSR. Add to that the loss of Hungary and the German "problem", and you have a situation that can't last.

Another important even leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union was the 1986 meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear energy facility. There were numerous attempts to cover it up, and the Soviets actually managed to keep it quiet for a few days (until a cloud of radioactive dust blew across a few neighbouring countries). When what had happened came under scrutiny, Gorbachev made a few promises he intended to keep. The two important words are Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost wasn't a new idea after Chernobyl, but it certainly was pushed a lot harder. It means "openness" - Gorbachev wanted the Soviet government to be honest and open with its people and the world. That was the first nail in the coffin. The second was Perestroika - Gorbachev's economic reform of the USSR, which began in 1987. So, keeping our events in chronological order, you've got Glasnost in '85, the Chernobyl disaster in '86, Perestroika in '87, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in '89 coupled with free elections in Hungary and the increasing pressure of the Solidarity Movement in Poland. You can almost see the chain of events that led to the collapse.

Hope this helped! Good luck!

Answer 7

Economics. They cost of "Keeping up with the Jonses", or in this case the US military expansion in the 1980's, essentially bankrupted their nation. This was the plan of the NATO nations, possibly as far back as the mid 1950's. That's why our military began "downsizing" a few years after the fall of the USSR, the number that had been inflated were no longer needed.

Answer 8

Military hardware does not guarantee a government. Soviet Union collapsed for many reasons. The major reason was economics. Next came the politics. The War with Afghanistan took a heavy toll on the Soviet people, economy and military. This requires an in depth study and and many scholars have written on it and many also have not agreed on the reasons. American Republicans like to give Reagan the credit. Others like to give Pope John Paul credit. In point of fact, the person who deserves a great deal of credit is Gorbachev with his perestroika and glasnost. Lech Walesa of Poland started the ball rolling with his workers' movement. In my opinion it was due to internal pressures (economic and political) and not to external pressure.

Answer 9

It lost it's grip on its people. With a Comunist goverment the goverment takes as much from people as they want. The problem with this is this. People stoped getting motavated and stoped making more money. The USSR wasn't able to get much money so they wen't bankrupt. The people saw this oppertunity to take down the goverment that had taken so much from them

Answer 10

The strategic arms race was more specifically the Star-Wars program was what broke the Soviets back. Communism can never out due Capitleism.