why and how did the USSR fall?

Question

who was responsible? and if socialism is supposedly a good stage to live by, why did it collapse in favor of capitalism?

yeah, yeah, this has probably been asked before, but i just wanna see if anyone can prove that they know what they're talking about (or you know, be convincing enough...)

Answer 1

why and how is a very complexed question

lets look at a few things most people over look when they look at the Soviet Union

During the Cold war the Soviet Union planned a invasion of europe. That is a given fact.

in 1961 they caused the cuban missile crisis. we threatened invasion which probably would have started world war III if they hadnt backed out. The Soviets had a perfect chance to start either a nuclear war or a conventional war. they backed out.

In 1980's Russia invades Afghanistan but never completly defeats the rebels there. They pull out eventually.

1984-1985: In what became known as the Arms race, Russia and Reagen went head to head developing weapons upon weapons upon weapons.

Conclusion: Russia never had the economy (ever) to fully sustain itself. The worst part came when Gorbachev removed government control from the factories, and gave the people the chance to make the money instead of the state.

Russia could never afford the costs of day to day fighting in a major war. And it cost them every chance they tried. They were forced to stop every campaign they started.

Answer: the Soviet Union bankrupted itself by 1985-86 when it ran out of money trying to become the biggest military in the world and most powerful. It was obessed with being better then the United States. It was better at one point.

In a study done, in 1985 it was said that if Russia could have started world war 3 with a proper economy, our military would have been defeated. Their technology was a lot better and better trained then most of the world. However it failed to keep its economy strong.

Gorbachev, realizing the failure of keeping a strong union desolved it.

Answer 2

Well, lets see, there are a variety of answers describing the reason the USSR fell. Of course economic problems contributed to the decline with few Communist states able to trade. China and Russia had poor relations so there was little if any trade between them.

What contributed to the collapse of the USSR economy could have been the rising of a nationalist movement in Poland begun by Lech Walesa. You see, unions were actually banned by Soviet controlled Poland, but in the 1980's people began to take more action. The rebellous Lech Walesa began a union which he named Solidarity. Eventually, his union evolved into a polical party for change in Soviet influenced Eastern Europe. Finally in 1989, Poland was able to hold elections. The point of this is that after Poland began movement toward democracy, the rest of Eastern Europe followed. With Soviet control gone by 1990, the USSR was bound to fall.

Another interesting source of the fall of the Soviet Union, could be directed at the struggle in Afghanistan beginning in 1979. This struggle concerned the Soviet backed communist Afghan government and the rebel Taliban fighters. Most people these days say the U.S. was hypocritical to attack Afghanistan referring to how the U.S. (weapons) supported the Taliban during the soviet invasion. According to Upshur, the failed soviet invasion of Afghanistan "was a major blow to the already weakened Soviet Union and contributed to its collapse" (942).

I don't think anyone would say Socialism is absolutely good by any means. Now we say Communism, but remember that the Soviet Union was never absolutely Communist. The eventual aim of the USSR was complete Communism, but with so few partners to trade with, the it collapsed. China's Communist party didn't want to travel the same path as Russia, so its markets became more capitalist. I don't know if it helped, but I hope you learned something new. :)

Answer 3

Ultimately because of the courage of Mikhail Gorbachev, who realised that he had an historic opportunityto his people and the world a favour by ending the soviet system before it imploded.

He had a choice of giving increased freedom to Poland or sending in the tanks as was done in Hungary in 1955. nce alittle freedom was givenm, it emboldened people to ask for more - and for others to demand the same rights as the poles. Whether Gorby knew this would happen or not will be debated by historians for generations.

Many factors were involved - the disastrous war in Afghanistan being one, the increasing difficulty of keeping up the arms race with the USA another - and, believe it or not, "baywatch" was a third.

Western television gave many people behind the iron curtain a view of life in the west - not a very accurate view, as it didn't show slums and poor areas, but one that showed that many people in the west lived in luxury that only the politburo managed in the Eastern bloc. The most popular black-market tapes were of Pamela Anderson et al.

Answer 4

first , The USSR was never a socialist state they were a totalitarian state.
Second , to maintain a totalitarian state you have to be willing to kill people , lots of people.
Third , Russians at the time just weren't willing to kill lots of people for there leaders.
Forth , They didn't favor capitalism. They favored democracy. Very few Russians will tell you they like capitalism. Most are far worse off now than when they were under Communist control.

Answer 5

It simply went broke. There's no one answer to this. They had fighting all over the fronts. They were in Afghanistan for over twenty years. The men in the army were deserting faster then they could be enlisted, not many were paid. They had no fuel for their submarines and they sat in the dry docks.
The store shelves were empty, stories of no toilet paper, no meats, no bread due to lack of flours.

I want to add, Poland, as one thought, was never under Soviet rule. Poland was the only country the Soviets couldn't control so, they were left alone.

Stories of people standing in lines for groceries and waiting sometimes for days, only to find one or two items on the shelves and, very expensive.

Answer 6

They under no circumstances made the committment to socialism, they carried out a hybrid..additionally socialism cant paintings except the full international is socialist or you're thoroughly self maintaining and dont could commerce with different NON socialist countries

Answer 7

a lot storic reason have bring to fall urss,But do not underestimate the Christian conscience and diffuse Pope John Paul II, ........Do not be afraid and open the doors to Christ.