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What caused Soviet Union's collapse?

I have spent 5 full years reading countless amount of information trying to trace back, calculate the reasons and the roots of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have recently concluded my investigation, but I'd like to read as to what the talented TA community has to think.

Please vote and post your quick explanation/detail of your choice. Please be serious and professional. I'll respect the opinions / educated estimations/explanations, and might throw in some notes or replies. Thanks in advance.

Re: What caused Soviet Union's collapse?

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Originally posted by Magnetonium I have spent 5 full years reading countless amount of information trying to trace back, calculate the reasons and the roots of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have recently concluded my investigation, but I'd like to read as to what the talented TA community has to think. Please vote and post your quick explanation/detail of your choice. Please be serious and professional. I'll respect the opinions / educated estimations/explanations, and might throw in some notes or replies. Thanks in advance.

I am not all that familiar with the collapse of the Soviet Union. I do believe it was a combination of mismanagement and foreign intervention. The amount of interference the US and other 'western' countries exerted over affair related to the Soviet Union was in my opinion great and negative. If there had been less animosity from the international community I think the fate of the Soviet Union would have been different.

im not well versed in this either, but i was under the impression that the soviets just couldn't afford to maintain the arms race they had with the US and the economic conditions precipitated the collapse?

probably all of the above.

Re: What caused Soviet Union's collapse?

quote:

Originally posted by Magnetonium I have spent 5 full years reading countless amount of information trying to trace back, calculate the reasons and the roots of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I have recently concluded my investigation

you are obligated to share your expert opinion on this topic by writing a book.

i also think the russian government had pre-positioned explosive code in their economic system, which they detonated to bring down the USSR and enforce democracy on the populace and used this as an excuse to un-invade much of eastern europe.

Economic hardships...brought upon by an anti-capitalist attitude is what led to the implosion.

Bush & Co.

some how, some where.... it was Bush

I'm going to say Perestroika.

When they cracked opened the window of freedom to a people stifled by their government, they (the government) could not shut it again.

People got fed up with first the economic hardship. No one was supposed to have a profit motive, so no company operated for profit, nor was there the motive for innovation caused by competition. That all resulted in rampant curruption. The government essentially went broke.

[resists urge to make tasteless toilet paper comment]

Same here..

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Originally posted by Marc Summers probably all of the above.

I was gonna say something similar. It's probably a combination of some of the options. However, I have no idea, but would be very interested to hear the results of Magnetonium's investigations!

International trade. The citizens of the Eastern Block countries desired and demanded goods that could not be produced within the Warsaw pact countries, moreover, industry required equipment and machinery that could not be produced internally. These goods/equipment had to be purchased from non-Soviet states as the Soviets did not have the ability to supply them. Now, the governents could have simply denied the consumer demands but the industrial equipment was necessary to keep the manufacturing sectors alive. In order to obtain the required goods and equipment the Soviet states needed currency for the states supplying the goods. Ususally foriegn currency can be obtained largely through trade, however, no one in the west wanted anything produced in the east (other then oil which was simply insufficient to generate the monies needed), subsequently, there was a massive trade deficit for the Soviets. With no foriegn currency coming in through trade the only means of obtaining the money needed to purchase the required equipment was to liquidate the gold and precious metals reserves. This is exactly what the Soviet Union did. As the gold reserves started to dwindle it became clear to the USSR polit bureau that they could no longer continue to support their vassel states. Eventually, the Soviets decided to cut off the vassels and instructed them to fend for themselves.... they failed, which created a cascade effect of counter-revolutions that could not be stopped.

China has managed to stave off a similar fate by providing goods to the west and re-investing this in their manufacturing infrastructure... had the soviets done this they may well have survived.

Communism and totalitarianism.

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Originally posted by Shakka Communism and totalitarianism.

You do realize that those terms are mutually exclusive, right?

I agree with communism as well. That type of goverment thinking caused the Soviet Union's collapse.

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Originally posted by Moral Hazard You do realize that those terms are mutually exclusive, right?

Only if you think I'm arguing that they were coincidental.

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Originally posted by Shakka Only if you think I'm arguing that they were coincidental.

In truth neither ever existed in the Soviet Union.

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Originally posted by Moral Hazard In truth neither ever existed in the Soviet Union.

Then I guess it failed because the weather sucks ass.

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Originally posted by Moral Hazard In truth neither ever existed in the Soviet Union.

My history textbooks, professors, and countless documentaries say otherwise so I'd be happy to have your thoughts on how communism never existed in the Soviet Union.

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Originally posted by stevieboy32808 My history textbooks, professors, and countless documentaries say otherwise so I'd be happy to have your thoughts on how communism never existed in the Soviet Union.

Do you know how communism is supposed to work?

And no respectable text book or teacher would describe what was practised in the USSR as communism, Communism sure, but certainly not communism

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Originally posted by George Smiley Do you know how communism is supposed to work? And no respectable text book or teacher would describe what was practised in the USSR as communism, Communism sure, but certainly not communism

Now hang on--I capitalized Communism in my original response. We seem to have a misunderstanding going on here.

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Originally posted by George Smiley Do you know how communism is supposed to work? And no respectable text book or teacher would describe what was practised in the USSR as communism, Communism sure, but certainly not communism

lol

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Originally posted by stevieboy32808 My history textbooks, professors, and countless documentaries say otherwise so I'd be happy to have your thoughts on how communism never existed in the Soviet Union.

Well true communism in its end state, as envisioned by Marx, has never really existed. Marx predicted several stages of communism to get to the end state. The first stage was called the dictatorship of the proletariat which is a temporary point between capitalistic society and classeless/stateless communist society, the main objective being that the proletariat replace the bourgeoise as the ruling class and strip private ownership of productive property. Then somehow, with a magic wave of the wand, the dictatorship of the proletariat would guide society to a point where production is guided by need and thus the state can be abolished.

The Soviet Union never got to that point. It ended up being a state capitalist country that espoused socialism but ran the economy according to capitalistic accounting such as profitability and markets.

I suppose the greatest effort to reach actual communism was undertaken by China in the cultural revolution and we all know how well that went (yes I know the ultimate goal was for Mao to consolidate power, but the policies adopted to acheive that goal included elements to eliminate all bourgeoise or percieved bourgoise traits from society).

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