COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION
1950s-1991
A Gradual Decline:
1950s-1980s:
 Khrushchev’s De-Stalinization (began 1956)
o
 Lost Arms race w/USA
o
o
 Economic stagnation
o
o
o Black market answers demand for western goods
 Series of ineffective leaders (1970s-early 1980s)
 Events lower morale of Soviet citizens:
o Failed __________________________ (1979-1989)
 USSR attempts to
 US aid to
to combat soviets
o _________________________________ (1986)

o
Osama bin Laden







From
Joined fight alongside
to oust USSR
“war hero”
Establishes
(“
”) in 1989-1990
Witness US intervention in Middle Eastern affairs
Western Influence Dominates in USSR
Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991)
 Begins reforms to save USSR, but undermines communist control
o ________________ (“openness”)

o ________________ (“restructuring”)

o ________________



Death of the Soviet Empire
 1991 Coup d’etat
o
attempt to oust Gorbachev
o Coup put down by
 Advocates more reform than Gorbachev

o
o Ex. Hungary & Poland (1988); Bulgaria (1989); German
reunified (1990); Baltic states (1991)
 December 31st, 1991
o
o Independent republics (ex. Lithuania, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan)
o Boris Yeltsin elected president of Russian Federation
o ____ (
)
US as Only Superpower?
 US’ attempts to maintain good relationships



 Russia as a rising global power?
o