The Soviet Union was regarded as a powerful political force throughout the world in the 1970s and 1980s.
Nobody could have imagined that the Soviet Union would eventually dissolve up into fifteen different
countries, six years after Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the leader of the Soviet Union. His efforts to
transform the Soviet system into a democracy rapidly backfired. As a result, due to the fall of the USSR, it
had an impact here in South Africa on the National Party and the African National Congress, who had
benefited greatly from European assistance prior to 1989. This essay will try and prove that the fall of the
USSR and communism with it would play an important role in ending Apartheid here in South Africa.
The Soviet economy had been suffering for years from high levels of military spending, a lack of natural
resources and mounting corruption. The Soviet Union's explosive industrial and technical development
came at the price of its progressively declining agricultural sector throughout the 1970s. Soviet Russia was
unable to grow enough grain by the 1980s to feed its own citizens. Moscow was reliant on grain imports,
particularly sizable quantities from Western nations. This would lead to an increase in trade deficit which
the Soviet Union couldn't cope with. The Soviet economy suffered yet another setback in April 1986 when
a catastrophic accident occurred at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.This would lead to the USSR having to
spend billions of Rubles in order to contain the radiation in Chernobyl and many animals as well as
agricultural land was destroyed. The Soviet Union's lengthy occupation of Afghanistan was another strain
to its economy. In an effort to support the communist, pro-Soviet government that was under threat from
an internal uprising, Soviet forces entered Afghanistan in December 1979. Thousands of Russian soldiers
and supplies were invested into Afghanistan in a short amount of time. The Soviet Union found the
intervention to be extremely expensive in a variety of ways. Due to these extreme expenditure the USSR’s
economy suffered and the next leader Mikhail Gorbachev would end up implementing new measures to
prevent the collapse of the countries economy.
Mikhail Gorbachev, a longstanding member of the Communist Party, became the USSR's president in
March 1985. Gorbachev inherited a stagnating economy and a broken political system which made change
all but impossible. Two sets of policies were established by Gorbachev in an effort to make the USSR a
more affluent and effective country. Political openness, or Glasnost, was the first of them. Since Joseph
Stalin, the Soviet Union had been subject to media and information restrictions. While related to the right
to free speech and expression, the main goals of this policy were to open up the Union's administration.
The Soviet populace was informed about the allegedly higher standard of living in the United States and in
Western Europe and as well as western popular culture. Glasnost's adoption throughout the USSR and its
satellite governments led to criticism of the political system of communism. To cut down on the expenses
of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's commitments to these governments, Gorbachev gave the satellite
states freedom to pursue their own interests. Free elections were demanded by the public, and as a result,
non-communist administrations were established in Poland and Hungary. As the Eastern Bloc liberalized,
East Germany became more isolated within it. The communist party's leaders in East Germany responded
by promising more changes and ousting the leader who was planning to use greater force against these
protestors. The Berlin wall would fall following a series of protests that left the Soviet-led communist bloc
hanging on the edge of collapse and helped create a new global order. Germany would become reunified
once again. As a result, waves of peaceful protests spread throughout the Soviet Union and other
communist nations in Eastern Europe, having a domino effect. Following the declaration of independence
by the Baltic States from the Soviet Union, other countries, including Russia, did the same. Gorbachev used
force in the beginning of 1991. Despite using tanks to slaughter demonstrators in Lithuania, Soviet Special
Forces were unable to stop these domino effects. In the lengthier process of decolonizing the world, the
fall of Stalin's ideological empire resulted in the rise of sovereign nations from the ruins of the Soviet Union.
Glasnost was a failure as it didn’t succeed in saving the Soviet economy but rather ruining it. The result of
Glasnost was when Soviet Satellite states started to gain their independence due to a rise in nationalism.
As a result, both the Communist Party and the people of the Soviet Union turned against Gorbachev.
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The second set of Gorbachev's reforms in the USSR were known as perestroika, or economic restructuring.
According to Gorbachev, the best strategy for reestablishing the Soviet Union was to release the
government's grip over the economy. Workers were now permitted to leave the workplace in protest of
their pay and working conditions in an effort to influence change. Gorbachev promoted international
investment in Soviet businesses as well. Multicandidate elections and the secret ballot were used in some
elections for party and government positions. Some limited free-market processes were also brought into
the Soviet economy under perestroika, but even these modest changes faced fierce opposition from party
and government officials who were hesitant to give up their hold on the country's economic life. Another
outcome of Perestroika was the withdrawal of soviet troops from Afghanistan.Thus, the withdrawal of
troops in Afghanistan would prevent further expenditure in Afghanistan and could potentially help the
USSR’s economy recover from all the extensive expenditure the Soviets were investing in
Afghanistan. These changes, nevertheless, took a while to show results. Gorbachev's measures appeared
to have merely produced rationing, shortages, and never-ending lines for scarce items. People thus
became increasingly irritated with his regime. Glasnost and perestroika were not the only factors leading
to the collapse of the USSR, the forces they unleashed severely weakened a system that was already in
decline and accelerated its downfall.
The fall of communism had a tremendous effect on the whole world, but South Africa saw it as particularly
crucial. According to the National Party of South Africa, the apartheid system had been deterring a
communist takeover over the nation for years. PW Botha and the National Party took advantage of the
ANC's attempt to capture power in South Africa to spread fear throughout the West. The National Party,
which had a strong anti-communist stance, claimed to be facing a "Rooi Gevaar," or "Red Threat”. In order
to persuade countries like the USA and Britain that if South Africa became a communist state, the rest of
Africa would follow and turn against them, these scare tactics were used and were successful in persuading
the west in supporting them. The British and American governments continued to send military weapons
and training to the South African regime while denouncing apartheid with public statements and financial
sanctions. The United States and Great Britain lost their excuse for continuing to assist South Africa when
communism was no longer seen as a threat, and they began to apply more severe sanctions on the country
and publicly condemned the apartheid regime. Due to the economic and social withdrawal of western
assistance, the NP had little international support.
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was another event that encouraged the National Party to start negotiations
with the ANC. The South Africans decided to participate in the Angolan conflict as the Apartheid
government wanted to remove a communist presence near its borders as well as to get rid of SWAPO. The
combat in Angola was one of the largest conventional battle fought on the African continent since World
War II. The grip of UNITA over southern Angola was maintained after a significant MPLA onslaught against
Mavinga was defeated by UNITA and its South African allies. Operation Hooper was an effort by the SADF
and UNITA to encircle and eliminate the remaining MPLA soldiers before they could set up new defensive
positions east of Cuito Cuanavale. The MPLA were shielded in this location by the topography and huge
minefields. Additionally, they received reinforcements from Cuban forces. Realizing that the military was
not as strong as the South African administration had believed forced them to adopt a new viewpoint.
After the SADF left Namibia hostilities ended, and a formal peace treaty was signed in Ruacana. In 1988, in
New York, a peace agreement was ultimately signed, resulting in the departure of all external combatants
and the independence of Namibia. The non-communist takeover in Namibia made it easier for the NP to
negotiate with the ANC since it became evident that African leadership did not necessarily imply
communist leadership.
The fall of the USSR also caused the ANC to modify its position and prompted talks between the ANC and
NP. The fall of the USSR presented economic and ideological difficulties for the ANC. In order to further the
cause of liberation in Africa, ANC militants in Umkhonto We Sizwe frequently collaborated with Angolan,
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Mozambiquen, and other communist nationalists after receiving their training in Moscow. Although not
explicitly communist, the ANC received financial and military backing from the USSR thanks to its
connections to the SACP. The USSR would also support exiled ANC members with education and jobs. By
the 1980s' end, the Soviet Union was experiencing a political and economic crisis, making it harder for the
Soviet Government to defend its financial investments in Africa. The ANC could no longer carry on fighting
the apartheid government due to the USSR no longer supplying them with money, weapons and training.
The ANC was forced to enter into discussions with the NP due to the ANC having to reevaluate its position
on communism and the ongoing warfare. These talks between the ANC and the NP may had never
occurred or apartheid ending so soon if it was not for the fall of the USSR and the ending of the cold war
with it.
The Soviet flag made its final appearance over the Moscow Kremlin in 1991. A lengthy, fearful, and
occasionally murderous period in global history came to a peaceful conclusion. Due to the fall of the USSR,
it had an impact in South Africa. As a result, South Africa’s inhumane Apartheid regime would come to an
end and South Africa would have its first democratic elections in April 1994. South Africa’s dark past had
officially ended and began the new chapter in Sout African history.
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