Room
4
Curator
Welcome to the Fall of the Soviet Union
Museum
MUSEUM ENTRANCE
Room 2
Room 3
CURATOR
My name is Joel
Espinoza I am currently
in the 7th period class of
World History taught by
Mr. Collins. This is my
Hall of the Fall of the
Soviet Union.
Economy
ROOM 2
Proxy Wars
ROOM 3
Nationalism
ROOM 4
ETHNIC FRAGMENTATION
The USSR used “Slav Nation/Pride”
propaganda as justification in creating a
unified Slav state. However, Russia was
clearly the favored and dominant state,
while others (including Turkish/Central
Asian constituents) were oppressed.
Russians clearly viewed themselves as
superior, despite asking client states to
buy into Slav unity/patriotism/pride,
which became a transparent effort to
draw other Slav nations in under a false
romantic ideal. As a result, non-Russians
were quick to separate from the Soviet
Union when it entered troubled waters.
Citation:
Image acquired at: http://tiigs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/08/USSR_Ethnic
_Groups_1974.jpg
CHERNOBYL
On April 25, 1986 an accident of several
mistakes at a nuclear plant site 15km of
Chernobyl caused a massive explosion of
the reactors at the plant and had an
immediate effect on the environment
near it which included the old town of
Chernobyl. The accident caused the
largest uncontrolled radioactive release
into the environment ever recorded for
any civilian operation, and large
quantities of radioactive substances
were released into the air for about 10
days. It was a direct consequence of
Cold War isolation and the resulting lack
of any safety culture.
Citation: "First Half of Chernobyl Cover
on the Move." Chernobyl. N.p., n.d. Web.
19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.worldnuclear.org/info/safety-andsecurity/safety-of-plants/chernobylaccident/>.
Website
Image acquired at:
http://inapcache.boston.com/univers
al/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ch
ernobyl_25th_anniversary/bp2.jpg
USSR AND CHINA BREAK TIES
There were many reasons for the break up
of relations between the two nations but
the main causes of the broken relations is
that for one Joseph Stalin thought very
lowly of China’s communist leader Mao
Zedong who was born in to a peasant
family. Secondly there were ideological
differences such as Nikita Khrushchev’s
policy of peaceful coexistence and lastly the
feeling of being exploited by the USSR
during the Korean War and the Treat of
Friendship (1950).
Citation: "Causes of the Collapse of
the Soviet Union." Causes of the
Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.worldology.com/Europe
/Europe_Articles/causes_soviet_colla
pse.htm>.
Image acquired at:
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/ima
ges/1/1d/Ac.maostalin.jpg
GLASNOST
With the Soviet public becoming more
disenchanted with their secretive
government, Gorbachev attempted to
compensate by committing to openness
and transparency with the media.
However, this backfired as the public
learned of long-standing political cover
ups revealing past and recent atrocities,
missteps by leadership, social and
health failures of the USSR and the true
extent of national economic problems.
This further eroded support for the
regime.
Citation: "Causes of the Collapse of
the Soviet Union." Causes of the
Collapse of the Soviet Union. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.worldology.com/Europe
/Europe_Articles/causes_soviet_colla
pse.htm>.
Image acquired at:
http://www.cvce.eu/obj/cartoon_by_cummings_on_gla
snost_24_august_1988-en-1fb4c805-0b4a-46e5-ae86758692ff7cd4.html
PERESTROIKA
Economic reforms enacted by
Mikhail Gorbachev to turn around
the USSR’s failing economy. He
added free market policies to help
but this wasn’t much as it caused
businesses to still fail and
shortages were quite common due
to low prices and in turn these
prices were lowering profits so the
incentive to produce sufficient
quantities was removed.
Citation: "The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet
Union." The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet Union.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/
watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.
Image acquired at:
http://sobrehistoria.co
m/perestroika/
MILITARY COSTS


In the middle 1980's about seventy
percent of the industrial output of the
Soviet Union was going to the military.
With the costs of the cold war affairs
during the last years of the cold war
the planners and decision-makers had
to face the fact that it was
economically impossible for the Soviet
Union to increase the share of its
output going to the military.
Citation: "The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet
Union." The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet Union.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/
watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.
Image acquired at:
http://images.websterdictionary.org/wiki/b/b9/1
988-09.jpg
LACK OF IMPERIALISTIC TRADE
The Soviet Union never received imperialist
profits to offset the cost of military
production. Throughout the post-war
period, Soviet trade with socialist
partners has been structured to benefit
the other socialist countries. Their
purpose was reasonable: to build up the
economies of the other socialist countries
and create a thriving world and socialist
economic system as an alternative to that
of the capitalists. This was most marked
in Soviet trade with Cuba and Vietnam,
but it could be seen as well in trade with
Eastern Europe which received Soviet oil
at below-market prices. Thus the USSR is
losing it’s profit as a result. Citation: "The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet
Union." The Economic
Collapse of the Soviet Union.
N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/
watkins/sovietcollapse.htm>.
Image acquired at:
http://origins.osu.edu/review/faile
d-empire-soviet-union-cold-warstalin-gorbachev-new-cold-warhistory
UNSTABLE ECONOMY TO BIG TO HANDLE


The Soviet Union’s economy
had grown to a size large
enough to the point where it
became cumbersome to
continue state planning.
This resulted in failed
economic policies while
thwarting innovation, and
managers commonly made up
fake numbers to show that
quotas and goals were being
met.
Citation:
Image acquired at:
http://kuznetsovaa.edublogs.org/files/201
3/05/gorbachev-zu9i1w.jpg
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
The Soviet-friendly Afghan
government was threatened by
anti-communist insurgents,
which grew to outnumber the
Afghanistan army. The USSR
supplied tens of thousands of
troops and war machines.
However, support transformed
into an invasion followed by
occupation of various cities and
towns, bogging the Soviets down
into a guerilla war with an
increasingly growing and
zealous Afghan resistance
movement. By the time of the
Soviet withdrawal from 198789, nothing concrete had been
gained, and the USSR left
damaged and humiliated.
Citation:
Image acquired at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b
f/SovietInvasionAfghanistanMap.png
THE KOREAN WAR
In 1949 most all the U.S. and soviet forces
withdrew from the Korea’s and the USSR
not thinking the U.S. would not intervene
in foreign affairs in Korea they supplied
communist North Korea with tanks,
planes, and other kinds of military
weapons. The plan was for the whole
Korean peninsula to be communist ruled
but it did not turn out this way as the U.S.
responded by aiding south Korean forces
and halting the total domination of the
peninsula. By 1953 the peninsula divided
at the 38th parallel and which still stands
today with communist and very dangerous
North Korea on top and democratic South
Korea on bottom.
Citation:
Image acquired at:
http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_
graphics/blogs/bigpicture/koreanwar_06_23
/N9903144.jpg
VIETNAM WAR
The soviet unions influence in the Vietnam
War was actually very big even though
the USSR was not openly
acknowledged to rendering aid, the
ideals of communism that developed
during the Cold war usually came from
the soviet union and this uprising of
communism in Vietnam added to
another struggle to the containment of
communism in Europe and Asia. This
also caused somewhat of a feeling of
betrayal for China and the soviet union
since the soviets had seemed to
render more aid to Vietnam than to
China during its time of need and the
support that was given the Chinese
were charged for it.
Citation:
Image acquired
at:
http://upload.wik
imedia.org/wikip
edia/commons/5/
55/Soviet_liberat
ors_marching_th
rough_the_Kore
an_county_road.
_October_1945.j
pg
GREEK CIVIL WAR
This civil war lasted from 1941-1971 this was
not all based on military actions it was the
unrest between communist leaders and
Nationalists parties. The communist
leadership was of course backed by the
USSR and the nationalist party was backed
by Britain. The post war agreement between
the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill agreed to give Stalin
power in Romania if he gave Churchill power
in Greece and with at this point the
communist party having no one to back
them up the government turned to a
nationalist controlled government and then
to having free elections that resulted
unfortunately in communist rule again the
U.S. then stepped in and rendered aid to
help Greece reach a democracy that still
stands today. Citation: "The Cold War
Museum." Cold War Museum.
N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.coldwar.org/artic
les/40s/GreekCivilWar19451949.asp>.
Image acquired at:
http://hellenicgenealogygeek.bl
ogspot.com/2010/04/lifemagazine-1944-civil-warbreaks-out.html
SOVIET POLICY
The triumph of the October Revolution
and collapse of the Russian empire
increased national movements
among the different nationalities
that lived in the country. The
Bolshevik government based its
nationalities policy on the principles
of Marxist-Leninist ideology.
According to these principles, all
nations should disappear with time,
and nationalism was considered a
bourgeois ideology.
However, the Bolshevik leaders saw
that the revolutionary potential
inherent in nationalism could
advance the revolution, and thus
supported the ideas of selfdetermination of the nations.
Citation:
Image acquired at:
http://www.burdosclassroom.org/worl
dhistorywiki/images/3/34/Oc.jpg
NATIONS RESIST SOVIET REGIME
The resistance of the various nations was not
strong enough to defend their independence.
When the Ukraine National Republic
declared independence in 1918, Soviet
Russia began its aggression against the
newly minted country. The resulting civil war
in Ukraine continued for more than three
years and ended with the annexation of
Ukraine by Russia.
As the Soviet regime was established in Central
Asia, native military units called Basmachi
reclaimed those territories from the
communists. During the fall of 1921 most of
eastern Bukhara was under control of the
Basmachi rebels. The Basmachi movement
was divided, and its lack of unified
leadership contributed to its defeat. But the
resistance of the Central Asian nations
against the Soviet regime continued until the
middle of the 1920s.
Citation:
Image acquired at:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/w
ikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7
b/January_uprising.jpg/300px
-January_uprising.jpg
CHAUVINISM
Chauvinism was the Militant devotion to
and glorification of one's country;
fanatical patriotism. In the official
Soviet ideology there appeared the
term "unreliable" nationalities or
chauvinism. Accused nationalities
were the subject of deportation and
collective punishment, based on
allegations of collaboration with the
Nazis. As the result of this policy, the
Volga Germans, Chechens, Crimean
Tartars and dozens of smaller
Image acquired at:
nationalities were deported from their
http://ir.blogs.ie.edu/files/2011/06/sovi
homelands to Central Asia and
et_aron_849272.jpg
Kazakhstan. Under Stalin, fifty-six
nationalities, involving about 3.5
million people, were deported to
Siberia and Central Asia. Citation: "The Cold War
Museum." Cold War Museum.
N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.coldwar.org/artic
les/40s/GreekCivilWar19451949.asp>.
CIVIL RESISTANCE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

During the reign of Leonid Brezhnev,
and the Czechoslovakian
communist leader Alexander
Dubcek, there was loosening of
controls on censorship to embrace
socialism . This period of reform,
when Czechoslovakia’s capital
bloomed with new ideas, became
known as Prague Spring. However, it
did not survive the summer. On
August 20, armed forces from the
Warsaw Pact nations invaded
Czechoslovakia. Brezhnev justified
this invasion by claiming the Soviet
Union had the right to prevent its
satellites from rejecting
communism, a policy known as the
Brezhnev Doctrine.
Citation: "First Half of Chernobyl Cover on the Move."
Chernobyl. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. <http://www.worldnuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-ofplants/chernobyl-accident/>.
Website
Image acquired at:
http://commieblaster.com/images/velvet
-revolution/velvet+revolution.jpg