What explains the fall of the USSR from 1985-91
Timeline – 1985- 1991
1985 – Gorbachev becomes general secretary
Feb 1986 – at 27th party congress Gorbachev attacks Brezhnev era as years of stagnation
April 1986– Chernobyl nuclear accident
1986 – twelfth five year plan is launched
1987- law on state enterprise
October 1987 – Yeltsin attacks Gorbachev’s reforms at plenum of the central committee
November 1987- Yeltsin dismissed as First Secretary in Moscow
January 1988 - legislation of co-operatives
February 1988 – Yeltsin removed from politburo
June 1988 – 19th party conference: principle of multi party elections agreed
October 1988 – popular fronts formed in the Baltic republics
November 1988- Armenia announces its control over Nagorno – Karabakh
March 1989- elections to congress of the Peoples Deputies
April 1989 – demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia
May 1989 – Gorbachev elected Chairman of the supreme soviet
October 1989 – 500 dats programme calls for rapid transition to a market economy
November 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall
March 1990 – article 6 repealed: way opened for new political parties to be established
March 1990 - Lithuania proclaimed independence from the USSR
July 1990 - Yeltsin resigns from the communist party
April 1991 – Georgia declares independence from USSR
June 1991- Yeltsin becomes president of Russia
August 1991 – coup by conservatives in the Party attempt to seize power and USSR recognises
independence of the Baltic states
November 1991 – Yeltsin rejects Gorbachev’s new Union Treaty
December 1991 – Dissolution of USSR
How important were economic weaknesses in bringing about the fall of the USSR
Long term economic weakness
- When Gorbachev became General secretary in 1985 the Soviet economy was in decline
- The weaknesses of the Soviet economy had been underlined in the Novosibirsk report of
1983 by Tatyana Zaslavskaya
- The report drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture caused by state inefficiency
and inflexibility
- The report was only distributed in the Politburo but most of the ageing members in the
Politburo did not understand the report or chose to ignore it
- The exception was Gorbachev, he realised reform was necessary if the USSR was going to
continue to meet the needs of the people
- However, he was unsure on how to go about reform when he finally came into power 2
years later
- A period of trial and error followed which resulted in the economy being plunged into
disruption which placed soviet government in a vulnerable position
Gorbachev’s initial economic reform: discipline and accelerations
, - Gorbachev’s initial steps were cautious and he began placing like minded people into key
positions (eg Boris Yeltsin) and dismissing those who he felt would stand in the way (eg
Grigory Romanov)
- After this, he introduced a campaign to attack the problem of alcoholism (which accounted
for 15% of household spending) in order to try to increase productivity as many workers
turned up drunk.
- A number of measures were introduced
o Legal age of consumption was raised to 21
o Number of shops which could sell alcohol were reduced
o Vineyards were destroyed and distilleries tripled
- These reforms led to the price of vodka tripling
- This originally gained some benefits but in the long term had a negative effect as the tax
revenues gained from alcohol fell and caused a shortfall in budget
- There was an explosion in the market of moonshine
- Clear that a small reform over drinking would fix the underlying economic problems
Twelfth five year plan
- Gorbachev felt the key issue was how to improve the level of growth in the economy
- Government used traditional method by increasing investment and controlling the central
planning hoping to increase production levels in hopes of economic growth
- The main focus of the twelfth five year plan was to focus on science and research however it
contained weaknesses
o Investment in USSR was largely spent on construction which usually cost much more
than anticipated and therefore used much more money
o Soviet industry tended to use old and out of data technology which became
increasingly unproductive
o Soviet industry could not afford to import technology as they needed to import food
o Agricultural industry was using lots of investment with little rise in productivity
o As many of the five year plans before them, the twelfth five year plan still focused
on quantity over quality which led to un usable products
- Gorbachev’s intended policy to accelerate the economy did not address the fundamental
weaknesses of the economy
- There was also a huge amount of opposition from both party and the state planning agency,
Gosplan
- Gorbachev also attempted to streamline the state apparatus in attempt to avoid waste
however instead of decentralising, as would have been more effective, he created super
industries which were meant to bring better co ordination to economic activity
- However, these ‘super industries’ were unable to achieve these goals as they came up
against severe resistance
o For example: changes in investment led to resistance from military who were
pushing for new investment in military technology and this could only happen if
investment was decreased in other sectors
o This led to the government going into a deficit (which could only be short term and
was unsustainable)
o Between 1985-86 deficit in economy rose from 2.4% of GDP to 6.2% of GDP
o The investment was also not helped by USSR’s role in the Afghanistan war which
consumed considerable amounts of money
Economic perestroika
- By 1987, Gorbachev decided that a more fundamental restructuring of the Soviet economy
was needed
- If the state apparatus was the obstacle to reform it was better to try and use methods from
outside the state
Timeline – 1985- 1991
1985 – Gorbachev becomes general secretary
Feb 1986 – at 27th party congress Gorbachev attacks Brezhnev era as years of stagnation
April 1986– Chernobyl nuclear accident
1986 – twelfth five year plan is launched
1987- law on state enterprise
October 1987 – Yeltsin attacks Gorbachev’s reforms at plenum of the central committee
November 1987- Yeltsin dismissed as First Secretary in Moscow
January 1988 - legislation of co-operatives
February 1988 – Yeltsin removed from politburo
June 1988 – 19th party conference: principle of multi party elections agreed
October 1988 – popular fronts formed in the Baltic republics
November 1988- Armenia announces its control over Nagorno – Karabakh
March 1989- elections to congress of the Peoples Deputies
April 1989 – demonstrations in Tbilisi, Georgia
May 1989 – Gorbachev elected Chairman of the supreme soviet
October 1989 – 500 dats programme calls for rapid transition to a market economy
November 1989 – fall of the Berlin Wall
March 1990 – article 6 repealed: way opened for new political parties to be established
March 1990 - Lithuania proclaimed independence from the USSR
July 1990 - Yeltsin resigns from the communist party
April 1991 – Georgia declares independence from USSR
June 1991- Yeltsin becomes president of Russia
August 1991 – coup by conservatives in the Party attempt to seize power and USSR recognises
independence of the Baltic states
November 1991 – Yeltsin rejects Gorbachev’s new Union Treaty
December 1991 – Dissolution of USSR
How important were economic weaknesses in bringing about the fall of the USSR
Long term economic weakness
- When Gorbachev became General secretary in 1985 the Soviet economy was in decline
- The weaknesses of the Soviet economy had been underlined in the Novosibirsk report of
1983 by Tatyana Zaslavskaya
- The report drew attention to the growing crisis in agriculture caused by state inefficiency
and inflexibility
- The report was only distributed in the Politburo but most of the ageing members in the
Politburo did not understand the report or chose to ignore it
- The exception was Gorbachev, he realised reform was necessary if the USSR was going to
continue to meet the needs of the people
- However, he was unsure on how to go about reform when he finally came into power 2
years later
- A period of trial and error followed which resulted in the economy being plunged into
disruption which placed soviet government in a vulnerable position
Gorbachev’s initial economic reform: discipline and accelerations
, - Gorbachev’s initial steps were cautious and he began placing like minded people into key
positions (eg Boris Yeltsin) and dismissing those who he felt would stand in the way (eg
Grigory Romanov)
- After this, he introduced a campaign to attack the problem of alcoholism (which accounted
for 15% of household spending) in order to try to increase productivity as many workers
turned up drunk.
- A number of measures were introduced
o Legal age of consumption was raised to 21
o Number of shops which could sell alcohol were reduced
o Vineyards were destroyed and distilleries tripled
- These reforms led to the price of vodka tripling
- This originally gained some benefits but in the long term had a negative effect as the tax
revenues gained from alcohol fell and caused a shortfall in budget
- There was an explosion in the market of moonshine
- Clear that a small reform over drinking would fix the underlying economic problems
Twelfth five year plan
- Gorbachev felt the key issue was how to improve the level of growth in the economy
- Government used traditional method by increasing investment and controlling the central
planning hoping to increase production levels in hopes of economic growth
- The main focus of the twelfth five year plan was to focus on science and research however it
contained weaknesses
o Investment in USSR was largely spent on construction which usually cost much more
than anticipated and therefore used much more money
o Soviet industry tended to use old and out of data technology which became
increasingly unproductive
o Soviet industry could not afford to import technology as they needed to import food
o Agricultural industry was using lots of investment with little rise in productivity
o As many of the five year plans before them, the twelfth five year plan still focused
on quantity over quality which led to un usable products
- Gorbachev’s intended policy to accelerate the economy did not address the fundamental
weaknesses of the economy
- There was also a huge amount of opposition from both party and the state planning agency,
Gosplan
- Gorbachev also attempted to streamline the state apparatus in attempt to avoid waste
however instead of decentralising, as would have been more effective, he created super
industries which were meant to bring better co ordination to economic activity
- However, these ‘super industries’ were unable to achieve these goals as they came up
against severe resistance
o For example: changes in investment led to resistance from military who were
pushing for new investment in military technology and this could only happen if
investment was decreased in other sectors
o This led to the government going into a deficit (which could only be short term and
was unsustainable)
o Between 1985-86 deficit in economy rose from 2.4% of GDP to 6.2% of GDP
o The investment was also not helped by USSR’s role in the Afghanistan war which
consumed considerable amounts of money
Economic perestroika
- By 1987, Gorbachev decided that a more fundamental restructuring of the Soviet economy
was needed
- If the state apparatus was the obstacle to reform it was better to try and use methods from
outside the state
