9.7 fall of the soviet union

leonid brezhnev

former general secretary

believed everything was fine as it was

soviet economic troubles

1. planned economy

2. malaise of workers

3. crop failures

market economy

supply and demand

planned economy

govt plans what is produced

downfalls of a planned economy

requires a very large bureaucracy

→ the ussr bureaucracy was inefficient

malaise of workers

planned economy + communism led to a lack of incentive to work harder

gorbachev

knew the failures of communism and wanted to change it

perestroika

gorbachev tried to restructure the economy thru introduction fo some free market elements, like private property and less price control by the govt

glasnost

ppl could spreak freely abt the failures of the ussr

more than one candidate (non communist) oculd compete for office

what caused the fall of the soviet union

ethnic tensions causing violent conflicts, inc of nationalism

gorbachev stopped intervening in soviet bloc govt conflicts → revolts

polish elections of 1989

solidarity takes the majority in poland and dissolves bonds between poland and soviet union

solidarity

labor party that led large scale agitatoins against soviets

berlin wall

so many germans had fled to west berlin that the ussr had to drop the walls

significance of soviet unio

nended the cold war and also established capitalist economies and dem govts thruout former soviet bloc countries