USSR after Lenin 1925-1991

1925-53: Stalin

  • totalitarian

    • censorship, propaganda, secret police

    • purges and gulags

    • not fascist; communist

  • economic focus = end Russia’s backwardness

    • economic system driven by the government

    • *central economic planning (socialist policies)

      • 5 year plan

        • goal= fully industrialization

          • focused on heavy industry (steal, coal, chemicals)

          • ignored consumer goods

          • 2nd industrial power by 1939

      • Collectivization

        • private farmers moved to communal farmers

          • government mismanagement > famine (7 million Ukrainians alone)

          • many resisted > millions purged/sent to gulags

    • inspired economic reforms in other communist states (Peoples Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba)

  • joined Allied powers in WWII, 1941-1945

    • “liberated” Eastern Europe and Northern Korea

    • Cold War begins 1945

      • Eastern Bloc

      • USSR 2nd nuclear power, 1949

1955-64: Khrushchev

  • 5 year plans contine

    • USSR still lacks consumer goods (vs. West)

  • Cold War deepens

    • nuclear proliferation

    • Warsaw Pact established 1955 (vs. NATO)

    • supported communist movements and proxy wars

      • North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam

    • Space Race 1957-1975

      • Sputnik 1957

      • Yuri Gagarin = 1st man in space, 1961

      • Valentina Tereshkova = 1st woman in space 1963

    • Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

    • heavy spending in competition w/ USA

1964-85: Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko

  • Detente: easing tensions w/ USA 1967-79

    • SALT 1972

      • Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

  • USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan 1979-89

1985-91: Gorbachev

  • economic weakness and public discontent

    • shortages/sub-standard quality/lacking consumer goods

    • national government bankrupt

    • failed invasion of Afghanistan + Chernobyl disaster

  • liberal reforms to save USSR fail

    • some capitalism and social media freedom > people want more

  • nationalist movements for independence from USSR 1989-91

    • pro-democracy movements in Eastern Bloc countries

      • Polan, East Germany, Czeckloslovakia

    • Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia

  • USSR collapses 1991 > USA outlasts and thrives