Notes on the Collapse of the Soviet Union

By the early 1980s, the US and the Soviet Union possessed over 12,000 nuclear missiles, creating a state of mutual assured destruction.
The concept of mutual assured destruction (MAD) kept both sides from initiating a nuclear war due to the certainty of devastating consequences for both.
The tension between the two superpowers eased during the period of détente in the 1970s.
Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which prohibited further manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Ronald Reagan elected in 1980, adopted a harder stance against the Soviets, reversing the détente.
Reagan initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as "Star Wars," which aimed to create a space-based defense system to shoot down nuclear missiles with lasers.
The SDI represented a growing divide between the US and the Soviet Union; Reagan believed that the Soviets would attempt to match the US spending on weapons development.
Since the 1970s, the Soviet economy had stagnated and could not support increased military spending, leading to further economic decline as they tried to keep up with the U.S.

In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to support the communist regime against Afghan Muslim rebel groups.
The Afghan rebels received support and supplies from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
The Soviets controlled major cities but struggled against the rural guerrilla war waged by the rebels.
The nine-year conflict further strained the Soviet economy.

Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in 1985 and implemented policies that ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet economy suffered from limited foreign trade, and restrictive governmental controls stifled industry and agriculture.
Eastern European states grew increasingly discontent with Soviet oppression; The Prague Spring protests in Czechoslovakia (1968) were crushed by the Soviets, the sentiment of dissent was spreading.
The Soviet state devoted significant resources to suppressing rebellions.
Gorbachev introduced two major policies:
- Perestroika which translates to "restructuring" and aimed to reform the Soviet economy by reducing central planning.
- Glasnost meaning "openness", allowed criticism of the government and its policies, which had previously been suppressed.
Gorbachev declared that the Soviet Union would no longer use military intervention to prop up communist governments in its sphere of influence.
Satellite states in the Soviet bloc took advantage of these changes, leading to democratization movements in Eastern Europe.
Reform movements that followed spread within the Soviet Union, as states like Lithuania and Georgia declared independence.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, and Germany was unified signaling the end of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe.