Collapse of the Soviet Union and End of the Cold War

Technological and Military Advancements of the United States

  • By the early 1980s, the US and the Soviet Union had produced over 12,000 nuclear missiles, each pointed at the other.
  • Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD): A major deterrent to nuclear war, ensuring that any attack would result in the destruction of both parties.
  • Détente in the 1970s: A period of relaxed tensions, exemplified by the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).
    • Signed by US President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev.
    • Agreed to prohibit further manufacture of nuclear weapons.
  • Ronald Reagan's Hard Line: In 1980, Reagan adopted a more aggressive stance against the Soviets, abandoning détente.
    • Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI): Proposed a system to render nuclear attacks on the US obsolete.
      • It involved launching defense systems into space to detect and shoot down nuclear missiles with lasers.
      • Critics dubbed it "Star Wars".
  • The SDI, though never fully realized, widened the gap between the US and the Soviet Union.
  • Reagan believed the Soviets would attempt to match US spending, which they tried to do.
  • The Soviet economy, stagnant since the 1970s, could not sustain this level of spending, leading to further economic decline.

Failed Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

  • In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan to support the Communist regime against Afghan Muslim rebels.
  • The US, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan supported the Afghan rebels.
  • The Soviets controlled major cities but struggled against the rural guerrilla war.
  • The nine-year conflict further strained the Soviet economy.

Policies of Mikhail Gorbachev

  • Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in 1985.
  • Background of Soviet Economic Crisis:
    • Limited foreign trade.
    • Government control of agriculture stifled productivity.
    • Growing discontent in Eastern European Soviet bloc countries.
      • Prague Spring (1968): Mass protests in Czechoslovakia against Soviet oppression, violently suppressed.
  • Gorbachev's Reforms:
    • Perestroika: Restructuring of the economy to reduce central planning.
    • Glasnost: Openness, allowing dissent and criticism against the government.
    • Gorbachev ceased military intervention to support Communist governments in satellite states.
  • Consequences of Reforms:
    • Democratic reform movements erupted across Eastern Europe.
    • Reform movements spread within the Soviet Union as Lithuania, Georgia, and other states declared independence.
    • In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, and Germany was reunited.
  • The Soviet legislature voted to dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991, marking the end of the Cold War.