Aim: What were the causes and effects of the fall of the Soviet Union?

1
Aim What were the causes and effects of the fall
of the Soviet Union?
2
Mikhael Gorbachevs attempts to solve the
problems of the Soviet Union

• Pulls out of Afghanistan and reduces military
  spending
• Gives up military control of Eastern Europe
• Announces Perestroika and Glasnost
• Perestroika encouraging a free market, not a
  command, economy
• Glasnost openness and political freedom
  non-communist political parties allowed

3
Eastern European nations turn West

• Communist governments resign, usually peacefully
• Eastern European nations leave the Warsaw Bloc,
  open borders with Western Europe
• Berlin Wall falls, Germany re-united
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-443433102
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• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-181898405
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4
Soviet Union splits up Communist government
collapses

• Dissension within Communist Party about
  Gorbachevs path leads to attempted coup
• Soviet government falls
• Soviet Union splits into many different nations,
  by nationality group

http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-895396285
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5
Break-up of the Soviet Union
6
Break-up of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Blocs demise

• Most Eastern European nations (including
  Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) join NATO and the
  European Union
• Central Asian states stans stay allied to
  Russia - Commonwealth of Independent States -
  but also look east and south
• Which way to turn? Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia

8
Expansion of NATO
9
Ukraine, Georgia seek NATO membership
10
Russian ethnicity in former Soviet states (Pink)
11
Oil and Gas Pipelines in Eurasia
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Central Asia - China Pipeline
13
Proposed Russia - China pipeline
14
Boris Yeltsin and the Fall of Russia

• 1990s Privatization of the means of
  production State property handed over to those
  with political connections
• Boris Yeltsin presided over a decade of
• democratization
• economic collapse
• removal of communist safety net

15
Vladimir Putin and the Rise of Russia

• Vladimir Putin President 2000-08
• Stability for Russian economy w/ help from high
  oil prices
• Return of authoritarian government, Russian
  nationalism
• Attempts to recreate sphere of influence in
  Commonwealth of Independent States (the stans)
• Disputes with Ukraine and Georgia when they look
  West

16
How does Putins Russia compare with Czarist
Russia?