The Breakdown of the USSR

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Newer History, European Unification, grade: 1 (A), University of Birmingham (Centre for Russian and East European Studies), course: Graduate Soviet Social and Economic History, language: English, abstract: The collapse of the Soviet Union has been one of the most controversially discussed issues

among historians and social scientists throughout the last decade. Paradoxically the imminent

collapse of communism had been predicted frequently by Western observers during the early

years of the Bolshevik rule. With the victory of the Second World War those voices were

muted and the West accomodated with the existence of an obviously stable, mighty and

economically expanding country.1 The breakdown of communism in 1991 had been

anticipated by few contemporary scholars, although the majority were aware of the symptoms

of a deep crisis.

In this essay I will argue that in order to better understand the collapse of communism

in the Soviet Union, a central role must be given to the economy and its effects on other areas.

Most symptoms of the crisis and the ultimate breakdown of the system can in fact be

attributed to the impact of economic failure. Whereas, economic modernization was the motor

of success in the early decades, the economy became the weakest link of the Soviet system in

the later period as its structural shortcomings deeply effected other areas as well.

The first part of this essay is intended to briefly outline the central role the economy

played in the development of Soviet socialism. The second part analyses the far-reaching

impact of the economic downturn, while the third part discusses the limits of reform before

drawing a conclusion.2

1 M Cox, ¿Critical Reflections on Soviet Studies¿, in: M Cox (ed.), Rethinking the Soviet Collapse, L: Pinter,

1998, p 27.

2 The author is aware that in the given scope of this essay only a minor and not necessarily representatitve

fraction of the debates and works on the collapes of Soviet Communism can be touched on.