about the soviet union

The Soviet Union, which was established in 1922 and disbanded in 1991, was the first nation to adopt a socialist estate and work toward creating a communist society, both under the leadership of a single communist party (Kenez, 2000). Russia was the only Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the union, with fourteen other soviet socialist republics. In 1922, communist Russia merged with Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to form the Soviet Union. The growth of manufacturing, the commercial market, and other vital infrastructure later manifested, and the Soviet Union grew to become one of the world's most influential. While Kazakhstan was the first runners-up in size, Russia was the biggest of them all as a country. Both the Soviet Union and Russia head their headquarters in Moscow, a show that the Russia republic was the most influential and strategically located in the union (Kenez, 2000). In the beginning, it was agreeable for states to seek their independence and seek self-determination. However, over time, it would become unlawful, as countries lost their state rights to get out of the Soviet Union.

The formation of the Soviet Union was informed by the agenda that every country and each citizen in the member states needed an equal opportunity regarding economic and social rights (Johnson, 2013). Consequently, private property was virtually nonexistent, as much of the wealth belong to the state. Otherwise, property belonged to workers` unions, who had councils in place to act as watchdogs and spokespersons. Indeed, the Soviet Union had a strategic global agenda, considering that among the many achievements that remain indelible in history; including winning the Second World War together with the United Kingdom and the US continues irresistibly unforgettable (Kenez, 2000). On the contrary, both change to adapt to new challenges within and without, as well as embracing innovation became problematic, elements that led to the collapse of the union in 1991, together with the efforts to bring reform by one Mikhail Gorbachev.

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union experienced economic difficulty, after Europe experienced substantial divisions. The eastern European countries that were under the Soviet Union fell out with the western states, and an imaginary boundary termed the Iron Curtain was assumed to have been escalated to mark the demarcation. Civilians were not allowed to cross from the west to the east or vice versa, and the Soviet Union reacted by establishing its government, which was communistic, in the East (Johnson, 2013). The situation was tense on either side of the divide because force and politics plus propaganda were the only ingredients available to keep the controversies deescalated since diplomacy had not goodwill platform to thrive. The Soviet Union ruled through proxies and puppet governments. Citizens in the eastern European states were allowed to vote. However, multi-partism was outlawed, and the only party available was the communist party. In essence, the Soviet Union had overtly become a dictatorship.

The Soviet Union was under the leadership of Joseph Sterlin during the Second World War. His was a believer in farming, and hence he concentrated peasants in collective farms with an agenda to foster his economy in the 1930s (Engerman, 2008). Those who objected to the will of Joseph Sterlin were taken captive and sent to Siberia in millions or slavery on the farms. Following the aftermath of the Second World War, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization boycotted to tread with the Eastern Europe block, otherwise called the Warsaw Pact, hence the onset of the Cold War era. Though there was no practical war, the west and the east lost diplomatic leverage and tension for nuclear war was escalating. Indeed, pressure on either side of the Iron Curtain was palpable, with both the west and the east afraid of each other and the influence they had on the global sphere.

The dissolution of the soviet union came as a surprise to the world, despite the many challenges that seemed inevitable to handle among the stakeholders and hence the member countries. The Soviet Union’s economy was severely hit in the 1980s, even though it appeared stable (Engerman, 2008). The communist party would soon lose the legitimacy and control over the union, following the many strategic blunders Gorbachev made. Following the disagreements, Lithuania declared its independence and sought self-determination, due to the democratic electioneering that saw Boris Yeltsin become president among other political disparities, but the Soviet government offered a warning that it would send the red army to contain the exit. Following the escalating tension, Gorbachev made an agenda to the stakeholders to provide independence for every member state but maintain the common umbrella of leadership under the Soviet Union (Engerman, 2008). Under the same leader, the union would continue its autonomy across the sphere of power over the borders of member states.

On the contrary, their emerged groups opposed to the line of thought offered by Gorbachev and threatened to contain Moscow, with all member states coerced to maintain the typical framework of political, social, and economic operations. What followed perhaps marked the end of the beginning of the fall of the Soviet Union, when in 1991 in December, Russia declared its independence (Engerman, 2008). The events were followed by an escalation in political instability, a volatile environment that prompted leaders from Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Russia to sign the Belavezha treaty one month later (Engerman, 2008). The dissolution of the Soviet Union was thus facilitated by the Belavezha Agreement, which was ratified in a 45 minute period in the Kremlin in 1991, the 26 of December. The end of the 74 years Soviet Union rule in Russia thus ended on the same day the union collapsed.











































References

Engerman, D. C. (2008). A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. Journal of American History, 95(1), 263–264. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Johnson, O. (2013). Moscow Prime Time: How the Soviet Union Built the Media Empire that Lost the Cultural Cold War - By Kristin Roth-Ey. History, 98(331), 483–485. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2012.699169

Kenez, P. (2000). A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End. Mediterranean Quarterly (Vol. 11). https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-11-2-136