Decline of the USSR

1. World History II – May 2012

2.  General Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 –
1982
 Not interested in reform
 Brezhnev Doctrine
 USSR has the right to send aid or use
military force to protect communist
regimes in other countries
 Restatement of existing Soviet policy
 Trade and détente with US
 Continuation of “Khrushchev cooling”

3.  1978 revolution in Afghanistan puts communist party
in control
 Reforms include literacy training for men and women
 Communist party resented by devoutly Muslim and
anti-communist population
 Uprisings begin among Afghan guerillas
 U.S. begins sending aid to rebels in July 1979
 USSR invades in December 1979 to support communist
regime
 Early stalemate but fighting continues until Soviet
withdrawal in February 1989

4.  Named General Secretary in 1985
 Promoted glasnost (openness)
and perestroika (restructuring)
 Introduces presidential office and
elected legislature
 1989 first free elections since 1917
 Signs arms treaty with U.S.
 Abandons Brezhnev Doctrine
 Other nations should determine
their own internal affairs

5.  Erected in 1961
 Symbol of “iron curtain”
separating East and West
during Cold War
• Without Soviet
intervention, East Germany
could not control protests
• Borders opened November
1989
• German reunification
followed in 1990

6.  Communist conservatives dislike Gorbachev’s policies and
growing independence of Soviet Republics
 August 1991: “State Emergency Committee” kidnaps
Gorbachev and attempts to seize power in Moscow
• People of Russia and Boris
Yeltsin (elected president of
Russian Republic) resist coup
and fight to maintain control
• After coup fails, Republics
begin to declare
independence from Soviet
Union