SOVIET SUCCESSOR STATES This research paper dis

A number of inter-related factors led to the disintegration of the Soviet system and empire, including the woeful inadequacy of the totalitarian police state, dogmatic communist ideology and centralized planned economy which evolved after the Russian Revolution of 1917 in preparing the Soviet Union to meet the requirements of the late 20th century, international developments which involved a mismatch between Soviet imperial ambitions and the capacity of the Soviet system to keep up technologically and to compete with the United States and the rest of the industrialized world economically, and the failure of the attempt by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his associates to reform the Soviet system after Gorbachev became Party Secretary in March 1985, a well nigh impossible task compounded by errors of judgment.

Although the successor states benefitted from the material gains which had been achieved under Soviet communism, the breakup of the Soviet Union had a devastatingly destabilizing and damaging effect on them, on their political unity, w

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ally the costs of competition in military R & D. He says that "with its domestic economy in shambles, the Soviets could not afford to accelerate the arms race on so grand a scale" (1995, p. 205). Nationalistic and Ethnic Ferment In the USSR, a modicum of ethnic and linguistic autonomy was left to the eleven socialist republics and the equality of all Soviet citizens "irrespective of race and nationality" was guaranteed by the 1936 Soviet Constitution. However, behind this facade, Tucker (1990) says that "Stalin's Russian centralism made cultural and linguistic Russification the order of the day" (p. 490). According to Brzezinski (1989), "Stalin seemed to have closed the national question once and for all --largely by killing off all independent-minded non-Russian leaders" (p. 87). Gorbachev's reforms opened the door to assertions of nationalism and ethnic identity. Curtis (1998) says that "the issue Gorbachev understood least of all was that of nationalities" (p. 112). According to Lacquer (1990), "it was apparently not realized [by the Soviet leadership] that, the moment police controls were reduced, nationalist forces hitherto suppressed would resurface again" (p. 50). The Baltic republics led the way. Popular front coalit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Soviet Union, According Spanier, Black Sea, NATO Russia, Conclusion Soviet, War German, Belarus Ukraine, Progress Baltic, October Russia's, According Lacquer, soviet union, 1998 october, brzezinski 1989, al 1995, powell 1998 october, soviet communism, et al, spanier et, york w, w norton, york w norton, ethnic tensions, spanier et al, et al 1995, current history 97,
Approximate Word count = 3329
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)