Collapse of the USSR
The causes and reasons for the decline and ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union are many and of a vastly varying nature. Yet, despite the various schools of thought on this issue, these causes can generally be placed into two differing scopes, those being the domestic and international arenas. Much emphasis is placed on the role that international factors played in the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). But particular domestic factors that the Soviet Empire was faced with during its relatively brief historical existence, were possibly the most damaging elements when speaking in relation to the long-term endurance of the USSR. There is no doubt what so ever that international factors - such as the Cold War, or the US Government's policy of 'containment' - played a role in the dissolution of the USSR. But at the same time the Soviet Union faced huge domestic problems such as a rapidly failing economy and a one party political system that was not very adaptable to the political and social conditions that the country existed in. These elements, which placed a huge amount of internal pressure on the Soviet system, combined with these international factors and created a mixture of external and internal pressur
Workers in most areas of production were required to meet huge output objectives. This hindrance became a burden on the society the economy and the system. Even still, the economic system within the Soviet Union was having huge trouble trying to support the basic infrastructure of the country. Opposition from several of the satellite states (who all were members of the Warsaw pact - signed in 1955 as a counterweight to NATO) became more apparent as the collapse approached. Seweryn Bialer was one of those who remarked on the disillusionment felt by the Soviet people in relation to their ideology. It is estimated that the Cold War cost the US an approximated $8 trillion in defence expenditure and estimates of the USSR's costs vary greatly. Subsequently cost effectiveness was not something that was given any consideration. Not only this it would eventually see the Soviet Union become completely inept at competing in the global market place and would take the Empire to the brink of collapse. His liberalised style of leadership allowed people express their views and generally the people of the Soviet Union felt wrong done by the ideology which they had be ensured would see the Soviet Union rise as the most powerful nation in the world. The manor in which these elements influenced the Soviet Union made the political, economic and social environment in which the Empire operated quite inappropriate. Ultimately this would be to the detriment of the USSR, as Walter LaFeber shows:The two superpowers each had spent trillions of dollars on defence to checkmate the other. The subsequent hatred of the communist system and of those enforced its existence were enough to eventually topple the satellite state system and eventually the Soviet Union itself. This defeat had a detrimental effect on the morale of the Soviet people as the mighty Red Army had been defeated by one of a third world nation.
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