The Collapse of the Soviet

Union

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil war was when the Red Army, led by Trotsky, fought
the White army which consisted of anti Bolshevik citizens. The Red
Army prevailed showing they can not only gain power but contain it.
This would end up leading to the USSR being created.

Creation of the Politburo

While the Russian civil war was going on, the Bolsheviks created the
politburo to provide strong and continuous leadership during the
Russian Revolution in 1917. This would set the stage for how
Communist would end up ruling.

Stalins Five Year Plans

In 1928, Joseph Stalin made Five Year Plans to develop the Soviet
Unions economy and to increase the output of steel, oil, coal, and
electricity. This put leashes on businesses and strongly influenced
how Communism controlled all that went on within the country.
These plans would help the production of many things that helped
the USSR exist.

World War II
World War II was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It
involved the vast majority of the world's nations. It was the most
widespread war in history and marked by mass deaths of civilians,
including the Holocaust and major bombings on nations. It made
World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.

JOE-1
In 1949, The United States assigned the name Joe-1 to a Russian
project that was their first nuclear weapon test. This atomic bomb
went off on 29 August 1949 at 7 in the morning, at Semipalatinsk,
Kazakh SSR. The response in the west was President Truman notified
the world that the Russians had a nuclear test. The Russians were
trying to keep it a secret but were unable to keep it which mounted
pressure in the cold war to who would build the first hydrogen bomb.

Hydrogen Bomb
In 1952, The Americans would have the first test of a thermonuclear
bomb, or a hydrogen bomb. They had accelerated quickly in the
nuclear arms race after Russias detonation in 1949. The following
year, Russia detonated a hydrogen bomb keeping them in the nuclear
race while the whole world made a big leap forward in the nuclear
race, and a fearful one at that.

Warsaw Pact
On May 14, 1955, the Warsaw pact was made. It was a collective
defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern
Europe in existence during the Cold War. The pact was made to
maintain military control of Eastern and Central Europe, even though
its purpose was to keep peace in those areas.
This helped Russia maintain power of military through the Cold War.

Laika
In 1957, the Russians successfully placed a dog, Laika, into orbit in
space. This would set the stage for human spaceflight and would, at
the time, give the Russians a lead in the space race.

Sputnik 3
In 1958, with Russia and the U.S still going head to head in the space
race, Russia launched Sputnik 3. Like its American counterpart,
Vanguard 1, it was successful in making it into orbit. This would be
another example of how Russia was staying in the space race.

Creation of the Berlin Wall

In 1961, East Germany would create a wall that cut of West and East
Germany. West Germany referred to it as the Wall of Shame. Along
with its guard towers, East Germany erected to protect its population
from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in
building a socialist state in East Germany. This is what they claimed
but really the wall served to prevent the massive emigration and
defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern
Bloc. This would help Russia maintain its Communist state.

1968 Invasion of Czechoslovakia

Soviet Union led troops from the Warsaw Pact in an invasion of
Czechoslovakia to remove reformist trends in Prague. Although this
was successful, the Soviet Unions action had accidental costs for the
unity of the communist bloc. So this kept the Soviet Union in power,
but would ultimately help towards their ultimate demise.

Salt I 1972
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). SALT I froze the number of
strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels . It provided the
addition of submarine-launched ballistic missile launchers after older
intercontinental ballistic missile and launchers had been undone.

Salt II 1979
Did the same thing Salt I did but also involved international treaties
between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

Soviet-Afghan war 1979-1989

Soviet-led Afghan forces against groups called the Mujahideen,
mostly collected of Peshawar Seven and the Tehran Eight. This being
part of the cold war made Russia worry about Afghan and the United
States and try to maintain power.

Gorbachev becomes leader 1985

Gorbachev would be the last leader of the Soviet Union. He served as
General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 until 1991, and
as the country's head of state in 1988.

Chernobyl disaster 1986

Chernobyl was a nuclear accident on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was controlled by the Soviet
Union. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive
particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of the
western USSR and Europe. This would affect many in the communities
and make it a barren wasteland to this day.

Perestroika 1986
This was a political movement for reformation within the Communist
Party. It involved Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 which
would start the changing of the Soviet Union.

Lithuania and Latvia protests 1988

Many Lithuanians and Latvians formed human chains along the Baltic
seacoast Saturday to protest pollution. They demonstrated
environmental awareness in the Soviet Union to help one of the many
problems they had.

Fall of the Berlin wall 1989

When the Cold War began to die in Eastern Europe, the spokesman
for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's
relations with the West. This would mark the end of the wall and a
huge symbol of communism that resulted from the Soviet Union in
Europe.

Gorbachev steps down 1991

Gorbachev announces that he would be resigning as president of the
Soviet Union. He did this in the midst of the Soviet Union Republics
gaining independence. This would end the collapse of the USSR.

Final Response
When Gorbachev resigned, it marked the end of the Soviet Union.
Republics of the USSR were gaining independence and were freed
from Communism. The Soviet Union in the end did not have enough
power to stay and keep Communism in all republics. Many protests
happened in countries and they were not able to control it. That is
why I think the Soviet Union collasped.