USSR’s decline

1. weak economy 

• command economy not practical 

• too much government control over factories, farms etc

2. poor standard of living

• not enough consumer goods

• low salary

• work force unmotivated, low productivity

3. burdens

• need to support eastern europe

• maintain military ( to control eastern europe ) and compete with USA ( fight proxy wars; korean, vietnam, afghanistan, cuba ) 

• trade with eastern europe (useless, cant earn money) 

• cant compete in global economy

• eastern europe causing problems - uprising opposition

4. Brezhnev’s doctrine

• all eastern european countries must be communist

• communist parties maintained by USSR (costs money + resources)

• uprising in eastern europe (prague spring 1968, hungarian revolt 1956, poland) 

5. aging leadership in soviet government (polit buro)

• average age of political leaders = 60

• conservative, hardline, unwilling to change( not aware of changes)

• soviet society and eastern europe had changed / become more demanding) 

communism and capitalism. His foreign policy reforms would lead to reduced tensions with Western countries such as USA and an improving of relationships. US President Ronald Reagan was also keen to improve relations with USSR. Between 1985 to 1988 they met 5 times and reached agreements to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons they had, leading to reduced tensions.

Hence, Gorbachev’s foreign policy reforms created peaceful relations with the West which built a friendship between the superpowers which led to the end of the Cold War.

one factor: collapse of communism and the ussr

• july 1988, Gorbachev withdrew large numbers of Soviet troops, tanks and aircraft from other C+ states

• march 1989, Gorbachev made clear that Soviet army would leave E. Europe

• next few months, sudden and dramatic collapse of C+, Berlin wall (symbol of CW) also could not withstand pressure > guards abandoned the wall in nov 1989

• many E. European states began to agitate for independence from geopolitical influence of USSR

• jan 1990, Gorachev visited Baltic state of Lithuania (part of USSR), leaders wanted independence, Gorbachev did not allow, but nevertheless in march 1990, Lithuania declared independence

• afterwards, there was more demand for independence from various states in USSR, by the end of 1990, nobody was sure what USSR meant any longer > USSR was disintegrating

• Communist party had failed to save USSR, Gorbachev returned to Moscow, on 25/12/91 on televised speech, Gorbachev announced his resignation as president of USSR and end of USSR > which signalled end of CW

USSR was declining in military and economic power, hence, it is no longer a threat to the USA. USSR also could not continue fighting in arms race and proxy wars and no longer has a tight grip over Eastern Europe.

USA and USSR military might:

This made USSR realise that they could not fight against USA and decided to be less aggressive. USA also realised that USSR was afraid of them, so they also decided to be less aggressive. Thus, the tensions between USA and USSR seized.

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan took a tough stance towards USSR and spent a lot on funding the military. he realised he should back down otherwise USSR will retaliate out of fear. He also tried to establish relations with USSR, hence, easing tensions and Cold War ended.

Gorbachevs reforms

Gorbachev implemented changes that weakened communism in USSR and USSR itself. He allowed opposition parties, allowed excess to western media and even allowed historians to expose stalins actions from the past. hence, he set the motion of pressure to destroy communism and led to the fall of USSR, hence, the Cold War ended

1. USSR’s decline

   • weak economy

   • Work force unmaintained

   • Unable to compete with global economy

2. USA’s economic/ military supremacy

• very wealthy compared to USSR

• Developed arms and missiles

• Carried out realistic military exercises causing USSR to panic and prepare troops

• US realised it should not be so aggressive

3. Gorbacher’s reforms

   • implemented changes that would weaken USSR

   • Set in motion for pressure to destroy communism and lead to collapse of USSR

   • “Glasnost”- allowed for criticism of government and allowed people to form opposition parties, decrease in support for communism

   • Foreign policy- establish better relationships with USA

   • Warming relations decreased CW tensions

   • Hence communism ended

4. Collapse of communism in E.europe and fall of USSR

• E.europe could choose own political system

• Elections held and people could vote

-of the fear of a Nuclear war which may cause irreversible damage

-Vietnam War (Damage American Cold War Foreign Policy)

• A bankrupt ideology

• Failure of Containment

• Weakening of US Presidency

This led to Detente (US and USSR signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty)

-Decline of the USSR

• Weakening of Soviet economy (Due to the increasing demands and the different companies made different goods, USSR was very slow in making decisions such as bringing technology into the industries), (Proxy wars, money needed to fund the war for food, military supplies etc.)

• Poor Standard of living (Affected by economy, Soviet people unable to afford items, money invested in military instead of education)

• Disillusionment of Workforce (A lot of corruption in the workforce causing Soviet workers to want change by protesting)

• Opposition of Communism in Eastern Europe (Economy in USSR declined, affecting the people’s standard of living in Eastern Europe since they were extremely reliant on USSR) —> This caused the Hungarian Revolution, Prague Spring, Poland and Solidarity

• USA (capitalist economy/democratic govt)

• large corporations like cocoa-cola, HP, ford

• traded with many countries

• Ronald Reagan privatised/liberalised services

• cut taxes and give people incentives to work harder and start own businesses since gov would not be taking their hard-eared wealth

• Other European leaders also supported Reagan

These contributed to an economic boom in the US and Western Europe

• booming economy gave Reagan and allies confidence and money to champion US values of capitalism and democracy

• increased US defence spending

• supported anti-communist fore’s in Afghanistan and Nicaragua

• increased US defence budge massively (to about $32.6 billlion)

• new weapons systems such as b1 nuclear bomber were introduced

• strategic defence initiative (SDI, “star wars” programme) was a multi-billion-dollar project to create a system that could use satellites and lasers to destroy misfiled before they hit their targets (changing the nature of nuclear war)

• Reagan was willing to spend huge amounts on weapons

This put pressure on soviets, USSR was alr finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with US, as its resources were stretched and renewed arms spending would ruin it

• done in the name of reform and change that led to their downfall and collapse of communist ideals ultimately leading to the fall the USSR and subsequent end of the Cold War.

• introduced changes allowed for more freedom of speech and press and significantly less censorship —> the full story can be revealed without biases or censorship

• More people could formulated their own ideas and opinions and started criticising the government

cold war ended because of:

1. usa's realisation for ussr's fear of usa

• if usa fought back with their immense military power, ussr would retaliate out of fear which would lead to a disaster due to widespread destruction. this caused usa to realise it should be less aggressive

• leading to warming relationships hence leading to the end of cold war

2. gorbachev's reforms

   • foreign policies

• lowering defence and arms spending allowed ussr to establish better relations with usa

• ussr saw the need to be friendly with usa after realising usa's military power from their realistic military exercise (Able Archer)

• since realations are warming, there is no more cw tensions, hence leading to the end of cw

  • de-ideologisation

• ussr don't want to spread c+ anymore, so allowed elections and allowed people to choose their own political system (democratic/communist)

• countries in e.europe and ussr started breaking away from ussr and communism

• since communism no longer exist, there is nothing left to fight for, and hence leading to the end of cw

USSR

1. weak economy too much

   too much government control/limitations over factories and farms

2. poor standard of living

   there were not enough consumer goods, locals received low salary. this leads to a unmotivated workforce, reducing productivity = weakens economy

3. burdens

   USSR needed to support Eastern Europe however Eastern Europe has been causing a lot of trouble, with uprising oppositions. USSR also needed its military to compete with USA is proxy wars such as Vietnam War and Korean War

4. ageing leaderships

   unwilling to change

USA

1. powerful economy and military

   USA had large corporations (e.g Coca Cola, Ford), traded with many countries. Services like healthcare and telecomm were privatised, increasing profits. With USA way wealthier than USSR, USSR realised it could not win USA, hence it needed to tone down and be less aggressive. Tension between the two countries then started to ease, and subsequent ending the cold war

2. Ronald Reagon

   led to increase arms race, USA’s defence spendings increased. Many powerful weapons and strong military army, prepared realistic military exercise that it panicked the USSR, forced them to prepare its troops as well. This made USA realised that USSR was really afraid of USA, if USSR fought back the consequences will be very severe. USA realised it should not act rashly, decided to tone down, reduced tensions and subsequently ending the cold war