The Soviet Union as Empire? by Jacinta O'Hagan https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union Was the collapse of the Soviet 'empire' a result of metropolitan, peripheral or systemic factors? en-us 2017-10-16 00:38:00 UTC 2017-10-17 09:44:48 UTC hello@padlet.com To what extent are these material or ideational factors??? https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197684534 2017-10-17 08:53:19 UTC https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197684534 Peripheral Factors https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692706 - Holodomor and Ukraine as showing Soviet Repression and creating generations of opposition
- Prague Spring as showing the reality of the situation
- Economic factors: famine, requiring bribes to survive, sending babies to West Berlin for a better life
- Creation of national narratives: Ukraine and Romania which were able to stand in opposition to a Soviet Union narrative of the workers united.
- Unintentional creation of martyrs and rallying points through repression.
- Regression to the mean not acceptable
- Knowledge and propaganda about the West and Capitalism showing they did not have to live like that
- Agitation for free press and free speech spreading
- Communication between subsidary states becoming easier.
-Continued opposition for decades to the Soviet Regime reaching critical mass.]]> 2017-10-17 09:26:16 UTC https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692706 Systemic Factors https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692780 US military capabilities increased competition in int. system

Soviet economy could not support sustained warfare/weapons research/development etc whilst maintaining its empire/structure. Soviet economy unable to compete with market capitalism of the west

Ideas of democracy/freedoms (speech, religion, human rights, property rights etc etc). 
 ]]> 2017-10-17 09:26:33 UTC https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692780 Metropolitan https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692900 - threats to legitimacy. Forced to create re-legitimising policies (glastnost and perestroika)
- ideational stagnation, loss of momentum of ideology attached to the leader
- perestroika and glastnost - backfire of reform. Undermined the authority of political structures and Soviet ideology 
- decline in material and economic capability due to upkeep of empire/ Afghanistan
- de-sovietisation. nationalist tide resulted in attachment to national identity rather than ideology of the empire

]]> 2017-10-17 09:27:03 UTC https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197692900 Metropolitan 1. Rise of multi-ethnic nationalism; decline of Soviet Union identity -> decreased peripheral influence 2. Gorbachev leading the movement from socialism to capitalist economy. Glastnost 3. Weak economy 4. Lack of technological advancements 5. Political inefficiency - centralized bureaucracy 6. Military focus over domestic welfare -invention of nuclear weapons 7. Afghanistan – ideational shift, economic black hole 8. Inability to effectively contain peripheral political uprisings/ rallies https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197693742 2017-10-17 09:30:55 UTC https://padlet.com/JacintaOHagan/End_of_Soviet_Union/wish/197693742