Outline

Introduction

The Soviet Union was a colossus that covered one sixth of the Earth's land and held sway over even more.

The Iron Curtain

During World War II, the Soviet Union repelled Hitler's army. Thus began the Cold War--a standoff between Communism and capitalist Western nations led by the United States of America that threatened global annihilation.

Steering Toward Oblivion

In 1985, an energetic reformer named Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of the Soviet Union. He thawed icy relations with Western nations.

WTO Opens Door

Perhaps the most notable development to come out of the December WTO conference was the approved accession terms for Russia and formal invitation for it to join the prestigious trade body.

Bubbling Populous Anger Garners Attention

A spurious past and a fictitious present were imposed on the captive minds of the Soviet people.

Gorbachev Evolution

Gorbachev was certainly an improvement, at least able to see that the system was unworkable. Yeltsin signed treaties abolishing the U.S.S.R., creating in its stead the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Conclusion

President and prime minister would be extremely charitable. It's an image problem that has dogged the nation despite its prominence in industries related to natural resources and its firm positioning as a member of the vaunted emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies.

Soviet Downfall

Introduction

The Soviet Union was a colossus that covered one sixth of the Earth's land and held sway over even more. It kept a third of Europe captive, and blocked escape with troops, tanks, and concrete walls. In its Cold War battle with the U.S. starting in 1945, it edged the world so close to destruction that cities across America built bomb shelters and schools taught nuclear-blast survival alongside algebra and history (Bialer, pp: 36).

Then, on Christmas Day 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) 15 states lashed together for almost 75 years into one of history's grandest and most fearsome empires dissolved, the victim of a dying economy and its own citizens' thirst for freedom. The end came peacefully and with stark simplicity: I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of president; it is leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared. We're now living in a new world (Walker, pp: 19).

The fall of the Soviet Union ended a 46-year struggle between two superpowers that threatened to destroy not only themselves, but also the rest of humanity through nuclear war. Soviet dictatorship started idealistically, with the theory that everyone should share society's wealth. Communism, its founding ideology, argues that privately owned businesses and industries should be confiscated and collectively owned by the state for everyone's benefit. In 1917, Vladimir Lenin led the Russian Revolution, which toppled Tsar Nicholas II after World War I left the nation sapped and near starvation. Lenin and his brutal successor, Joseph Stalin, remade the vast, mostly illiterate nation into an industrial giant, but at a staggering cost: At least 40 million people died from famine, persecution, and mass executions under Stalin (Jack, pp: 29).

The Iron Curtain

During World War II, the Soviet Union repelled Hitler's army. After the war, it installed puppet governments in Eastern European nations captured from Germany, leading former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to say that an "iron curtain" had descended across ...