Khrushev's Policies

The collapse of the USSR was caused by internal problems and had nothing to do with the cold war. Assess this view.

The collapse of the USSR refers to the process of a gradual loss of legitimacy and appeal of the communist ideology and the CPSU since 1985 culminating in the disintegration of the USSR Empire from 1989 and the eventual dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. While “internal problems” refer to the inefficiencies of the Soviet command economy which stemmed from poor resource allocation, an overemphasis on quantity instead of quality and an over-commitment to defence and military build-up. It also refers to the policies implaced by Gorbachev of Perestroika, Glasnost and New thinking and how the subsequent backlash of these policies led to the USSR’s downfall. This question hence asserts that the primary and only reason for the collapse of the USSR was caused due to these internal problems and cold war aggression such as the Reagan doctrine, the containment policy had no part to play with it’s collapse. However, this assertion in itself is myopic and fails to take into account the impact cold war politics such as the containment policy and the Reagan doctrine had on the USSR. Hence, this essay will argue that while the collapse of the cold war was caused by internal problems, such as the inefficiency of the command economy which was a fundamental factor and the implementation of Gorbachev’s policies, a catalyst, cold war politics also played an important role, with the Containment policy as a foundational factor and the Reagan doctrine as a catalyst.

The collapse of the USSR was due to the inefficiencies of the command economy which led to the USSR haemorrhaging money due to the inefficient channelling of resources as well as the stagnation of the economy.
• This is evidenced Soviet manufacturing industry had not updated it’s machinery since Stalin leading to low qualities and quantities of goods being produced in comparison to the western European nations
• Additionally the products being manufactured were not based on the trends of the global market but instead on the decisions of the central planning committee which overemphasised on military, spending 40% of the GNP on military expenditure and hard goods such as iron, coal and steel
• This is significant as it highlights the inefficiencies of centralized control, which is a chief aspect of the command economy
• The central planning agency placed all power and decision-making authority in the hands of the government which saw the manufacture of consumer goods, goods which generated the country money and revenue as redundant and instead channelled most of the resources into building up the USSR’s defence industry
• And even when it exported consumer products, individuals were disincentivised from purchasing these products due to their low quality which led to low revenues earned from them
• Building up the defence industry of the USSR came at the expense of the quality of life of soviet citizens and it’s economy
• The gradual decline of the soviet economy meant that the USSR was unable to finance it’s satellite states and provide them with needed subsidies through COMECON or even keep the peace and it’s control within these states with the use of it’s military
• Additionally the state of the economy placing power into the hands of a few people caused inertia within the economy, preventing any reforms from taking place due to the fear of these individuals of losing their power and their status
• This prevented the needed reforms from taking place and caused the system to continue to rot in it’s stagnancy
• This was the main reason why the later implaced policy of Perestroika was unable to work and failed miserably, causing the system to degenerate further
• Furthermore these economic problems later evolved into social problems, where the inefficient channelling of resources led to the total food imports of the country to be higher than it’s exports
• This resulted in extremely high prices for food which had to subsidised thus draining large amounts of money from the government this then reduced the amount the government had to spend on improving the lives of people and the condition of the state
• The problems brought about by the inefficiency of the command economy resulted in tremendous socioeconomic backlash and was a fundamental factor to the collapse of the USSR
• This is as it prevented reforms from Kosygin’s 1965 reforms to that of Perestroika in 1986 from working and helping the economy
• The lack of revenue in the country caused tremendous economic backlash and as stated earlier social backlash as well which caused dissatisfaction and disillusionment in the country towards the leadership eventually resulting in the loss in power of the CPU and the decline of the USSR
• Furthermore, the flaws in the Soviet system also led to the containment policy as Keenan saw them as loopholes through which to attack the Soviet system. These weaknesses hence left the USSR exposed and vulnerable to the containment policy and in the end the Reagan doctrine, which focused even more on these weaknesses and in the end forced the USSR on to her knees through overspending on military and bad resource management
• Additionally it also led to the introduction of Gorbachev’s policies as a last-ditch attempt to save the Soviet economy which unfortunately caused immense socio-economic backlash which resulted in the collapse of the USSR and her influence

The collapse of the USSR was also due to the economic policies implemented by Gorbachev such as Perestroika which led to immense socioeconomic problems due to the inertia within the country’s economy, the overemphasis on luxury.
• Perestroika began in 1986 and faced tremendous opposition from the hardliners of the CPSU, they resisted Gorbachev’s attempts to reform the economy and encouraged regional and industrial managers to be uncooperative due to their fear of losing their power
• This is significant because Perestroika amplified these fears and caused many of these individuals to become even more resistant to these policies
• Furthermore, despite modifications towards GOSPLAN from central planning to strategic guidance, nothing was really done to change the nature of GOSPLAN and give freedom to factory managers to manufacture what they thought was beneficial to their factory’s earnings
• Additionally in Perestroika even if factory managers were not resistant to change, perestroika made them become profit-driven which caused them to create an excess of luxury goods which firstly were low quality and hence disincentivised people from purchasing them resulting in low revenues. Secondly, the over-manufacturing of these luxury goods brought the market value of these goods down, which caused profits to be minimised. Furthermore, due to the already dire state of the economy at that period of time people had no motivation or money to buy such expensive items and this drop in demand and oversupply of these goods caused factories to lose money due to the overemphasis on the production such goods.
• With factories losing money and factory managers becoming profit driven, this led to people losing their jobs in order to ensure the survival of the factory
• This led to widespread discontentment and unrest due to firstly, the initial nature of the communist economy which meant that everybody had a permanent job and income to supplement their living. A loss of this initial status quo was a threat to the quality of life for employees and the lack of government safety nets and deregulation of food prices meant that it would be even harder to live
• Secondly, Perestroika had been heralded as a panacea to the soviet economy, failure for the policy to live up to expectation created anger and dissatisfaction in the country as it seemed that the government was unable to fulfil the needs of the people
• Perestroika however was merely a catalyst for the collapse of the USSR as it only exacerbated the problems created by the fundamental factor, the original inadequacies of the soviet economy.
• Perestroika materialised the social discontentment of the people as it caused Glasnost due to the mounting anger against Gorbachev’s policies
• While glasnost was the trigger to the loss of the CPSU’s power and influence within Russia and the satellite states as a whole due to the freedom of information on the tyranny of soviet leaders and on the problems of the then government as well as the freedom of expression for the people.
• This made perestroika an important catalyst leading to the collapse of the USSR

Gorbachev’s other policies such as that of Glasnost were an important factor to the collapse of the USSR, Glasnost provided freedoms such as that of expression and information which informed and incensed the public on the problems happening within the Soviet Union which led to massive civilian backlash culminating in the start up of nationalist movements which weakened the power of the CPSU.
• Due to the mounting anger with the failure of Perestroika, Gorbachev implemented Glasnost in 1987
• Glasnost was meant to attack the Stalinist system and show it’s flaws in order to get the workforce to accept the reforms proposed after being shown the problems caused by the past system
• This is significant as attacking the system caused people in the society to become disillusionised and doubt the leadership of the country, linking the current CPSU with the crimes and corruption which had once plagued the system
• This created disillusionment in the society as people who were already resentful of perestroika’s failure and the lack of social safety nets saw how the problems of the society were inherently related to communism
• This caused widespread resentment which led to the start of nationalist movements such as the Charter 77 and Solidarity which was allowed and not clamped down upon due to the freedom of expression given with glasnost
• By allowing such movements to flourish, the CPSU essentially allowed the societal chaos to flourish and the criticism provided, undermined the legitimacy of the government and culminated in the velvet revolution of 1989 and the fall of the berlin wall
• With all these events happening, this showed the weaknesses of the current government, where they were seen to be unable to protect their own legitimacy and assert their power causing citizens to see them as weak and incapable
• Glasnost however was only a trigger to the decline of the USSR this was as it undermined the legitimacy of the state and created tangible societal backlash which further undermined the power of the CPSU
• Essentially Glasnost was a product of the problems created by the fundamental factor, the command economy, these economic problems were what triggered Gorbachev’s reforms in an effort to prevent the collapse of the soviet union
• The economic problems created pre-existing dissatisfaction and discontent with the government which were exacerbated with Perestroika’s failure and in the end culminated in Glasnost
• Glasnost’s significance comes as it gave the soviet society full reign to exhibit their discontent and unhappiness with the soviet leadership and it’s a catalyst because this discontentment led to the rise of nationalist movements which caused states to break away as well as massive uproar among the Russian public.
• This massive uproar and dissatisfaction without any government intervention at all weakened the soviet leadership’s power over the people resulting in it’s inability in controlling the masses and the collapse of the USSR as a result

However the internal problems of the USSR were not the only reason for it’s collapse, the effects of the Cold war also played an important role in causing it. The Containment policy for instance was integral in causing the collapse of the soviet union due to the excessive military buildup which diverted resources from more important areas of the soviet society, causing the country to haemorrhage money.
• The containment policy initially implemented with the Truman Doctrine on the 12th of March 1947 was a series of economic and military policies aimed at containing soviet influence to the post-WWII drawn borders
• The containment policy’s economic effects included the Marshall plan which was the provision of a $400 billion aid package to Europe in order to resist communism under the belief that an economic stronghold had no incentive to fall to communism
• The containment policy also had military and political tiers which included actions such as the invasion of Guatemala in 1954, a coup de teat by the CIA after President Arbenz took power and nationalized banana plantations, prompting American response due to the infringement on it’s economic interests due to the investments an American company, the United Fruit Company had in the country
• This is significant as the containment policy heralded an era of American passive-aggression towards the USSR, preventing the spread of communism without infringing on areas which were already communist influence, a rule continuously broken throughout the 1970s and 80s in the proxy conflicts in the 3rd world
• The containment policy coerced the USSR to react in a similar light protecting communist regimes in these countries by supplying them aid and military expertise such as in the Vietnam War where the USSR supplied $1 billion worth of aid every year from 1965 to 1975.
• Such provision of aid drained the USSR of money, where it was forced to supply aid in order to bolster it’s international reputation as the leader of the communist bloc
• Additionally, the containment policy also increased fears of attack which motivated the Soviet leaders to increase arms build up, this exponential increase in funding for weapons research and manufacture redirected resources from necessary areas of the economy and the society
• This led to it’s collapse as it prevented the USSR from using these resources more appropriately as it was to fixated on it’s status as an international hegemon it failed to pay any attention to the flaws of it’s economy
• The containment policy was a fundamental factor, this was as it preceded the Reagan doctrine and was what created the state of fear and hatred for communism upon which the Reagan doctrine was founded upon
• The fear of communism created by the containment policy and it’s seeming failure with the USSR’s weapon build up caused the implementation of the Reagan doctrine
• Furthermore the containment policy was what exacerbated the problems of the command economy and created the fear within the USSR to direct money to military and weapon build up instead of the more important facets of the society such as the economy in order to sustain it’s status as a global hegemon
• Therefore we see the importance of the role the containment policy played in the collapse of the USSR and how it as a fundamental factor had an impact on the other factors such as Gorbachev’s policies and the Reagan Doctrine.
• Thus showing us that it was not just the internal problems of the USSR alone which caused the collapse of the USSR but also cold war politics and policies which had a part to play in it’s downfall.

The Reagan doctrine also played a significant role in the collapse of the USSR as it increased military spending exponentially diverting resources away from the economy and social spending, increasing resentment against the government, weakening the government’s power and hold over society.
• The Reagan doctrine essentially was a diversion from the policy of containment to that of rollback where communist influence in countries was no longer tolerated but had to be exterminated
• This was observed in Iran in 1979, where the USA supported the Mujaheeden against the USSRS
• This was significant as this was the first time American policy had such a cohesive and aggressive front towards the USSR
• Under the Reagan doctrine 9 countries were targeted for rollback and this was important as firstly, it caused an overstretch for the USSR militarily, causing it to spend excessively, increasing defence spending to 40% of it’s GNP
• Under the Reagan doctrine policies such as the Strategic Defence Initiative were implemented in 1983 as a form of ground and space based protection from any missiles
• This diverted the needed funds from the required parts of it’s economy which were more integral to the survival of the USSR
• The Reagan doctrine challenged the USSR and caused it to become overly-concerned with it’s status as a hegemon, forgoing all of it’s other more important concerns such as that of it’s economy and of it’s social problems all of which required more funding
• Additionally, it made the USSR even more paranoid as this eliminated the possibility of Mutually Assured Destruction and caused the USA to gain even more leverage as the SDI could easily render all nuclear attacks made by the USSR useless
• This incentivised the USSR to fund research into the SDI no matter how costly and expensive
• This was for two reasons, firstly for national security as the SDI meant that the USA could easily cause a nuclear war without any backlash on to it’s country
• Secondly, for political clout, in order to prove it’s superiority and position as the leader of the communist bloc, the USSR felt that it had to be on an equal military standing with the USA
• The military overstretch not only took these resources but also dipped into the USSR’s reserves, causing the overall debt of the USSR to increase and it’s credibility as a market power to be doubted
• This damaged it economically and these economic problems would later translate into social problems, where it’s weak economy led to inflation, low imports, little money being directed to improving social infrastructure, all of which were detrimental to soviet society.
• These problems were further exacerbated by the economic warfare the USA launched against the soviet union
• This is exemplified through the America’s pursuance of the deregulation of oil where she negotiated with OPEC to reduce oil prices by 75%
• USSR was hence negatively affected due to her overdependence on oil exports which counted for 60%-80% of her revenue
• This economic warfare severely crippled the USSR’s ability to continue it’s military activities while sustaining it’s state
• Furthermore the already existing problems due to the inefficiencies of the command economy were further worsened because the command economy was already producing minimal revenue while the Reagan doctrine extracted large sums of money from the USSR in order to retain it’s status
• This caused soviet debt to increase exponentially and prevent it from utilising the money on proper reforms
• From here we see that the Reagan doctrine was a catalyst which quickened the speed of the collapse of the soviet union
• An extension of the containment policy in it’s aims, the mechanisms of the Reagan doctrine were far more severe and extreme, they pushed the USSR to it’s limits and focused on the flaws of the command economy till it was unable to sustain the pressure placed upon it
• The Reagan doctrine was so pervasive it even caused Gorbachev to implement the policies of Perestroika and glasnost in order to counteract the problems which it created
• Hence we see that the Reagan doctrine was an important factor which catalysed and sped up the collapse of the USSR through it’s pressure on the economic problems of the USSR which inevitably translated into societal problems

Conclusion:
The collapse of the USSR cannot be solely attributed to the internal problems of the soviet system alone, instead it’s cause were due to these various factors ranging from the command economy’s inefficiencies to the Reagan doctrine working together in tandem. The fundamental factors of the collapse of the USSR such as the command economy set the stage for the economic problems which would plague the USSR for the whole of it’s existence and were later capitalised upon in the containment policy another fundamental factor and the Reagan doctrine. The containment policy on the other hand set the scene for the hostility and aggression against the USSR later exhibited in the Reagan doctrine, though to a larger degree. While catalysts such as Perestroika increased the pre-existing economic problems leading to Glasnost, the trigger which led to full-scale uprisings by nationalist groups, hence weakening the CPSU’s grip on power. Lastly, the Reagan doctrine exploited the weaknesses of the command economy and played on soviet paranoia, causing an over-extension of it’s military and resources leading to the collapse of the USSR. This hence shows us that the collapse of the USSR cannot be attributed to one facet alone, the internal problems of the soviet system but instead is due to the interplay of these internal problems alongside cold war politics which exacerbated these problems leading to the USSR’s collapse.