Download history : student notes on russia today

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HISTORY : STUDENT NOTES ON RUSSIA TODAY
ONE-PARTY GOVERNMENTS
During the 20th century there have been three types of one-party governments: Communist,
Fascist, and Third World. The Communists came to power in Russia in the October Revolution
of 1917, with the success of Lenin's Bolshevik wing of the Social-Democratic Workers' party.
After World War II Communist regimes were established in much of Eastern Europe. In 1949
Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist party came to power. All effective political power was in the
hands of the party and the first secretary of the party was the regime's dominant figure. Most
Communist governments were totalitarian, but this did not imply perpetual conflict between
people and party. In 1989 the face of Eastern European politics completely changed. The
Communist party lost its political monopoly in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria,
Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Even Albania overthrew its neo-Stalinist system by
1992. Multiparty elections were held in many Eastern European countries in 1990. In 1991 the
Communist party lost control in the Soviet Union and the country ceased to exist.
COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
During the second half of 1991, the Soviet Union--the world's largest nation and a highly
militarized nuclear superpower--broke apart into its constituent republics. This was an economic
and political collapse of unprecedented magnitude. On December 25 the Soviet Union was
succeeded by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose confederation of 12 of the
former republics. The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had gained their
independence in September and did not join the new federation. Azerbaijan and Moldova were
two of 11 original signatories but until 1994 retained only observer status because their
legislatures had previously failed to ratify membership. Georgia, because it was involved in a
civil war, did not join until March 1994.
The Soviet Union came into existence legally and formally on Dec. 30, 1922, when the First
Congress of Soviets approved its formation. The union had its roots in the Russian Revolution of
1917--specifically in the takeover of the Russian government by the Bolshevik wing of the
Communist party. Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, became leader of the new nation, but his
death in 1924 propelled Joseph Stalin into prominence and power.
Stalin ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. The nation became a completely totalitarian
state; everything was controlled by the central government, and the central government was
controlled by the Communist party. After World War II Stalin brought the countries of Eastern
Europe under his control, forming a protective barrier between the Soviet Union and Western
Europe.
Stalin was followed in office by Georgi Malenkov, Nikita Khrushchev, Aleksei Kosygin, Leonid
Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, and Mikhail Gorbachev. During the 32 years
from Stalin's death to Gorbachev's appointment to office in 1985, the Soviet Union was--with the
United States--one of the world's two nuclear superpowers. This era, known as the Cold War,
was marked by competition and tension between the two countries.
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Despite its military might, the Soviet Union had an unworkable political system and economy
that were sustained only by force. By the 1980s the Soviet Union was in desperate straits, unable
to keep up with a huge American military buildup while trying to satisfy growing consumer
expectations. It was to these issues that Gorbachev turned upon assuming office.
The Gorbachev Era
Mikhail Gorbachev was the first Soviet leader who came of age after World War II. He was
better educated than his predecessors and far more honest. He readily acknowledged that the
Soviet economy was in a shambles and falling farther behind the other industrialized nations
every year. He made a dramatic appeal for restructuring (perestroika) of the economy. He also
allowed freedom of expression. The term for this, glasnost, is normally translated as "openness."
This freedom led to demands for democracy.
Gorbachev had one significant problem, however. His goal was to make socialism workable. He
never intended to throw over the whole system. But, gradually, that is what happened. The
Soviet leadership divided into two major groups: those who wanted to preserve and reform
Communism and those who wanted to get rid of it and move to a Western-style market economy.
When Gorbachev made it plain he would not use Soviet military might to prop up the
Communist states of Eastern Europe, they began to fall like a house of cards in 1989. From
Poland in the north to the Balkans in the south, they all threw out their Communist governments.
The Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, and Germany was reunited in 1990.
The Crisis of 1991
With Gorbachev unsure of his policies, his government lacked direction. Meanwhile, one of his
prodemocratic opponents, Boris Yeltsin, was elected president of the Russian Federation. This
created a new center of power alongside the central government. On Aug. 19, 1991, old-guard
members of the Soviet government staged a political coup to depose Gorbachev. Yeltsin rallied
the people to oppose the coup, and it failed within 72 hours. Events then moved rapidly. The
Communist party was ejected from power. The Baltic states declared their independence, which
Yeltsin recognized. Other Soviet republics also indicated their intention of separating from the
union. Gorbachev opposed these moves, but by this time he was powerless to oppose them.
On December 8, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia (now called Belarus) met to sign
the agreement that created the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). These three
republics accounted for 80 percent of the land area of the Soviet Union and 73 percent of its
population. Ukraine alone would be the largest country in Europe--apart from Russia--with a
land area twice that of Italy, and with the fifth largest population. The pact allowed each republic
to function as an independent nation, with its own foreign policy. The ruble would continue to be
the currency of the three republics. Each would adhere to international commitments that had
been made by the Soviet Union. Minsk, Belarus, was designated as the capital city of the CIS.
The issue of control over the Soviet military and nuclear weapons within the borders of the new
republics was not immediately settled. Gorbachev denounced the new arrangement but was
powerless to stop it. The accord creating the CIS was ratified by the parliaments of the three
republics by December 12.
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Within a few days five more republics agreed to join the CIS: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (formerly
Kirgizia), Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan), Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These Central Asian
republics had mostly Muslim populations. Three other republics later agreed to join: Armenia,
Azerbaijan, and Moldova (Moldavia). A revised agreement including all the republics was
signed at Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, on December 21. The Azerbaijani and Moldovan parliaments
failed to ratify this treaty, however, thus leaving them and the Baltic states outside the CIS.
Georgia joined in 1994.
Meanwhile, Gorbachev and Yeltsin met on December 17 to formalize the agreement to end the
Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigned on the 25th, and less than an hour later the familiar red flag of
the Soviet Union, with its hammer and sickle, was lowered from the Kremlin. Success for the
CIS depended on solving serious economic problems--specifically shortages of everything and
high prices--brought on by 74 years of mismanagement and dictatorship. A great deal of help
was sent by countries in the West to meet immediate needs, notably food. Great amounts of
foreign investment were also needed to begin a radical transformation of the economy.
Commonwealth Problems
The former Soviet Union had a land area of 8.65 million square miles (22.4 million square
kilometers). The new commonwealth was nearly as large: 8.53 million square miles (22.1
million square kilometers). And like the former Soviet Union, the commonwealth was a mosaic
of many nationalities and ethnic groups.
The CIS is neither a state nor a federation. It is a very loose political arrangement. The closest
thing to a governing body is the Council of Heads of State. There is no common citizenship, as
there was prior to 1992. There is no governing body elected by the people.
Each republic had its own very difficult economic and social problems to solve, and within each
republic were many old Communists who wanted to see reform fail. After the founding of the
CIS, the leaders of the republics were more heavily engaged in trying to stay in power and try to
reform their respective economies. As this proved a very difficult task, less attention was paid to
the fate of the CIS.
During its first year of existence, most of the issues between the republics had to do with the
armed forces. In January 1992 seven republics agreed to a unified military command. Six of the
republics signed a mutual security treaty on May 5, 1992. The disposition of nuclear weapons
persisted as a problem, because republics that had them wanted the prestige of being a nuclear
power. The Black Sea fleet was divided between Russia and Ukraine in August 1992. One issue
that upset former Cold War foes, such as the United States, was the selling of advanced military
technology to China, Iran, and any other power that wanted it. The weapons were sold to bring in
desperately needed money. All of the CIS republics were beset with internal turmoil. In some
cases the seeming failure of economic reform led to protests and changes in government. In
others, ethnic minorities warred with each other. Within Russia, the largest republic, smaller
subdivisions began demanding independence. The republic of Armenia was at war almost
constantly with Azerbaijan.
Source :
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Compton's Encyclopedia Online v3.0 © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.
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