Download “The fall of the Soviet Union illustrates clearly that Communism is a

“The fall of the Soviet Union illustrates clearly that Communism is a flawed ideology,” Do you
agree? Explain your answer.
We disagree with the above statement as we feel that there were more significant illustrations
that we can draw forth such as human inefficiency and Gorbachev’s policies. Therefore,
communism as flawed ideology was not the main cause of the fall of the Soviet Union.
The fall of the Soviet Union does illustrates clearly that Communism is a flawed ideology as
firstly; there were little incentives for work. The people saw no point in working hard to produce
food which was taken away from them without adequate compensation, but simply produced
enough for their own needs and also produced low quality work. This caused severe food
shortages which were further aggravated by droughts and a weak economy.
Secondly, Communism as a universalistic ideology was severely unrealistic as it felt that it could
make people overlook their own national identity and unite with workers from other countries,
which was too far-fetched as people were more concerned with the well-being of themselves in
their own countries. As a result, it failed to consider the national aspirations of the different
ethnic groups within the USSR and its satellite states, which became a contribution factor to the
fall of the Soviet Union.
Thirdly, as Communism was a rigid and conservative system that did not accept suggestions
and change, thus there was a lack of improvement in the way the Soviet Union was governed,
leading to the people’s need not met and a further decline in the popularity of Communism as
an ideology which then contributed to the love morale within the USSR which gradually led to
the falling of the Soviet Union. Therefore, there was no accountability to the people and they lost
touch with the system on the ground level.
However, the fall of the Soviet Union more significantly illustrates human efficiency as firstly; the
Soviet Union was ruled by a central government where there had been a bad management of
finances through the poor and slow decisions by the central government. The central
government did not constantly make the right choice and made decisions that were not
beneficial towards the country. For example, different parts of Russia had different weather
conditions and temperature which meant the people would have different needs, however, the
central government was not able to properly judge the situation and provide the people with
sufficient food and the right necessities. Also the central government would be the one who was
deciding what types of goods and products were able to be sold. As a result, managers had to
wait a long time before they knew which types of goods they were allowed to sell. Also,
government finances were spent mainly on military advancement, because conditions of
consumer goods were neglected as a result of the promotion of production of goods for the
heavy industries. which again results in the needs of the people not being met causing the
decline of support for the Communist government and eventually the fall of the Soviet Union
Secondly, Gorbachev’s rise to power and popularity which meant the increase in his say of the
running of the government. As he was impressed with the kind of life that the Western
Europeans enjoyed, he decided to also put forward leaders who are younger and more openminded in top government positions and looked for ways to slove the USSR’s economic
problems, This therefore, led to the introduction of two main ideas which he hoped would also
improve the living conditions of the locals and the economy. The two ideas that had been
introduced were Perestroika and Glasnost.
Perestroika referred to restructuring and change. This idea encouraged the major changes in
the running of the government. There was an introduction to a market economy, giving full
authority to all factory managers. As a result of this, they would fire anyone who they thought
were not doing their job which led to an increase in unemployment in USSR. Since the factories
had control over what was produce, they would sell more expensive goods. As people had
already been used to having jobs no matter their efforts due to the lack of incentives, they could
not accept the sudden change of having to work hard to keep their jobs. Also, now that factory
managers could sell more expensive goods, the working class which was the majority of the
population, could not afford these products and felt unfairly treated. These problems created
resentment among the people towards the government. As people were very short-sighted and
only saw the problems before them at the time, unhappiness amongst the people led to further
unpopularity of the government and later, the falling of the Soviet Union.
Glasnost means openness and this idea encouraged the locals to express their ideas more
freely without the fear of being persecuted or punished. This idea also allowed more freedom of
speech and less censorship in the media. Gorbachev used the media to publicize the
inefficiency and corruption, educate public opinion and mobilize support for the new policies. As
the media employed less censorship. The people started seeing the negative things about the
government. As the USSR had always used propaganda and terror as a means of controlling
the people, now that they could freely express their resentment, the USSR lost control and
power over the people, leading to destabilization of USSR and thus the fall of the Soviet Union.
Furthermore, as republics began to demand independence through the organization of massive
demonstrations and were not suppressed by Gorbachev and his troops, a domino effect had
commenced and many republics began campaigning for their independence. In 1991, the
continuing protests made Gorbachev decide to give more power to the republic. He hoped that
by giving them more power, the republics would agree to stay on as part of the Soviet Union.
He had arranged to sign a treaty with the republics called the Union Treaty. If the republics
chose to belong to this union, the central government would make decisions about foreign
policy and national security. However, the republics were free to make their own rules in other
areas of the government. However, Gorbachev was overthrown by the hard-line communists
and yeltsin before the treaty could be signed therefore leading to the USSR’s loss of hold over
Eastern Europe and thus the fall of the Soviet Union.
In conclusion, we disagree with the above statement as the fall of the Soviet Union had
illustrated other clearer and more significant things which were human inefficiency in the central
government and the sudden implementation of Gorbachev’s drastic change in ideas of
governance through Perestroika and Glasnost.
(1096 words)
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Done by: Amelia, Audrey and Tiziana