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2 T y r w h i t t R o a d t e l 2 9 4 4 6 7 1 S i n g a p o r e 2 0 7 5 2 3 f a x 2 9 9 0 1 1 2 christ church secondary school 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. 1 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. 2 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 : 3 Compton's Encyclopedia Online v3.0 © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc. 4