What is the fall of the USSR?

Question: What is the fall of the USSR!?
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The USSR was the Soviet Union which is present day Russia!. The Soviet Union fell on December 25th in 1991!.

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For fifty years the world lived under the shadow of the Cold War, fearing a fatal confrontation between the American and Soviet Union!. Millions of individuals lived and suffered under the seventy-year reign of the USSR, crushed under the dead weight of a stagnant empire!. But the ascension of Mikhail Gorbachev to the supreme leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985 began a tumultuous period that culminated with the fall of the realm founded by Lenin and Stalin!. On Christmas Day in 1991, the Hammer and Sickle Flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the last time above the Kremlin and replaced with the Russian flag!.

After the death of Brezhnev in 1982, leadership of the Soviet Union passed to Andropov and Chernenko in rapid succession!. They were both old and sick men who died not long after taking power!. However, Andropov groomed young Mikhail Gorbachev as his eventual successor and on March 11, 1985 became General Secretary and ruler of the USSR!. Gorbachev was well aware that problems of all sorts plagued the Soviet state!. Elder leaders were alarmed at the apathy and indifference the youth showed towards communism!. Gorbachev also recognized that the Soviet economy needed fundamental reforms, as it had not posted positive growth in nearly a decade!.

Gorbachev responded to the Soviet Union's problems by introducing perestroika, or economic restructuring, and glasnost, an element of political freedom!. Perestroika was unable to reverse the collapsing Soviet economy despite Gorbachev's best efforts!. Corruption and bureaucracy was far too entrenched in the economy for legislation to make a dent in the economic crisis!. Glasnost was more successful but not in the ways that Gorbachev envisioned!. The first free elections in over seventy years occurred in 1989 and reformist politicians swept into power in regional positions across the nation!. Boris Yeltsin captured a seat in the new Congress!.

Gorbachev's decision to not use military force to put down revolutions in Eastern Europe further eroded the power of the Soviet Union during 1989 and 1990!. The fall of the Berlin Wall and communist governments throughout the old Soviet Bloc generated demands for reforms to the Soviet government as well!. Non-Russian minority groups throughout the Soviet Union agitated for independence during this period!. The Baltic Republics led the way in demanding freedom from Soviet occupation!.

The tensions in the Soviet Union came to a head in August 1991 when a group of right wing military and KGB leaders staged a coup in Moscow while Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimea!. Boris Yeltsin gained international acclaim when he occupied the Russian White House and faced down the threats of the leaders of the coup!. At one point Yeltsin climbed atop a tank and rallied the people to oppose the coup!. Lacking organization and support by the military itself, the coup collapsed after three days!. Gorbachev was forced to greatly reduce the power of the Communist Party in order to prevent further attempts to seize power!. Unwilling to consolidate his power by using brute force, Gorbachev was unable to reestablish real control over the nation following the coup!.

Although Gorbachev was the nominal chief of state, Boris Yeltsin now had immense popular support and wielded more substantial power!. Over the next four months, Gorbachev and Yeltsin negotiated the transition of power made inevitable by the will of the people!. Although Gorbachev tried to preserve some form of socialism and strongly urged that the individual Soviet republics retain close relations, he was unable to convince either Yeltsin or representatives from the republics!. On December 1, 1991 all non-Russian republics of the Soviet Union declared independence!. On that historic Christmas Day of 1991, the long and sad history of the Soviet Union came to a final and peaceful end!.
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When Lithuania declared independence and Iceland recognized it, it was the beginning!. Then Latvia and Estonia came, and the Union fell!. It still is a major effect today, as russia hasn't changed since they were USSR, the only real difference is the name!. Look at the aggression they have today!. Example: Attack Georgia on the Olympics Opening Ceremony Day!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Premier of the Soviet Union, decided to implement reforms to the Soviet Government in the late 1980s!. He branded these changes glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring)!. Though these were good reforms (from the point of view of the West), they destabilized Soviet society as it was established from Stalin's time!.

In 1990, the Soviet Communist Party agreed to share power with other political parties!. Soon, like dominoes, each of the other Soviet Socialists Republics (like Ukraine, Belarus, etc!.) elected other leaders that pulled those SSRs away from the Russian sphere of influence!. On December 31, 1991, Gorbachev dissolved the Soviet Union as a sovereign nation!. In its place were various independent nations (like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, and Latvia, for example) bound together in a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), roughly equivalent to the British Commonwealth!.

Hope that answered your question!. I left out a lot of detail, but that is the basic gist!.

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They ran out of money due to military spending to try and keep up with US military spending!. Some people have speculated that this was a plan by the Reagan administration to outspend the communist government with fantasy weapon programs such as star wars!. Reagan, being an old time believer in capitalism knew that government controls economies didn't work especially when they were under such control as they were in the soviet union!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Between September and December every year!.Www@QuestionHome@Com