"The End of the Cold War is Our Common Victory"
Mihjail Gorbachev (USSR, 1992)
Throughout the second half of the XX century, the Soviet Union fought an increasingly frustrating war around the world. At the same time, the Soviet economy faced the continuously escalating costs of the arms race. Dissent at home grew while the stagnant economy faltered under the combined burden. Attempted reforms at home left the Soviet Union unwilling to rebuff challenges to its control in Eastern Europe. During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics. With stunning speed, the Iron Curtain was lifted and the Cold War came to an end.
During the Cold War, the United States invested heavily in submarine technology to counter a much larger Soviet submarine force. Technological superiority proved a winning but expensive strategy. How expensive is hard to say. Determining the cost of any advanced military technological system produced in relatively small numbers raises complex problems. There are no price lists for nuclear-powered submarines.
it was the end of an era of confrontations which involved the development of technologies to create and to destroy, a world in crisis which had an urgent call: "Mr. President: Tear down the wall" (Ronald Reagan, 1987).
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Why do you think the Fall of the Soviet Union took place? Explain.
25 comentarios:
The Fall of the Soviet Union took place because it was week in every aspect, especially with the armament because it was not as developed as the other ones.
In the other hand, they were having an economic crisis because it was disorganized and it had a bad distribution (in society, arms race, government, etc). The Soviet Union was unable to deal on with its own government, and finally they have to introduce some capitalist measure in their system in order to survive.
Also, people thought that it was unfair for them, they always made revolts and while the years passed forward, more people were opposing to this type of government.
Jimena Ruiz
The Soviet Union hat at last to tear down the Berlin Wall, because in many ways, it was what kept Germany and the USSR from taking any progressive steps. The USSR was almost alone on it's fight against democracy. It had no more money to keep up with the Arms Race, its political stability was coming down, and the people were not happy with the government. The world needed peace, in order to develop itself as a country, and in order to let Germany develop.
M. Lucia
Many facts involve on the fall of the Soviets, it was a predictable thing to happen in the las years of war. They were in economic failure, caused by the arm race. The Soviet Union didn't have enough money to invest on armament, and so their economy start to fail.
Is important to remember also, that people were unhappy with the communist's measures and so they wanted to escape to the capitalist sector; people was asking for freedom, and so the whole world.
USA was also concern about peoples need of agreement between both countries, and so the Soviet Union, by all of this factors, decline.
The fall of the Soviet Union took place because after many conflicts, communism was declining in the economical way, people were scaping from the east to the west making it unfair for the people, they were following a non well kept goverment. These facts developed an opposal to communism causing the Soviet sector to decline.
Bianca
The fall of the Soviet Union took place because of the ideology they follow and the way they manage their economy.
The USSR were not capable of facing the growing cost of the arms race. Also after the cold war they continued having more and more fights that they weren’t economically ready to affront.
Finally the fall of Berlin wall gave to an end to the cold war. People were able to choose and they rejected communism giving an end to the Soviet Union itself.
They had failed, people was not along the side of communism they wanted freedom.
The failure of the Soviet Union was really clear. And there were main reasons to this failure.
The economy wasn´t as good as before and they couldn´t keep ahead in the arms race. They faced high costs.
In the oher hand Communism had no good results. The countries were not progressing. People realized they were stucked and couldn´t move forward. They tried to scape to the west (capitalism).
And so as communism failed, the Soviet Union declined.
Frau!! el segundo BLASA19 es mio... ALEXA :)
gracias !! xox
The failure of the Soviet Union took place because it was in a very serious crisis; it was not developed as the other countries.
By one side, the economy of this country was facing a very bad period caused by the arms race with the USA. As the USA was investing a lot in fight and defense equipment, they thought that they would have to invest also, but the USSR did not have enough money to invest. Another fact is the political life, people under this government where unhappy and was asking for another type of government.
I think the USSR felt because they were extremely focused on winning the arms race and spreding their ideologies, that the leaders didn't realize they actually weakening their system and economy. This reasons brought the USSR into a period when the only choice they had was to surrender.
I believe that the fall of the USSR took place because the failure of communism was imminent. This could be seen in every aspect; especially the economic, technological and social ones.
In the field of economy, it was obvious the capitalist countries were wealthy and prosperous, while communist countries suffered poverty and were far behind financially.
Technologically, we can observe that the USSR was always one step behind the USA; from the beginning of the Cold War, when America threw the first atomic bomb, all the way through the moon landing campaign.
Socially, the failure of communism was made clear when people living in communist countries desperately tried to escape to the West. This is the case of East Germany and Cuba.
Finally, Mihjail Gorbachev realized that communism had failed, and that if he wanted his country to prosper he needed to make capitalist reforms. He also understood that ending the Soviet Union was the only way to restore unity and peace to the world.
The fall of the Berlin wall took place because of many reasons. One of the most important ones was because this wasn´t just a communism/capitalism issue; it meant the violation of human rights all around the world; it meant difficulties on achieving peace, etc. The majority of the people (soviets included) were claiming to tear down the wall.
This wall was supposed to encircle capitalism and separate it from communism. This only showed the fear of communism towards the growth and expansion of capitalism. While the west side was getting better in almost every aspect, the soviets or the east side was suffering because of poverty, lack of jobs, etc. They were economically behind the USA and technologically too. In fact, the soviets were asking for a change, they were not happy with that condition. Also many people escaped to the east side. The USSR realized it was not working and they needed to tear down the wall so they could progress and develop as well as let peace happen in the world.
The fall of the Soviet Union was a fact that was to come in the last years of the Cold War. A country that had once been so powerful, could not stand to USA’s power because, even though there was a constant race between them, the communist ideology wasn’t the most effective on controlling economy, society and politics when competing against such a superpower.
With the arms race going on, Soviet Union invested most of their money on buying nuclear weapons that were extremely expensive. The attempt of winning the arms race failed, as USA was always one step ahead of USSR and the consequences were terrible, as the economy weakened and opposition began.
Soviet citizens were unwilling to follow communism because of their economic condition and, with the wealthy and maintaining economies of the west, the desire to escape to the capitalist side grew bigger.
With people’s unhappiness, opposition to the regime also began.
This is when, Mihjail Gorbachev realizes that communism has failed and decides to let the wall be tear. He adopts some capitalist measures to assure his country’s wealth.
Finally, the world is shown again that Capitalism and Democracy seem to be the best alternatives to progressing countries and world peace.
Nicole Milla
I think that the fall of the USSR was mainly because they were always behind of USA.
We can see this diference mainly in the economic and technological aspects. Economicaly, USSR could not support the expences during the arms race. However USA had a stronger economy, they could invest in submarines and other weapons.
Also the lack of technology is reflected since WWII, when USA dropped the first atomic bomb, showing it´s power to the world.
Finally USSR realized that they were not so powerful as they thought, and that its economy needed capitalism to survive.
The Fall of the Soviet Union took place because of many factors. It involve mainly economical, social, and technological aspects. When I meant economically, communsit countries were poor and didn't count with the "money support", and also is obviously that capitalist countries had more prosperity and wealth on this field.
In technological aspects, during Cold War, an arms race took place, and as it is shown that USA took the first place, being the first american man on the moon, or the first atomic bomb thrown, among others; while USSR was always lower.
In a social form, people was not happy with the communist state, wanting to pass to berlin's capitalist part. Communism was not recieving the same support than before.
Finally, I think that the fall of this idea was took place because was the only way for stopping wars and return peace and unification to the world.
I think that the fall of the Soviet Union took place mainly because of the obvious defeat of communism. The USSR was in a deep crisis and there wasn’t really a point of keep fighting almost by itself against so many powerful countries, especially against USA. People no longer supported communism, at least not as they did before, and the economical situation after the war and the Arms Race was disastrous. Countries and societies were divided due to communism, and people were unhappy with this. Peace couldn’t be achieved while hostilities between capitalism and communism remained, and so they wanted a change, they needed a reunification; and for this to happen, the fall of the USSR needed to happen. More and more people started supporting the capitalist system and rejecting communism, which eventually led to the fall of it in so many countries.
Frau, soy Ximena Medina
The fall of the Soviet Union, involve many facts.
Especially, in the economic, technological sectors and their way of living. In the case of armament they didn't supplied, and they didn't have money to invest on it.
The communist measures from the soviets weren't so good as the capitalists ones.
The East Berlin developed more than the West, so many people of the Soviet sector wanted to cross to the East.
For example the East was developed in techonology, United states through the first atomic bomb.
Finally, Gorbachev understood that the only way to progress was with capitalists measures, so he realized that communism failed.
Angelina
P.D:
Frau: Angelina no tenía cuenta gmail, por eso yo te estoy mandando su comentario
ALEXIA SALMON
The failure of the Soviet Union happened because it was not as strong and develop as other countries. Their economy was very week because of the arms race and it was alone in its fight against capitalism.Also, people was very unhappy because of communism and they wanted to scape from it ( wanted freedom). In other hand countries needed to develop by themselves and fot that they needed peace.
The failure of the Soviet Union had many causes, but the most important of them are the following.
They didn’t have a good economy as they used to, so they couldn’t afford in paying new weapons for the arms race; because investing in them cost a lot of money and they couldn’t give the luxury of doing it. In the other hand, USA could do it, because their economy was good and they have all the possibilities. USA where always a step forward them in every aspect.
Communism wasn’t advancing and people realized that with it they weren’t going to achieve anything. This caused that people were unhappy and try to escape from east to west (capitalism). As the communism started failing, the Soviet Union did too.
Paloma Arnaiz
11th A
The failure of the Soviet Union had many causes, but the most important of them are the following.
They didn’t have a good economy as they used to, so they couldn’t afford in paying new weapons for the arms race; because investing in them cost a lot of money and they couldn’t give the luxury of doing it. In the other hand, USA could do it, because their economy was good and they have all the possibilities. USA where always a step forward them in every aspect.
Communism wasn’t advancing and people realized that with it they weren’t going to achieve anything. This caused that people were unhappy and try to escape from east to west (capitalism). As the communism started failing, the Soviet Union did too.
Paloma Arnaiz
11th A
I think that the fall of the USSR took place because it was always behind USA and they were passing through a big crisis. This crisis was caused because the USSR was very focused on buying expensive nuclear weaponds in order to win the arms race, eventhough their economy wasnt so wealthy as USA`s one. They also focused on spreading their ideology.
They dindt realize that by making that they were weakining their economy. So when the noticed that, it was too late and they only had the choice to turn their government to capitalism, acepting that it was better that their system.
I think that the fall of the Soviet Union was an over coming event.
We all know that USSR communism, wasn’t reaching theirs goals, instead all the opposite, people were poor and hungry. Instead of taking care of peoples needs, the government was more interest in buy nuclear weapons, trying to equal USA and show their supposed “supremacy”.
The Soviet Union was weak, and takes a many wrong decisions, trying to win the arm race, in the circumstances they were, was the worst.
The fall of the Soviet Union was completely predictable because of the development of communism during the Cold War.
The USSR always was an step behind the USA because of its desorganized system that affected it over every aspect.
This fact was clearly showed when the USSR spend a lot of money in nuclear weapons as an intent of winning the Arm Race, but this just caused a crisis in their economy and represent also another failure against the USA.
But this was not the only reason why people don't wanted to be part of communism, we should also considere the measures that the USSR took over the german people and the deseperation that this ones caused over them to explain their need to run away from this system.
Finally this situation ends when Mihjail Gorbachev realized that communism had failed and that the best was to live in democracy making some capitalist reforms to obtain peace in the world.
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