Question

Which of the following is the best description of a reason the Soviet union collapsed

Answer 1

The real fall of soviet union started in 1989, when all the allies of USSR (Warsaw Pact members) started to come out of communist form of government and peaceful revolutions sparkled all across Eastern Europe.Later, On Christmas Day 1991,Soviet Flag flew over Kremlin in Moscow for last time ending 69 years of world's largest  Empire comprising 15 Nations.

Some of Notable Reasons for Soviet Collapse are:

Mikhail Gorbachev's Dual Policies : Gorbachev introduced two sets of policies that he hoped would help the USSR become a more prosperous, productive nation.
1.Perestroika:It Refers to economic reforms enacted by Gorbachev in 1987, in an attempt to reverse the Soviet Union's sliding economy. Some free market elements were added, but not enough to bring about reform. The free-market policies were enough to result in failed businesses, but shortages became common as price controls were kept in place. With price ceilings limiting profits, the incentive to produce sufficient quantities was removed.
2.Glasnost: With the Soviet public becoming more dissatisfied with their secretive government, Gorbachev attempted to compensate by committing to openness and transparency with the media. However, this backfired as the public learned of long-standing political cover ups in leadership, social and health and the true extent of national economic problems.

Economic Stagnation:Size of Soviet Union was far larger than present day continents like N.America,S.America and Europe. It has reached to a size that it became very cumbersome to continue state planning.The massive and intricate Soviet economy became too large to manage by state planners, who were unwilling to give more  autonomy at mid-managerial level and localized level.This resulted in failure of economic policies which failed
to respond timely to continuous changes and provide scope for innovation.

Lack of Decentralization : Soviet Union did allowed individual republics more autonomy but it still withheld tax  revenues.This lacked republics to exercise their Autonomy.

Lack of Proper Economic Incentives: State Planned Economic system enjoyed benefits for tax revenue and Industrialization but lacked in providing sufficient incentives to encourage innovation and productivity.

Nationalism( Local ): Some political blunders have resulted in decline of public perception on Soviet Union and it resulted in growing Nationalism in Republics such as Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Ethnic Differences : Russia was clearly the favored and dominant state, while others were oppressed.Russians  viewed themselves as superior.
As a result, non-Russians were quick to separate from the Soviet Union when it entered troubled waters.

Friendlier relationship with USA mainly in 1980's under the leadership of Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev resulted in lack of motivation among public to strengthen themselves against American Threat.

Added to these Excessive Military Focus to keep pace with USA has resulted into grater diversion of public revenue towards Military Production rather than Development Schemes.

I think these are major reasons for it's fall.17.5k Views · 34 UpvotesPromoted by ClearbitYou can find nearly anyone’s email with Clearbit for Salesforce.Our free Chrome extension crawls the web and updates Salesforce with new data automatically.