Answer:In order to understand the consequences related to the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is critical to first examine the overarching causes for the USSR’s downfall. Gorbachev’s loosening of governmental power created a domino effect in which Eastern European alliances began to crumble, inspiring countries such as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to declare their independence. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, leading East and West Germany to officially reunite within a year, ending the Cold War. Once the Berlin Wall fell, citizens in Eastern European countries such as Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania staged protests against their pro-Soviet governments, hastening the collapse of communist regimes across the former Soviet bloc. Other countries—such as the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine—followed suit, creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. By the end of 1989, eight of the nine remaining republics had declared independence from Moscow, and the powerful Soviet Union was finally undone. By the summer of 1990, all the formerly communist Eastern European officials had been replaced by democratically elected governments, setting the stage for the region’s reintegration into Western economic and political spheres.
The dismantling of the Soviet Union had many long-lasting effects on the global economy and the region’s foreign trade. Its downfall increased the United States’ influence as a global power and created an opportunity for corruption and crime in Russia. It also prompted many cultural changes and social upheavals in former Soviet nations and smaller neighboring communist countries. Between 1989 and 1991, the gross national product in Soviet countries fell by 20 percent, ushering in a period of complete economic breakdown. By the time Gorbachev took office in 1985, the Soviet economy had been stagnant for 20 years and was badly in need of reform; to wit, the country’s gross national product (GNP) went from 5.8% in 1940 to 2.6% in 1970. Grocery store shelves were often empty, and lines for food were long. The Soviet economy historically had relied little on foreign trade because of the region’s large energy and raw material base; in 1985, exports and imports accounted for just 4 percent of the Soviet GNP. The trading the Soviet Union did engage in was mostly with communist countries, many of which were in Eastern Europe. In 1988, Soviet trade with socialist countries amounted to 62 percent of the country’s total foreign trade, while 15 percent of its foreign trade was made with Third World countries. Soviet trade with Western countries largely consisted of currency and Soviet oil exports, as well as trading one manufactured good for another (Pepsi for Stolichnaya vodka, for example).
The fall of the Soviet empire also had far-reaching effects on the world as a whole, particularly among its former Soviet satellite nations. For some countries, such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, oil and natural gas exports have created prosperity but have also enabled corruption. Countries such as Lithuania and Latvia underwent dramatic transformations by quickly turning to the West, adopting Western ideals and political leanings, while other countries, such as Armenia and Tajikistan, have struggled to flourish in the post-Soviet era and many citizens remain poverty-stricken while the states and their politics remain in flux.
The Soviet Union’s collapse also affected countries outside the former Soviet bloc; for instance, since the end of the Cold War, China has expanded to become a major world superpower and the European Union has extended its influence into areas that Moscow once controlled. In the quarter-century since the Soviet Union collapsed, U.S.-Russia relations have been tenuous. While the United States under President Bill Clinton provided assistance to Russia, policymakers at home feared Russia could re-emerge as an enemy if nationalists were allowed to regain power.
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