Communism is a political and economic ideology that promotes a classless society in which all resources are equally distributed, has actually seen a succession of ups and downs since its The Girl in Kherson birth a century ago.
What began in 1917 in Russia, grew into a worldwide revolution that spread from Korea and China to Sudan and Kenya to Nicaragua and Cuba. Following Lenin's October Revolution, communism spread to China, Mao Zedong's rise to power, and Fidel Castro's conquest of Cuba.
One part of the Cold War was based on this concept, and with the falling of the Berlin Wall, it witnessed a symbolic decline. Only a few countries are still ruled by communists today. A chronology of significant incidents that influenced Communism's history is illustrated below.
Let us peek into history to understand the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
February 21, 1848—Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, German economists and philosophers, publish The Communist Manifesto, calling for the uprising of the working class against capitalism. The rallying cry of the movement was “Workers of the world, unite!”
November 7, 1917—During the Russian October Revolution, the Bolsheviks, who adopted Marxism, seized power and created the first communist government under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. Despite their promises of “food, land, and peace,” the Left Socialist Revolutionaries defeated the Bolsheviks in an election that same month, and Lenin seized control through military force. During this time, the Red Terror (assassinations of Czar officials), prisoner-of-war labor camps, as well as other police-state policies are enacted.
1.1 Origin of the Soviet Union
After destroying the centuries-old Romanov monarchy, Russia emerged from civil war as the newly established Soviet Union. The world's first Marxist-communist nation would go on to become one of the world's largest and strongest nations, occupying nearly one-sixth of the Earth's land area before its final decline and dissolution in 1991. Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Tajikistan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan constituted the United Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR).
During the Russian Revolution in 1917, the revolutionary Bolsheviks deposed the Russian Tsar and formed four socialist republics. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed in 1922 when Russia and its outlying republics joined. Vladimir Lenin, a Marxist revolutionary, was the first leader of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union was destined to be a true democracy, but it was just as restrictive as the tsarist dictatorship that preceded it. It was dominated by a single party, the Communist Party, which required all Russian citizens to swear allegiance to it.
Following the rise to power of dictator Joseph Stalin in 1924, the state took full control of the economy, supervising all industrial activities and building collective farms. He was also in charge of all aspects of political and social life.
Those who spoke out against Stalin's policies were imprisoned and sent to gulags or executed. Stalin's ruthless actions were criticized by the Soviet authorities after his death in 1953, but the Communist Party remained in power. They focused on the Cold War with Western countries, in which they engaged in a costly and deadly “arms race” with the US while using military force to suppress anti-communism and establish their hegemony in Eastern Europe.
1.2 The Cold War
Following Nazi Germany's surrender at the end of World War II, the uneasy wartime alliance between the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom began to fall apart.
By 1948, the Soviet Union had installed communist-leaning administrations in Eastern European countries that had been liberated from Nazi rule after WWII. The United States and the United Kingdom were concerned about communism spreading over Western Europe and the world.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and its European allies. The Western bloc's alliance was a political show of force against the Soviet Union and its allies. In reaction to NATO, the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 to consolidate power among Eastern bloc countries, triggering the Cold War.
1.3 Economic Destabilization in USSR
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Communist Party leadership amassed riches and power at a rapid rate, while millions of the Soviet ordinary residents were hungry. The Soviet Union's rush to modernize at all costs led to regular shortages of food and consumer goods. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, bread queues were prevalent. Basic necessities such as shoes and clothing were generally not available to Soviet residents.
The difference between the massive wealth of the Politburo and the poverty of the Soviet residents caused a backlash among young people who refused to follow in their parents' footsteps and adopt the ideology of the Communist Party.
The Soviet economy was also the target of external attacks. President Ronald Reagan isolated the Soviet economy from the rest of the world in the 1980s, helping to reduce oil prices to levels not seen in decades. Oil and gas revenues in the Soviet Union fell, and the USSR's control over Eastern Europe began to fade.
1.4 Mikhail Gorbachev’s Reforms—Glasnost and Perestroika
Mikhail Gorbachev, longtime leader of the Communist Party, was elected president of the Soviet Union in March 1985. He entered office with a stagnant economy and a political system that made reform nearly impossible. Gorbachev enacted two sets of policies in hopes of making the USSR a richer and more productive country. Glasnost, or political opening, was the first of these.
Glasnost removed remnants of Stalinist repressions, such as the ban on books and the ever-present secret police, and gave Soviet citizens unprecedented freedoms. Political detainees were released. Newspapers could publish material critical of government policies. For the first time, elections were open to parties other than the Communist Party.
Perestroika, or economic restructuring, was the name given to the second series of reforms. Gorbachev believed that relaxing government control over the Soviet economy was the best way to resurrect it. Individuals and cooperatives were allowed to own businesses for the first time since the 1920s because he believed that private initiative would lead to innovation. Workers were given the freedom to strike to demand better wages and working conditions. Gorbachev was also a proponent of foreign investment in Soviet companies.
These reforms, however, took a long time to bear fruit. The “command economy” that had kept the Soviet state afloat had been destroyed by Perestroika, but the market economy was slow to evolve. Gorbachev summed up the problem in his farewell speech, noting that the old system had collapsed before the new one could get going. Gorbachev's initiatives seemed to have only one result: rationing, shortages, and long lines for scarce goods. As a result, the people became more dissatisfied with his rule.
1.5 Soviet Union Shift from Communism to a Democratic System
George H. W. Bush initially did not accept Ronald Reagan's tactics in negotiating with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Soviet Union after he took office in January 1989. Instead, he demanded a reassessment of strategic doctrine in order to construct his own plan and procedures for dealing with the Soviet Union as well as arms control.
Conditions throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, on the other hand, were rapidly transformed. Gorbachev's decision to loosen Soviet chains on Eastern European countries sparked a wave of independence and democracy that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the subsequent overthrow of communist regimes throughout the region.
Although Bush supported these attempts at independence, the United States took a reactionary stance. Bush intended to let events unfold naturally, so as not to jeopardize Gorbachev's position. After completing the strategy review and taking into account the emerging situation in Europe, Bush met with Gorbachev in Malta in December 1989. They noted the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe and established a framework for completing the START talks and finishing the Conventional Forces in the Europe Treaty.
Bush backed Gorbachev's reform efforts, believing that the Soviet leader would bring the USSR closer to democracy and a market economy. Gorbachev's decision to allow multiparty elections and establish a presidential system for the Soviet Union set in motion a long process of democratization that ultimately destabilized the communist regime and contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.
After the May 1990 elections, Gorbachev faced domestic political threats from both Boris Yeltsin and the pluralist movement, which pushed for democratization and rapid economic reforms, and also from the hard-line communist elite who tried to destroy Gorbachev's reform plan.
Faced with a growing schism between Yeltsin and Gorbachev, the Bush administration decided to focus on Gorbachev, considering him a more reliable partner who had created a series of concessions in favor of the US. The signing of the START Treaty was scheduled.
After the Red Army departed from East Germany, Gorbachev consented to German reunification and acquiesced when the newly reunified Germany entered NATO. After Saddam Hussein's invasion of the United States, the governments of Kuwait and the Soviet Union worked together diplomatically to combat the attack.
1.6 Demise of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe and Pressure on Moscow
Gorbachev's internal problems persisted despite these positive achievements on the international stage. The additional risks to the Moscow government increased the pressure on Gorbachev and the Communist Party to stay in power if somehow the Soviet Union really did survive.
Following the demise of communist administrations in Eastern Europe, the Baltic States and the Caucasus sought independence from Moscow. In January 1991, violence broke out in both Lithuania and Latvia. Democratic revolutions were stopped by Soviet tanks, which Bush angrily opposed.
In 1991, faced with growing instability in the Soviet Union, the Bush administration reassessed political alternatives. There were about three basic options to choose from. The government may continue to support Gorbachev in the hope of preventing the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Alternatively, the US could shift its support to Yeltsin and the Republican authorities, allowing the Soviet Union to be restructured or dismantled in a controlled manner. The fourth option was to offer Gorbachev conditional support in the form of aid and assistance in exchange for more rapid and radical economic and political reforms.
Since Bush did not know how much political capital Gorbachev had left, he combined elements of the second and third options. The Soviet nuclear arsenal was huge, as were its conventional forces, and Gorbachev's continued weakness may jeopardize future arms control negotiations. Bush accepted the START treaty in July 1991 at the Moscow Summit to balance US interests within the Soviet Union and also to express solidarity with Gorbachev. Bush administration officials, on the other hand, increased his contact with Yeltsin.
1.7 Berlin Wall Falls—November 9, 1989
The Berlin Wall falls after almost 30 years of separation between the communist east and the democratic west of Berlin. In 1989–1990, communist regimes collapsed in Nicaragua, Czechoslovakia, Benin, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mozambique, Poland, Romania, and Yemen.
1.8 August 1991 Coup and Declaration of Independence by Ukraine and Belarus
The failed August 1991 coup against Gorbachev sealed the fall of the Soviet Union. Communist hardliners staged the coup, which weakened Gorbachev's authority and pushed Yeltsin, as well as the democratic forces, to the forefront of Soviet and Russian politics.
Despite President Bush's outspoken denunciation of a coup as “extra-constitutional,” Gorbachev's shaky position became apparent to all. He resigned as leader of the Communist Party soon after, separating the authority of the party from the presidency of the Soviet Union. Yeltsin outlawed the party and abolished the Central Committee.
Within days of the coup, Ukraine and Belarus claimed independence from the Soviet Union. After proclaiming independence, the Baltic countries sought international recognition.
1.9 Creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Disappearance of the Soviet Union
Bush administration officials prioritized ethnic conflict reduction, nuclear deterrence, and a peaceful transition to new political systems in the context of rapid and dramatic changes throughout the Soviet Union's geography. On September 4, 1991, Secretary of State James Baker identified five fundamental principles that would guide US policy toward emerging republics: recognition of existing borders, democratic self-determination, preservation of human rights, support for democracy and the rule of law, and the rights of national minorities and respect for international law and commitments.
The basic message was clear: the United States would be happy to assist and help the new republics if they adhered to these values. Baker met with Gorbachev and Yeltsin to try to stabilize the economy and find a method for economic cooperation between the republics and Russia, as well as to figure out how to allow controlled and orderly political reforms.
In early December, Yeltsin and the rulers of Ukraine and Belarus met in Brest to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), effectively proclaiming the demise of the Soviet Union.
1.10 Mikhail Gorbachev is replaced by Boris Yeltsin as President of the Independent Russian State
On December 25, 1991, the Soviet hammer and sickle flag were removed from the Kremlin and replaced by a Russian tricolor. Boris Yeltsin took over as leader of the newly independent state of Russia after Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union earlier in the day. People around the world celebrated the remarkable kind of peaceful transition from the ex-communist monolith to numerous sovereign entities.
The main objective of the Bush administration after the demise of the Soviet Union was to provide political and economic security and stability to Russia, the Baltic Republics, and the former Soviet Union states. After recognizing the 12 sovereign countries, Bush established diplomatic ties with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
In February 1992, Baker traveled to the other republics, establishing diplomatic connections with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. Civil war within Georgia prevented the US from recognizing the country and maintaining diplomatic connections with it until May 1992.
Yeltsin spoke with Bush at David Camp in February 1992 and made a formal state tour to Washington in June. In May 1992, the presidents of Ukraine and Kazakhstan visited Washington. During Yeltsin's visits to Washington, economic adjustments and political and military concerns dominated the debate. The security of the nuclear arsenal of the former Soviet Union was a high priority, as was preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
Baker strongly indicated that the United States would contribute funds to the former Soviet Union to protect chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons. The Nunn-Lugar Act of November 1991 developed the Cooperative Threat Management Program to support weapons destruction within the former Soviet Union based on the START and INF Treaties, as well as other contracts. Bush and Baker also collaborated with the president
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and international agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided financial aid to avert a humanitarian disaster in Russia.