https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrnL8t9fDuk&ab_channel=BaZiKrus
WHERE THE SOVIET UNION IS AT…
• Brezhnev
• Politburo – ruling committee of the Communist
• Crushed all political disagreement
• Censors decided what could be published
• There was no freedom of religion or worship
GORBACHEV MAKES CHANGES
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Decided to pursue new ideas because of issues like the stagnation of the
Russian economy, and rarely changing society
• Glasnost – openness
• Allowed churches to open
• Freed dissidents
• Allowed publication of books by banned authors
• Reporters investigated problems
• Officials were criticized
• Perestroika – economic restructuring
• Allowed managers to gain authority over their farms and factories
• Small businesses were allowed
• Simplified – allowed for capitalism
GORBACHEV MOVES TOWARD DEMOCRACY
 Third Gorbachev change
 Democratization – gradual opening of the political system
 Called for the election of a new legislative body
 People tended to chose lesser-known candidates and reformers
over powerful party members
 Foreign Policy
 To compete with the SU, Ronald Reagan (US) started spending money
on military
 About $2 trillion were spent, the most ever spent on military buildup
in peacetime
 Led to an expensive arms race btw the SU and US
 Gorbachev realized the SU could not afford to keep up
 Signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

Banned nuclear missiles with ranges for 300 to 3,400 miles
REFORMING THE ECONOMY AND POLITICS
• As Gorbachev offers more freedom to the SU, the satellite states are
interested in the same freedom
• Leads to nationalist movements across the SU
• Lithuania
• March 1990 - First challenger to Soviet rule
• To force it back in, Gorbachev ordered an economic blockade of the
country
• Did not work
• Gorbachev feared this might set an example for the other countries
• Jan 1991 Soviet troops attacked unarmed civilians in the capital
• 14 were killed, hundreds were wounded
THE SOVIET UNION FACES TURMOIL
• Yeltsin denounces Gorbachev
• W/ Lithuania and the slow recovery of the economy, Gorbachev
loses popularity
• Boris Yeltsin – member of Parliament and former mayor of
Moscow
• Criticized the actions in Lithuania and the pace of reforms
• June 1991 Yeltsin was elected president of the RUSSIAN
FEDERATION
• Threat of hard-liners – conservatives who opposed reform
• Argued the SU role as the dominant forces in Eastern Europe
• Vowed to undo his reforms
MORE TURMOIL
• The August Coup
• Aug 18, 1991 hardliners detained Gorbachev at his vacation
home on the Black Sea
• Demanded his resignation as SOVIET PRESIDENT
• Hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles rolled into Moscow
but the people did not back down
• Protestors started to gather at the parliament, where Yeltsin
had his office
• Aug 20 – hardliners ordered the troops to attack the
parliament building but they refused
• Aug 21 – military withdrew forces from Moscow
• Gorbachev refused
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrnL8t9fDuk&ab_channel=BaZiKrus
FALL OF THE SOVIET UNION
• Coup sparked anger against the Communist party
• Gorbachev resigned
• Soviet parliament stopped all party activities
• Estonia and Latvia declared their independence, others followed
• By Dec all 15 republics declared independence
• Yeltsin met with all the leaders to chart a new course
• Agreed to form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – a
loose federation of former Soviet territories
• Dec 25, 1991 – Gorbachev resigned as president of the SU
• SU ceased to exist
RUSSIA UNDER BORIS YELTSIN
• Yeltsin’s problems
• “Shock Therapy” – abrupt shift to free market economics
• Lowered trade barriers, removed price controls, and ended subsidies
to state-owned industries
• Lead to initial high prices
• Factories shut down – thousands of people were thrown out of work
• Led to a political crisis
• Legislators opposed the policies by locking themselves in the
Parliament building
• Yeltsin ordered the building bombed – many were killed, the others
surrendered
RUSSIA UNDER BORIS YELTSIN
• Chechnya Rebels
• Chechnya – an area of largely Muslims in SW Russia – declared
its independence
• Yeltsin denied it and sent in troops to keep control
• Aug 1996 the sides signed a cease-fire but it did not help
• 1999 the fighting started again
• Forced Yeltsin to resign and Vladimir Putin was named
acting president
RUSSIA UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN
• Putin and Chechnya
• Aggressively attacked the rebels, which was initially welcomed by
the Russian people
• Brought violence to Moscow
• Rebels seized a theater in Moscow and more than 150 people
died in the rescue attempt
• War dragged on and while today they have been relatively quiet,
the rebellion is still going on politically
RUSSIA UNDER VLADIMIR PUTIN
• Economic, Political, and Social Problems
• Russia has been moving to greater participation in world trade through
modernization of banks, insurance, and tax codes
• They have also been suppressing the free press and religious freedom