Central Texas Model United Nations 2016
Background Guide:
The Break Up of the Soviet Union
Letter to the Delegates
Привет, делегаты! I hope that your preparations for this year’s CTMUN Crisis
Conference are going well! My name is Jonathan Cox, and I’ll be your Crisis Director for this
conference. For those of you that are new to crisis committees, or MUN in general, this means
that I am in charge of crafting the lovely little disruptions that it is all of your responsibilities to
deal with – and trust me, I think I’ve got some nice surprises cooked up. As a bit of introduction,
I’m currently a junior in pursuit of a B.A. in Economics, with minors in Accounting and Russian,
Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies. As such, I’ve gotten to play a part in a number of
Russian and Soviet focused committees, so I’ll do my best to keep this committee as historically
plausible as possible.
For all the new and inexperienced delegates getting ready to participate in Crisis for the
first time, let me assure you that this is the best conference to do so. I can personally guarantee
you all that the staff you’ll be working with in this committee is top-notch; I’ve worked with
them myself for a long time, and can attest to their professionalism and experience. Additionally,
we’re all aware of how many beginners come to this conference each spring, and are prepared to
modify the experience to help said beginners learn and have fun.
All in all, I hope you’re all looking forward to this year’s conference as much as I am. I’ll
see you all in April!
Jonathan Cox
Crisis Director, Fall of the Soviet Union
I: Introduction
On Christmas Night, in 1991, at 7:32 PM in Moscow, the flag of the Soviet Union flying
over the Kremlin was lowered, as it had been countless times before. This time, however, it
would stay down. The next morning, for the first time, the modern tricolor of the Russian
Federation was raised in its place. That day, 26 December 1991, the upper house of the Soviet
legislature officially voted to dissolve the Soviet Union as a state and entity subject to
international law. By this time, all of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union had declared
their independence; the writing had been on the wall for months. The monolithic Soviet Union,
which had stood as a supposed “workers’ paradise” in its early years, a bulwark against the
spread of fascism during World War II, and the antithesis to the capitalist West for decades, now
ceased to exist. This story, however, is not to say that the great Soviet Union fell apart due to
intense pressure over a period of months. Dissidence was not uncommon in various Soviet
republics and satellite states, as was made abundantly clear during the Soviet invasion of
Hungary in 1956 and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. East and West
Germany had been points of contention between NATO and the USSR for decades, as East
Germans continuously sought ways to escape to the West. In short, it came as no surprise to
many that the Soviet Union collapsed when it did.
Of course, comrades, the wonderful thing about historical simulation is that it is just that
– a simulation. It falls to you to determine the fate of the Soviet Union. Will you mirror history,
and watch as new nations take the place of the monolith that once was the Soviet Bloc? Or will
you change history and assure that the USSR will stand the test of time?
II: Soviet History since WWII
World War II, as it did for all belligerents, marked a turning point in Soviet history. As
soon as the hated Nazi Reich was overthrown and Berlin rested in Red hands, Stalin began to see
a new future for Europe: one in which rule would come from the East, not West, and in which
capitalism, that hated, unfair system that continuously oppressed the working masses of the
world, would be replaced by a glorious communist system. Much like the United States in
Western Europe, the USSR began rebuilding efforts in Eastern and Central European states,
reconstructing infrastructure and economies while assuring that Soviet control was firmly
established. The Americans, French, and English recognized this, with Winston Churchill
predicting early that the Soviets intended to assert dominance over the East. In response, the
Western Allies, in particular the United States, began to take an increasingly hard line against
what they perceived to be a communist threat to Europe. Despite a huge blow to Soviet efforts at
establishing a united communist body, COMINTERN, when Yugoslavia split with them, U.S.
President Harry Truman announced a policy of Soviet containment, as outlined by the Truman
Doctrine. This is widely interpreted as being the true beginning of the Cold War.
Over the next five-plus years, Western and Soviet powers would butt heads again and
again, largely over the partitioning of Germany between the sides. Tensions would continue to
escalate over the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, and the first
successful test of an atomic weapon by the Soviet Union. Tempers flared when the Soviets
blockaded the city of Berlin, and the West responded by airlifting supplies to its citizens. A
communist takeover in China scrambled the United States and its allies, setting a new focus on
Asia. The two sides engaged in proxy during the Korean War, with the South enjoying the
support of the West and the North siding with the USSR.
The rises to power of President Eisenhower and Premier Khrushchev gave the NATOSoviet power struggle a new face. Eisenhower, a former general, and his staff adopted two
mindsets that would set the tone for the following decades: a new reliance on nuclear weapons as
a means of deterrence, and the doctrine of “mass retaliation” against any Soviet aggressions.
Meanwhile, Khrushchev began the lengthy process of de-Stalinization, in which his government
removed the bodies Stalin had used to keep power and began to promote intellectualism. It
looked, for a time, that Khrushchev’s Soviet Union would be softer than that of Stalin. However,
following the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Khrushchev began to take a harder line, threatening
the West with nuclear strikes for years. During this timeframe, the U.S. and USSR clashed time
and again through proxies in the Third World. Perhaps the most notable of these is Cuba, whose
relationship with the Soviets (which led them to house nuclear missiles for the Kremlin) almost
led to full-blown war with the West. The Detante Era that followed in the late 1960s and 70s was
defined by a changing global political climate, in which powers outside of the polar US-USSR
structure began to play a role. The French withdrew from NATO, which they saw as a US puppet
in Europe; Japan, its recovery taking shape, began to take the stage; and Czechoslovakia
challenged the might of the Warsaw Pact by calling for liberalization, before tanks rolled into
Prague.
It was in the 1980s that the foundation of the Soviet Union truly
began to show its cracks. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen to lead
the Soviet Union. Gorbachev, perceiving weakness in the Soviet
economy, chose to pursue a new series of reforms, together known as
Glasnost and Perestroika. These reforms sought to make the Soviet
government more transparent and to liberalize both the government and
the economy. Some historians, however, list these reforms as a cause of
the Soviet collapse, as a new wave of liberalization encouraged states to
resist Moscow’s command and take control of their own futures. Many of
the Soviet satellites of the Eastern Bloc, in particular Czechoslovakia, Poland,
and Romania, rebelled against Moscow; these revolts ran the gamut from the peaceful Velvet
Revolution to the violent overthrow of the Romanian Communist Party. New nationalist
movements arose within constituent Soviet republics, like Ukraine. There were, of course, those
across the USSR and Eastern Bloc that advocated for the strengthening and continuation of the
Soviet Union; these forces butted heads with those calling for reform often during the late 1980s.
In the early years of the 1990s, however, the Soviet Union succumbed to the pressures from
within and without, and a wealth of new nations arose in its place.
Character List:
Anatoly Lukyanov: First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet
A political ally of Gorbachev, Lukyanov was a high state official from 1985 to the
collapse of the USSR. By the late 1980s, he had begun to turn against Gorbachev, predicting that
Perestroika would destroy the Union.
Gennady Yanayev: Deputy Chairman of Trade Unions
Yanayev held a variety of roles in the Soviet government throughout the 80s, and became
increasingly concerned about the direction of the USSR under Gorbachev. He played a major
part in the August Coup and was briefly the acting Vice-President of the USSR.
Valentin Pavlov: Minister of Finance
Pavlov was the Minister of Finance for the Gorbachev government, and supported
Gorbachev’s attempts at market liberalization. It was only when Gorbachev seemed poised to
replace him as Prime Minister in 1991 that Pavlov turned against him, taking part in the August
Coup.
Boris Pugo: Chairman of the Central Control Commission
As Chair of the CCC, Pugo led the disciplinary committee for the Soviet Government. As
a member of the August Coup, he pushed to crush dissent to the new government. He was the
only member of the Coup to commit suicide to avoid arrest.
Dmitry Yazov: Minister of Defense
A long-time military commander and veteran of World War II, Yazov led Soviet
detachments all across the Eastern Bloc. He also played a part in the August Coup.
Vladimir Kryuchkov: Chairman of the KGB
Kryuchkov was a hardline communist and a long-time member of the KGB. It was he
who initiated the August Coup and arranged for Premier Gorbachev to be arrested.
Oleg Baklanov: Secretariat Member
A member of the CPSU Central Committee, which was largely responsible for state
defense, Baklanov also played a huge role in the Soviet space program throughout the 1980s. He
played a part in the August Coup.
Vasily Starodubtsev: Hero of Socialist Labor and member of the All-Union Agricultural
Committee
Starodubtsev, a member of the August Coup, was a decorated member of the Soviet work
force before ascending to office in the 1980s.
Alexander Tizyakov: representative of the state defense industry
Tizyakov was a major player in the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union, and
was the only member of the August Coup to not be in the government at the time.
Boris Yeltsin: Co-Chairman of the Inter-Regional Group of Deputies of the Supreme Soviet
A staunch opponent of Gorbachev, Yeltsin was one of the leaders of the opposition
within the Soviet legislature, and sought to increase reforms for the USSR.
Anderi Sakharov: Co-Chairman of the Inter-Regional Group of Deputies of the Supreme Soviet
Sakharov spent much of his life in exile for his outspoken opposition to certain Soviet
policies, but was allowed to return to Moscow in the 1980s, where he was elected to the Supreme
Soviet. He assisted Yeltsin in heading the opposition.
Gustav Husak: President of Czechoslovakia
The longtime leader of the Czechoslovak communists, Husak was integral in normalizing
relations with the Soviets following the Prague Spring. As a communist, he supports continuing
these relations.
Vaclav Havel: Representative of the Czechoslovakian Civic Forum
Vaclav Havel is somewhat of a “peoples’ hero” in Czechoslovakia, and continually calls
for reforms, liberalization, and increased Czechoslovak independence.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki: Prime Minister of Poland
Imprisonment in the early 1980s was not enough to stop Tadeusz Mazowiecki from
returning to the public realm, where he was elected as the first non-communist Prime Minister of
Poland in decades.
Wojciech Jaruzelski: President of Poland
The President of the Polish People’s Republic, Jaruzelski was a military man for much of
his career, and stands with the Soviet Union as a member of the Polish United Workers’ Party.
Miklos Nemeth: Prime Minister of Hungary
Nemeth was a prominent economist in Hungary, and was chosen from among five
candidates to serve as Prime Minister. It was he that made the decision to open the borders with
East Germany and allow East Germans to flee the country.
Georgi Atanasov: Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Atanasov led the Bulgarian Communists for a long while before being selected to lead the
nation as Prime Minister.
Hans Modrow: Prime Minister of East Germany
After serving in World War II, Modrow joined the Socialist Unity Party of East
Germany, and eventually rose through the ranks to become Prime Minister. Modrow was
Gorbachev’s personal choice to lead the Socialist Unity Party.
Nicolae Ceausescu: President of Romania and General Secretary of its Communist Party
Ceausescu ruled both Romania and its Communist Party from the late 1960s to their
overthrows. Despite Khrushchev’s efforts to de-Stalinize, Ceausescu continued to run a very
Stalinist regime for as long as he held power.
Nursultan Nazarbayev: First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR
Despite being a close friend of Mikhail Gorbachev, Nazarbayev was not the most ardent
communist, and actually criticized the system and communist officials while a bureaucrat,
resulting in his removal.
Valentyna Shevchenko: Chairwoman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR
Shevchenko was a longtime member of the Ukrainian Soviet, and played the part of its
leader near the country’s break with the Soviet Union. She is known for refusing to prohibit the
creation and activities of Ukraine’s first opposition group.
Vladimir Ivashko: First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Ivashko was the leader of the communist faction in Ukraine during the Gorbachev era.
He led the communists to a legislative majority in Ukraine’s first free elections.
Alexander Lukashenko: Belorussian Communist politician*
Lukashenko would later become the long-term President of Belarus; ironically enough,
he was the only Belorussian politician to vote against dissolving the Soviet Union and creating
the CIS.
In addition, the committee will contain four guest members from foreign communist
organiazations with vested interests in the future of the Soviet Union; these delegates will
maintain their nations’ positions on the subject.
-Budimir Loncar, Foreign Minister and Delegate from Yugoslavia
-Gus Hall, Chairman of Communist Party USA
-Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China
-Isidoro Malmierca Peoli, Foreign Minister of Cuba