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The End of the USSR

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The End of Empires

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Abstract

Due to the vast size of the USSR as the largest country on earth and its heavy political-military weight as one of two rivalling nuclear superpowers, the demise of the first communist state was an event of global historic significance. To many people, the lifespan of Soviet power in Russia as it had been established in October 1917 and ended in December 1991 defined the duration of the “short twentieth century” (Eric Hobsbawm). This chapter analyzes the multiple economic, social, ideological and political crisis of the Soviet Union, the fundamental liberalization that was launched under President Mikhail Gorbachev, and the dissolution of the Union in the wake of the Eastern European revolutions of 1989, deepening economic problems, increasing support for national independence in most of the Union’s fifteen republics, and the communist coup of August 1991. The conclusions look into the discussion of whether the dissolution of the USSR was inevitable or not and attempts to analyze the legacy of the first communist state.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more details on the features of the Soviet Union as an empire and for a comprehensive bibliography, cf. Mueller (2014) following the definition of empire as large, ethnically diverse and asymmetrically constructed political entitites aspiring for a special international status and treating their subjects and neighbors according to a certain hierarchy. For a theoretic approach, see Motyl (2001: 4) who defines empire “as a hierarchically organized political system with a hublike structure [...] within which a core elite and state dominate peripheral elites.” For a comparative approach, see Lieven (2000).

  2. 2.

    Chernyaev et al. (2006, 2007); Gorbachev et al. (2010).

  3. 3.

    For memoirs see, e.g. Matlock (1995); Gorbatschow (1995); Schachnazarov (1996); Palazchenko (1997); Grachev (1999); Chernyaev (2000); Yakovlev (2003); Jakowlew (2003).

  4. 4.

    On perestroika, e.g. Dawisha (1991); Brown (2007).

  5. 5.

    On the revolutions of 1989, see, e.g. Lévesque (1997); Kenney (2002); Kotkin et al. (2009); Sebestyen (2009); Tismaneanu et al. (2009); McDermott et al. (2013); Mueller et al. (2015).

  6. 6.

    E.g. Dunlop (1993); Simon and Nadja (1993); Gill (1994); Dallin and Lapidus (1995); Beissinger (2002); Walker (2003); Kotkin (2008); Zubok (2017); Zubok (2021).

  7. 7.

    E.g. Brown (1996); Taubman (2017).

  8. 8.

    E.g. Hanson (2003); Gaidar (2007); Miller (2016).

  9. 9.

    Miller (2016: 7).

  10. 10.

    On the late Cold War, see e.g. Westad (2001); Njolstad (2004); Pons, Romero (2004); Nuti (2015); Blumenau et al. (2018).

  11. 11.

    Braithwaite (2011); Penter, Meier (2017).

  12. 12.

    On Soviet deliberations during the crisis in Poland 1980–1981, see Kramer (1999).

  13. 13.

    Westad (2007).

  14. 14.

    Miller (2016: 77).

  15. 15.

    Kotkin (2008: 63).

  16. 16.

    Gorbatschow (1995: 309); Simon and Simon (1993: 191); Zubok (2007: 268, 277).

  17. 17.

    Kudryashov (2006: 103).

  18. 18.

    Hanson (2003: 124, 130–137, 154–158).

  19. 19.

    Hanson (2003: 174); Miller (2016: 61).

  20. 20.

    Taubman (2017: 212–214, 297–298).

  21. 21.

    Nove (1994: 139).

  22. 22.

    Huber (2002: 38–40).

  23. 23.

    Kotkin (2008: vii).

  24. 24.

    Dallin (1992: 290–291); Yurchak (2005: 7).

  25. 25.

    Shlapentokh (2001: 182).

  26. 26.

    Huber (2002: 29).

  27. 27.

    Altrichter (2009: 20).

  28. 28.

    Goryachev (2005: 97); Hildermeier (1998: table 49).

  29. 29.

    Schattenberg (2017).

  30. 30.

    Kotkin (2008: 46).

  31. 31.

    Quoted from Zubok (1994: 162).

  32. 32.

    Quoted from Kotkin (2008: 53, 235).

  33. 33.

    Gorbatschow (2015: 245); Shevardnadze (1991: 26).

  34. 34.

    Brinton (1965).

  35. 35.

    Shlapentokh (2001: 181–182).

  36. 36.

    Brown (2006: 319).

  37. 37.

    Brown (1996: 118–121, 155).

  38. 38.

    Zubok (1994: 167–168).

  39. 39.

    Altrichter (2002: 534, 552); Matlock (1995: 53).

  40. 40.

    Miller (2016: 90–105).

  41. 41.

    Hanson (2003: 196–197, 204–206); the figures from Cohen (2004: 481).

  42. 42.

    D’Agostino (1998: 176); Altrichter (2002: 532–533).

  43. 43.

    Kramer (2003: 225, 229, 231).

  44. 44.

    Matlock (1995: 58).

  45. 45.

    Altrichter (2002: 533); Hanson (2003: 210). Lower figures (58 billion rubles, 6% of GDP in 1990) are given ibid.: 231.

  46. 46.

    Hanson (2003: 192).

  47. 47.

    Huber (2002: 98); Matlock (1995: 59).

  48. 48.

    D’Agostino (1998: 110); Plokhy (2018).

  49. 49.

    Matlock (1995: 106).

  50. 50.

    Altrichter (2002: 544).

  51. 51.

    Hildermeier (2016: 92).

  52. 52.

    Altrichter (2002: 521).

  53. 53.

    Brown (2006: 324).

  54. 54.

    Matlock (1995: 62).

  55. 55.

    Prozumenshchikov (2015).

  56. 56.

    Altrichter (2002: 546–550).

  57. 57.

    Medyakov (2017: 371).

  58. 58.

    Altrichter (2002: 550).

  59. 59.

    Brown (2006: 323).

  60. 60.

    Brown (1996: 193).

  61. 61.

    Matlock (1995: 64); D’Agostino (1998: 100).

  62. 62.

    Lévesque (1997: 76, 79).

  63. 63.

    Altrichter (2002: 540; Matlock (1995: 212).

  64. 64.

    Brown (1996: 203).

  65. 65.

    Brown (2006: 238f).

  66. 66.

    Brown (1996: 221); Altrichter (2002: 584); D’Agostino (1998: 88–89).

  67. 67.

    Quoted from Grachev (2008: 55).

  68. 68.

    Although at around the same time, in 1986, Gorbachev approved a massive five-year investment program in biological weapons. Taubman (2017: 656).

  69. 69.

    Kalinovsky (2011).

  70. 70.

    Graf (2019).

  71. 71.

    Cherniaev (1994: 158); Brown (1996: 249).

  72. 72.

    Kramer (2003: 183).

  73. 73.

    Politburo, 3 Jul. 1988. In Chernyaev et al. (2006: 53).

  74. 74.

    Kramer (2011: 788). See also Kramer (2003, 2004, 2005).

  75. 75.

    E. Shevardnadze, D. Yazov and V. Kamentsev to M. Gorbachev, 25 March 1989. In Kataev Papers, Box 13, Folder 14, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Cal. Cited in Kramer (2011: 814). German translation published in Karner et al. (2014: 314).

  76. 76.

    Cited from Rödder (2009: 51); Cf. Zubok (2007: 267).

  77. 77.

    Brown (1996: 225).

  78. 78.

    Lévesque (1997: 56, 75, 240).

  79. 79.

    Nove (1994: 142). Cf. Levesque (1997: 1); Brown (2007: 222). For an opposite opinion, see Pleshakov (2009: 6).

  80. 80.

    Kramer (2011: 788).

  81. 81.

    Kramer (2003: 181).

  82. 82.

    Bartel (2018).

  83. 83.

    On the revolutions of 1989, see, e.g. Lévesque (1997); Kenney (2002); Kotkin et al. (2009); Sebestyen (2009); Tismaneanu et al. (2009); McDermott et al. (2013); Mueller et al. (2015); Graf (2018).

  84. 84.

    Cf. Savranskaya et al. (2010); Prozumenshchikov et al. (2015); for the role of Shevardnadze see Mueller (2018).

  85. 85.

    Zubok (2021: 51). On the multi-ethnic structure of Russia and the USSR, see Kappeler (1993), and Simon 1986).

  86. 86.

    Medvedev (2003: 113). Cf. Carrère d’Encausse (1979).

  87. 87.

    Pravda (2010: 365–366). See also Kenney (2002).

  88. 88.

    Kramer (2003: 204–207, 211, 214–224, 224–229).

  89. 89.

    Kramer (2004: 19).

  90. 90.

    Kramer (2005: 91).

  91. 91.

    Kramer (2004: 32).

  92. 92.

    Nove (1994: 140).

  93. 93.

    McNeill (1994: 12–13).

  94. 94.

    Brown (2006: 330).

  95. 95.

    Brown (1996: 259).

  96. 96.

    Hildermeier (2016: 95).

  97. 97.

    Altrichter (2002: 563).

  98. 98.

    Huber (2002: 155–157); Altrichter (2002: 572).

  99. 99.

    Altrichter (2002: 568); Matlock (1995: 239).

  100. 100.

    Yakovlev (2003: 563).

  101. 101.

    Matlock (1995: 652); D’Agostino (1998: 290).

  102. 102.

     Kryuchkov (1996: II, 31).

  103. 103.

    Chernyaev (2008: 900f); Chernyaev (2011: 13 Jan. 1991).

  104. 104.

    Altrichter (2002: 573).

  105. 105.

    Hanson (2003: 220, 229, 231–232, 236); Miller (2016: 145–147, 152, 155–157).

  106. 106.

    Miller (2016: 4, 66); Hanson (2003: 226).

  107. 107.

    Hanson (2003: 234 (quote), 237).

  108. 108.

    Kramer (2004: 13).

  109. 109.

    Jakowlew (2003: 540).

  110. 110.

    Taubman (2017: 685).

  111. 111.

    Odom (1998); Taylor (2003).

  112. 112.

    Kramer (2004: 16). Cf. Zubok (2021: 115; 283).

  113. 113.

    Medvedev (2003: 113).

  114. 114.

    Huber (2002: 164); Brown (2006: 347).

  115. 115.

    Database and Search Engine for Direct Democracy, “Sowjetunion, 17. März 1991: Weiterbestand der UdSSR als Föderation gleichberechtigter und souveräner Staaten,“https://www.sudd.ch/event.php?lang=en&id=su011991 (2019); Data from Archiv der Gegenwart 1991: 35440.B2; 1996: 40885A.

  116. 116.

    Brown (1996: 286).

  117. 117.

    Altrichter (2002: 574); Matlock (1995: 578).

  118. 118.

    On the coup attempt, see Knight (2003); Lozo (2014).

  119. 119.

    Huber (2002: 248–249).

  120. 120.

    Brown (1996: 303).

  121. 121.

    Huber (2002: 261). Cf. Spohr Readman (2004).

  122. 122.

    Matlock (1995: 619).

  123. 123.

    Matlock (1995: 627).

  124. 124.

    Zubok (2021: 386).

  125. 125.

    Huber (2002:276).

  126. 126.

    Miller (2016: 160).

  127. 127.

    Matlock (1995: 4).

  128. 128.

    Tocqueville (1856: 214).

  129. 129.

    Pravda (2010: 356–363).

  130. 130.

    Chubarian (1994: 149).

  131. 131.

    Chubarian (1994: 152); cf. Zubok (1994: 162).

  132. 132.

    Pravda (2010: 356–363). On nationality policy, see Suny et al. (2001); Martin (2001); Hirsch (2005). On Western policy, Wallander (2003); and, most recently, Plokhy (2014).

  133. 133.

    Dawisha (2004: 514).

  134. 134.

    Taylor (2003: 63).

  135. 135.

    Yurchak (2005: 1).

  136. 136.

    Altrichter (2002: 523).

  137. 137.

    Dallin (1992: 282).

  138. 138.

    Ibid.: 297.

  139. 139.

    Shlapentokh (2001: 9 and 179).

  140. 140.

    Kotkin (2008: 1).

  141. 141.

    Zubok (2007: 307).

  142. 142.

    Zubok (2021: 397).

  143. 143.

    Zubok (2017: 270).

  144. 144.

    Quoted from Nove (1994: 144).

  145. 145.

    Quoted from Cohen (2004: 460).

  146. 146.

    Beissinger (2002: 371).

  147. 147.

    Amalrik (1970).

  148. 148.

    Plokhy (2014: xxxi–xxxii).

  149. 149.

    Miller (2016: 181–182).

  150. 150.

    Kotkin (2008: 3).

  151. 151.

    Kotkin (2008: 16).

  152. 152.

    Plokhy (2014: xxxiv).

  153. 153.

    Beissinger (2002: 389).

  154. 154.

    Dawisha (2004: 517).

  155. 155.

    Quoted from Dawisha (2004: 523).

  156. 156.

    The Moscow Times (2018). The Levada Center “has conducted the poll since March 1992. In that time, regret for the Soviet collapse peaked in 2000 at 75 percent, but only fell below 50 percent once–in 2012.” In December 2018, the level was at 66 percent.

  157. 157.

    The Moscow Times (2019).

  158. 158.

    Putin (2005).

  159. 159.

    Dawisha (2004: 526).

  160. 160.

    Plokhy (2014: xxii).

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  1. Universität Wien, Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte, Wien, Österreich, Germany

    Wolfgang Mueller

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    Michael Gehler

  2. Universität Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Robert Rollinger

  3. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Philipp Strobl

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Mueller, W. (2022). The End of the USSR. In: Gehler, M., Rollinger, R., Strobl, P. (eds) The End of Empires. Universal- und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-36876-0_31

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