Break Up Of Soviet Union Essay, Research Paper

The Breakup of The Soviet Union

In this essay I am going to talk about the breakup of the Soviet Union and all of the events that took place before, during, and after the split up. I will look into the C.I.S (Commonwealth of Independent States), the Government, economy and the conflicts of the former U.S.S.R.

In July of 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev and ten other Repulic leaders all met and signed a treaty giving each Republic more self-government. Five more leaders were to sign the treaty on August 20, but on the 19th of the month Communist leaders, led by Boris Yeltsin planned a coup against Gorbachev’s Government. They trapped him and his family in their vacation home but he refused to give in to the demands. While this was going on, protesters held demonstrations and strikes broke out all over the country. The Commuist party was suspended in many republics, including the Russian Federation. A few days after the coup, Gorbacev resigned from the party leadership.

In September 1991 an interim government was set up until a new treaty could be worked out . This government included Gorbachev and the leaders of the

other Republics.

On December 8th Russia proclaimed itself the Soviet Union’s successor. Boris Yeltsin and the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus announced the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States and that the U.S.S.R had no longer existed. The Commonwealth of Independent States was an association of nations that were formerly republics of the Soviet Union. They encouraged all others to join with them. On December 21, eleven republics joined, Armenia, Belarus. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Moldova, Russia, Tajistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Georgia became a member in 1993. The headquarters were located in Minsk, Belarus. Only three republics have yet to join, they are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The C.I.S was created for several reasons, the economies of the former republics were closely linked and most members wanted to keep some economic ties, each member also wanted to guarantee its own territory and Sovereinty, the members also sought to reassure the world that the nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union were under reliable control. The C.I.S was created to help out new and developing countries.

Although everything seemed to be all right, they did dispute some matters, they originally only wanted to have one military between all republics but it was changed and each had its own, Russia and Ukraine argued over who owned the Black Sea Fleet, another problem was that most of the members wanted to change the currency from the Ruble so each had to create its own. Russia seemed to see the C.I.S as a permanent solution while others feared that if it stayed that way Russia would take over the C.I.S and use that to control all the other republics.

By the end of 1991 the former republics were all in a terrible state. There was a massive and growing debt that would have to be dealt with, Inflation was already one hundred to two hundred percent and growing , there was a shortage of grains, medical supplies and power. There was also the risk that there would be disagreements over the borders and that could lead to more problems.

The soviet peoples were left to face the great task of building a new political and economical order, a process certain to bring more conflicts to be faced and hopefully overcome.