It was one of the most powerful
regimes to ever exist on earth, and the only nation capable of going toe to toe
with the might American military - but it went up in smoke in just a few short years. This is
the real reason the Soviet Union collapsed. The seeds of the Soviet Union were planted all
the way back in the 19th century. Serfdom was abolished in the Russian empire in 1861, but even
then the terms were highly unfavorable to the peasants. First, they had to continue working the
land that belonged to nobles for two years after abolition, and said nobles got to keep the best
bits of Russian land. To add insult to injury, nobles had their debts paid for by the Russian
government, while freed serfs paid as much as 34% over market price for the tiny plots of lands
they were granted. Naturally, this led to revolts and the dream of a Russia by the people, for
the people. The seeds of communism were sown. In 1905 an ongoing wave of revolution led
to what became known as the First Russian Revolution. The cause of the revolution
was fourfold: Peasants were earning too little and weren't allowed to either sell
or mortgage the land they had been given, instead being forced to continue working it for
meager pay- a step not far removed from actual serfdom. Ethnic and national minorities
also resented the Russian government for its discrimination against them, and policies of
prejudice and segregation. Workers in the cities, who fared a little better than peasants in
the countryside, resented the government for not taking steps to protect them from
exploitation by their employers- in fact, it was quite the opposite as the government
banned strikes and labor unions. Finally, the new generation was enjoying more liberal
education and access to new world views, which encouraged them to criticize the autocratic
Russian czar and yearn for more liberties. To add fuel to the fire, Russia had just lost a
war with Japan- which was seen as a minor military power. The crushing defeat in the Pacific utterly
humiliated a Russian empire which was struggling to prove it too was a modern and capable European
power. Soldiers returning from the war found few jobs, inadequate pay, and poor treatment- almost
immediately they began to organize protests. Despite mounting political pressure and
a bloody confrontation between imperial troops and civilian protesters, Tsar Nicholas II
refused to change his country from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. He may
have won himself a temporary reprieve from Russia's fermenting civil unrest, but his
failure to improve the lives of his people would be the deathblow for the Russian empire
shortly after the outbreak of World War I. As the First World War broke out, Germany
initiated a plan to defeat the allies. Facing a two-front war, Germany first tried to
knock France out of the war in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan, however the plan had been heavily
modified and rendered largely ineffective by then. As the war dragged to a detente in the west,
Germany saw political weakness in Russia due to civil unrest and focused on inflicting
maximum casualties on the aging empire. Russia thus saw some of the most brutal
fighting of the opening years of the war, and by 1917 a mix of German aggression and poor
performance by the Russian military had led to the almost complete collapse of Russian
morale. Back home, food shortages and general war weariness only compounded the anger of the
Russian people- until finally it was too much. Workers and soldiers launched a spontaneous
uprising in Petrograd, culminating in the February Revolution which overthrew Nicholas
II and his imperial government by March of 1917. The Tsar's government was replaced by a
provisional government which planned to hold elections to a Russian Constituent Assembly and
then rejoin the war on the side of the allies. But as the Tsar was being overthrown, workers'
councils known as 'Soviets' began to spring up across the country. Vladimir Lenin led
his own faction, known as the Bolsheviks, in uniting many of these Soviets and
in pushing for a socialist revolution. Lenin viewed the Constituent Assembly
as another form of the Duma created by the Tsar to appease the peasants. While
commoners could be elected to the Tsar's Duma, in truth they held very little power and the Tsar
reserved the right to veto any of their decisions. Lenin feared the Constituent Assembly would
be a modern version of the old Duma, and led the Bolsheviks and their supporters in a popular
revolt. On November 7th, 1917, his forces stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, dismantling the
provisional government and granting all political power to Lenin and his Soviets. The very next
month the new Bolshevik government signed an armistice with the Central powers, though fighting
resumed in the new year until finally in March the Soviet Union was officially out of World War I
with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Lenin had no interest in fighting what he saw as
a war of imperialist aggression between competing imperial powers, and wanted the Soviet
Union to stay out of it. For the Allies, the Soviet withdrawal was a strategic
disaster, as it allowed Germany to concentrate the full bulk of its
forces against Britain and France. Thus they sent military aid to imperialists and
other revolutionaries inside of Russia who wished to see the Bolsheviks thrown out of power.
As enemies of the Bolsheviks grew, a civil war between the Communist Reds and the various
allied revolutionaries, known as Whites, began. From the beginning the odds were against
the Whites, as they differed wildly in opinions and goals. Some wished to see
the Tsar returned to power and the Russian imperial government restored- others had no
intention of allowing the Tsar to rule again and simply wanted the Communists out of power.
Western European powers were just happy to have anyone win the war who would put Russia's
military back into action against Germany. The Bolsheviks however were completely unified
in their resolve to resist the Whites. To prevent an imperial government from being reestablished,
they executed the Tsar and his family in a famous massacre. Their deaths came as a shock to many
across Europe, who still clung to the old imperial thinking that saw monarchs as nigh untouchable
political figures who even if out of favor, were to be exiled at best and certainly
not gunned down in a basement. In the end, the unified Reds defeated the Whites and
the growing Soviet Union remained intact, abiding by its agreement with Germany to remain
neutral in the ongoing war against the Allies. On the 28th of December, 1922, the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would officially come to be as a result
of a conference between Soviet Russia, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative
Soviet Republic, Soviet Ukraine, and Byelorussia. These four powers came together
and unified in cause, giving birth to the Soviet Union we all know and love with a proclamation
made from the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The new Soviet Union immediately took to
addressing many economic and logistical problems that had plagued Russia for decades and
made it a second-rate European power. One of the largest goals of the government was
the complete electrification of the country, as it would allow Russian industry to join the
modern world and lift the standard of living for all. This plan, known as the GOELRO plan, would
become the prototype for the famed Five-Year plans which would shape the course of the Soviet
Union's development until its dissolution in 1991. By 1931 the Soviet Union would be fully
electrified, and by the end of the second 5 year plan in 1937 the Soviet Union's heavy industry
was amongst the most productive in the world. The core political system of the Soviet Union
was rule by one party- the Communist Party, who's stated purpose was to avoid exploitation by
capitalist powers. In theory this meant abiding by an ideology of democratic centralism- a
system which was meant to unite the entire party on issues after said issue won a majority
vote. Once a majority vote was in fact reached, all other members of the party were expected to
immediately cease any opposition to it and work to support it. In practice though, democratic
centralism was never truly implemented in the Soviet Union- or China who would later
follow its model. Instead, infighting between political factions within the Communist party
prevented the ever elusive harmonious unity. One of the chief divides within the Communist
party was over the matter of the nation's very survival. It was no secret that western,
capitalist powers were hostile to the Communist system, as they saw the spread of worker's
rights as detrimental to their own economies. In order to survive, the question was posed-
would the Soviet Union be better protected by waging ongoing, global revolution, or by
keeping its influence within its own borders? Ongoing global revolution hoped to achieve the
survival of the Soviet state by gradually turning other countries to communism, thus adding
to the number of allies the Soviet Union had and creating buffers between itself and
Western capitalist powers. The hope of global revolution however was diminished when socialist
revolutions failed in Germany and Hungary. On April 2rd of 1922, Joseph Stalin was named
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in effect making him ruler
over the entire Soviet Union. Stalin had lied, cheated, manipulated, and even killed his way
into power, and was so feared that even Lenin warned he would be destructive to the dream
of true communism. Lenin's warnings would ring true as Stalin worked from the day of his
appointment to either force out or eliminate his political rivals with only one goal in mind:
to become absolute ruler of the Soviet Union. Naturally, many communist party members
were violently opposed to Stalin- their goal all along had been to build
a democratic system that protected its constituents from the economic and
political influence of powerful elites. These opposition members were gradually edged out
of power, and communism's fate was decided in 1927 when communist party founding members Grigory
Zinoviev and Leon Trotsky were forced into exile. Now Stalin ruled uncontested,
staffing the communist party with yes-men who would approve his every decision
and his ongoing appointment as party chairman. Today, China's president Xi Jinping has
copied Stalin's playbook to the letter, ensuring that he remains president of China
for as long as he wishes. Almost immediately, Stalin's brutal regime would subvert
communism and turn it into Stalinism- a distinction many modern
critics still fail to grasp. While Lenin had allowed private ownership of
land and industry alongside collectivization, Stalin put the state in control of all industry
and forced the collectivization of all farms- with disastrous consequences. Famines sprung up from
grossly inefficient farming practices and former land owners started to oppose the regime. Stalin
responded by persecuting what he termed “wealthy peasants', the Kulaks who owned as much as eight
acres each before collectivization. Many Kulaks would be sent to gulags where they would likely
die from malnutrition, exposure, or forced labor. Despite this though, Soviet industry grew
until becoming a modern power in the 1930s. As the Stalinist government gained international
legitimacy it became accepted as the rightful ruler of the Soviet Union, with the United States
establishing formal diplomatic relations in 1933 and the USSR being invited to the World
Disarmament Conference between 1932 and 1934. Back home though the NKVD,
or Soviet secret police, had been busy conducting a staggering purge of
Soviet society, government, and even military. Stalin's paranoia pushed him to eliminate
anyone he suspected of conspiring against him, leading to the executions of
681,692 people over two years, for an average of 1,000 executions a day. Many
of these were original Bolshevik revolutionaries, who likely still held allegiances to the old
dream of communism, not Stalin's dictatorship. Stalin's purges though were about
to cost the Soviet Union greatly. When Britain and France refused a formal
alliance against Nazi Germany, Stalin decided to instead cozy up to Germany, leading to the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the German-Soviet Commercial Agreement in August of 1939. With
promises of German support and non-interference, the Soviet Union was able to occupy Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bulkovina, and eastern Poland. Meanwhile, under the
pretense of increasing the security of Leningrad, the Soviet Union attempted to coerce Finland into
ceasing 16 miles (25 km) of territory along its border- terms it knew Finland would never
agree to. When Finland predictably refused, the much larger Soviet Union immediately
invaded, prompting the infamous Winter War. Vastly outnumbered, Finnish forces nonetheless
inflicted horrible casualties on the Soviet juggernaut. Thanks to Stalin's purges,
much of the veteran leadership which had built the Red army from the ground up had
been replaced with inexperienced lackeys, valued more for their political loyalty
to Stalin than for their ability to lead. Finland routinely outfought and outmaneuvered
the Soviets, who were forced to fight Finland to a truce with overwhelming numbers
alone. In the end Finland lost much of its territory to the Soviet Union, but
the Soviet juggernaut was the true loser: its performance was so terrible during
the conflict that it encouraged Hitler to draw up plans for the invasion of the Soviet
Union, costing the nation millions of lives. The Soviet Union would go on to join
the Allies after the German invasion, and would suffer approximately 27 million
casualties in the fighting. By the end of the war though the Soviet Union had become a
superpower, and one of the original founding members of the United Nations and
member on the UN Security Council, which granted it veto power over
any resolution the UN proposed. After the war, the United States viewed
the Soviet Union as a hostile power, and reneged on wartime promises of economic
aid to help it in its reconstruction. This, along with Stalin's increasing global ambition, drove a wedge between the two superpowers.
By 1949 the clash between western liberal democracies and Stalinist authoritarianism
led to the freezing chill of the Cold War. In the post-war period, the Soviet Union seized
direct control of most countries east of Germany, instituting puppet governments and forming the
Soviet bloc. In 1955, these satellite states were bound together into a military alliance
called the Warsaw Pact. The member nations were independent in idea only, in truth they were
completely subservient to the much more powerful Soviet Union and received their orders directly
from the Kremlin. Germany was partitioned into zones of influence between formerly allied powers,
culminating in a democratic West Germany supported by the United States, and an authoritarian East
Germany ruled in proxy by the Soviet Union. On March 5th, 1953 Stalin died. He had suffered
from a worsening physical condition ever since the end of the Second World War, suffering a stroke
in May of 1945 and a severe heart attack later that year in October. After his state funeral,
the leading Communist party officials proposed ruling together, but Nikita Khruschev would end
up winning the ensuing power struggle. In 1956, three years after taking power, Khruschev did the
unthinkable by denouncing Stalin as a dictator and rolling back many of Stalin's former oppressive
policies over Soviet industry and individuals. The measures proved popular with Soviet citizens,
and Khruschev enjoyed a degree of popular support. As the Cold War drove on though, Soviet interests
in eastern Europe led to a brutal reprisal of an anti-communist uprising in Hungary also in
1956. For the Soviets, east Europe was a buffer zone that would safeguard the Soviet
homeland from another disastrous invasion. Located on the eastern edge of the European
plain, the Soviet border was not only difficult to defend, but had been frequently violated
throughout history in one invasion after another. For the USSR, keeping eastern europe under
its heel was a matter of national security. But the Soviet Union was losing powerful
friends in the east. Blamed by Mao of being a revisionist and not a true revolutionary,
Khrushchev's increasingly hostile relations with China led to a split between the world's two
largest communist powers. Many feared a possible war between the two, but China was still the far
lesser of the two powers and thus the resulting split was kept at the political level only.
This split however would inevitably lead to China drawing closer to the United States, and
further weakening of Soviet influence abroad. Recognizing a need to engage more with
the world though, Khrushchev initiated what came to be termed “The Thaw”, a slow
but gradual shift in political, cultural, and economic life in the USSR. Khrushchev's
reforms led to more contact with the west, including some economic relations.
Many hoped for an end to the Cold War, but such an end wouldn't come for decades
yet. Still, the living standards of Soviet citizens rose appreciably as a result of his
relaxing of Stalin-era laws and regulations, and he even relaxed some of the harsh
censorship imposed upon the Soviet people. In 1962 though, Khrushchev precipitated what
would come to be known as the Cuban missile crisis when he deployed nuclear missiles to
Cuba. The resulting military standoff put the world on the knife's edge of nuclear war,
but last minute negotiations between American president John F. Kennedy and himself led to
a deescalation that averted all-out disaster. While Khruschev had averted global nuclear war,
his backing down from the United States was seen as a sign of weakness by his political rivals.
By 1964 they had grown so emboldened that they ousted him from power- though he was allowed to
retire to the countryside instead of meeting the typical fate of unfavorable communist party
members... namely being shot in the head. Immediately after Khruschev, a short
era of collective leadership ensued, with Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary, Alexei
Kosygin as Premier, and Nikolai Podgorny as Chairman of the Presidium. However, given that
you likely only remember the name “Brezhnev”, you can guess how that ended, as Brezhnev ousted
his 'co-leaders' and ruled as preeminent Soviet. Brezhnev's rule proved to be far less popular
both at home and abroad. He retightened rule on the lives of Soviet citizens, and took a very
aggressive stance against dissidence both within the USSR and in Warsaw Pact nations. In 1968 the
Pact invaded Czechoslovakia in order to put down a series of reforms aiming at liberalizing the
nation. Immediately after the end of hostilities, Brezhnev formally proclaimed that any threat
to socialist rule within the Warsaw Pact was a threat to all members of the Pact and would
thus be met with immediate military action. But Warsaw Pact members were becoming
increasingly unhappy with harsh Soviet rule, and revolution fermented- spelling the
inevitable end of the Soviet Union. By the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982, the
Soviet Union had grown in military power but stagnated economically. The USSR had attempted
to outcompete the United States militarily, and had a more powerful army, with a
growing navy that was a match for the US's, and was even meeting America's capabilities in
the air. But the Soviet economy was less than half the value of the American economy
and stagnating, and the disaster of the Afghan War launched what would become the
beginning of the end for the Soviet state. With the Afghan invasion becoming a costly mistake
for the Soviet Union, the United States smelled an opportunity to deal a death blow to its
superpower rival. Using its diplomatic clout, the US encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price
of oil exports, which crippled the Soviet Union as it could now no longer sell its oil at a profit.
With a poorly diversified economy- a problem that haunts Russia to this day- the Soviet Union's
hard currency reserves were quickly wiped out, forcing it into deep economic stagnation
and worsening growing civil unrest at home. After Brezhnev's death, Yuri Andropov
came to power but died soon after. He was succeeded by Konstantin Cherneko
who also died shortly after taking office. In 1985, the Soviets appointed the
much younger Mikhail Gorbachev, hoping to avoid another disastrous early death in
office. Gorbachev, though, faced the incredibly difficult task of rejuvenating a stagnant Soviet
economy and an aging political system that was increasingly turning back to authoritarianism
to retain control over the dying Soviet empire. Gorbachev launched massive reforms within
the economy and party leadership both known as perestroika, as well as easing up censorship
under his policy of glasnost. In 1988, Gorbachev ordered a retreat from Afghanistan, mirroring
the American failure in the region that would follow just over thirty years later. His greatest
reform however was in the rejection of Brezhnev's policy of taking military action against any
revolutionary movement within Warsaw Pact nations, and liberated Soviet satellite states from much
of the Kremlin's former direct interference in their national affairs. This directly
paved the way for the revolutions of 1989, which saw many former Soviet satellites throw
off the yoke of Kremlin control and communism. Soviet republics however also began to pursue
independence, and in 1990 a law was passed that would allow a republic to secede if more than
two-thirds of its residents voted in favor of it. These would be the first free elections many
Soviet citizens would ever see, and they elected their own legislatures to rule them which
would draft laws contrary to Soviet legislation. With the end of the Soviet Union in sight,
panic led to action amongst old Communist hardliners within the party. An attempted
coup by hardline party members and the KGB tried to oust Gorbachev and reverse his
popular reforms. The coup however ended in failure thanks to massive popular support
against it. Boris Yeltsin was instrumental in the prevention of the coup, and his victory
would propel him into the public limelight and ensure his role as Russia's first elected
president after the fall of the Soviet Union. The failed coup also emboldened many
Soviet republics to declare independence, and in August 1991 Latvia and Estonia followed
Lithuania's example the year before and declared themselves independent. In late August of that
year Gorbachev resigned as general secretary, and the activities of the Communist party were soon
suspended indefinitely. The Soviet Union was over, and Boris Yeltsin, who had been elected president
in July, now took control of a democratic Russia. Democracy's victory in Russia
however would be short lived, as the rise to power of Vladimir Putin would
result in purges of opposing political parties, the press, and dissidents alike.
With Putin returned the NKVD style secret arrests and executions, even sending
assassins to kill dissidents abroad. Today, Putin has rewritten the Russian constitution
to ensure he can remain in power forever, and Russia has once more turned back to Stalin-style
authoritarianism and become a failed democracy. Now go watch What If Russia Invades
Ukraine to find out what happens next, or click this other video instead!
