Fall of the USSR & end of the Cold War
How Gorbachev's reforms, the 1989 revolutions, and the 1991 collapse ended the Cold War and the USSR — the dated facts and analytical frames exams reward.
From Reform to Disintegration
The collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1985 and 1991 was driven less by a single shock than by the convergence of structural decay and a reform programme that loosened the controls holding the system together. When Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in March 1985, he inherited stagnant growth (the 'era of stagnation' under Leonid Brezhnev, 1964–1982), a defence burden estimated at 15–20% of GDP, and the costly war in Afghanistan launched in December 1979.
Gorbachev advanced two interlocking policies. Perestroika ('restructuring') sought to decentralise economic management; the Law on State Enterprise (1987) and the Law on Cooperatives (1988) introduced limited market mechanisms. Glasnost ('openness') relaxed censorship and permitted criticism of the Party. The Chernobyl disaster of 26 April 1986 became a turning point, exposing the cost of official secrecy and accelerating glasnost. Political liberalisation followed: the Congress of People's Deputies, elected in March 1989 with contested seats, gave dissent a national platform, and Article 6 of the 1977 Soviet Constitution — guaranteeing the CPSU's monopoly on power — was repealed in March 1990.
The Outer Empire Falls First
Gorbachev's repudiation of the Brezhnev Doctrine — replaced by what spokesman Gennady Gerasimov dubbed the 'Sinatra Doctrine' (letting allies go 'their way') — removed the threat of Soviet intervention that had crushed Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). The result was the revolutions of 1989. Poland's Solidarity, legalised after Round Table talks, won the partially free elections of June 1989. Hungary opened its Austrian border in May 1989. The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989; Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution unfolded in November–December 1989; Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed on 25 December 1989. German reunification followed under the Two Plus Four Treaty of 12 September 1990, and the Warsaw Pact dissolved on 1 July 1991.
The Inner Collapse
Glasnost emboldened nationalism within the USSR itself. The Baltic states led: Lithuania declared independence on 11 March 1990, and Soviet crackdowns in Vilnius (January 1991) discredited the centre. Boris Yeltsin, elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in June 1991, became a rival power base. The decisive blow was the failed coup of 19–21 August 1991, when hardline Communists detained Gorbachev at Foros; Yeltsin's defiance atop a tank outside the Russian parliament broke the coup and shattered the CPSU's authority. The Belovezha Accords of 8 December 1991, signed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, declared the USSR dissolved and created the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991, and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time on 26 December 1991.