World Cultures 11

Unit II: Russia

Name _______________________________
Date _______
Block ___________

Read the article entitled The Collapse of the Soviet Union and complete the questions below.
Indentify/define each of the following: [remember to answer fully]
a. Politburo The ruling committee of the Communist Party that crushed all political
disagreement
b. Soviet hard-liners Older Communist members in parliament
c. coup The coup played a main role in accelerating the breakup of the Soviet Union
d. CIS A loose federation of former Soviet territories
e. shock therapy- An abrupt shift to free-market economies
1. Identify and define two early changes that Gorbachev made? How were these changes
different from previous Soviet leaders?
He created a new policy such as the glasnost which means openness and this was different from
the previous Soviet leaders because they didnt have this before and it was new to everyone
else. Secondly, the government was able to open churches in which they werent able to do if
they didnt have permission.
2. Why would it be ineffective for the central government to decide what should be produced
all over the country?
Under this plan, the party officials told the farmers and factory managers how much to
produce. Also, they told them what wages were to be and what price to charge for the product,
and they could not have their pay increased by making or producing more so there was little
motive to improve.
3. Explain Gorbachevs third reform and how it would help to move the country toward
democracy.
Gorbachevs third new policy was called Democratization. This slowly opened the political
system. His plan called for elections of a new legislative body, this allowed voters to choose
from a list of candidates for each office.
4. What was the INF Treaty? Why did Gorbachev agree to sign it? What effect do you think
this Treaty had on the Cold War?
President Reagan and Gorbachev signed this treaty in 1987, the INF stands for IntermediateRange Nuclear Forces and this treaty banned nuclear missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,400
miles. The Soviet Union came to realize that their economy could not afford an arms race and
signed with the US to keep from spending so much money.
5. What effect did Gorbachevs reforms have on Russian ethnic minorities?
There are many nationalities in a Soviet Union (over 100). Tensions began to escalate and called
for their freedom as well.

6. Which satellite nation was first to defy Gorbachev? How did Gorbachev respond?
The first satellite nation to defy Gorbachev was Lithuania and declare their independence. His
response was ordering a economic blockade.
7. What was Boris Yeltsins position in Soviet government. Why did he oppose Gorbachev?
His position was being President of Russia that begun in 1990 and did not resigned until 1999
because of health problems.
8. What name was given to the older communist members in parliament? What opinion did they
have regarding both Gorbachev and Yeltsin? Explain your answer.
Older Communist members in parliament were known as hard-liners or conservatives. These
people apposed or reformed and were really mad that Gorbachev had given up the Soviet Unions
role as the dominant force in Eastern Europe.
9. What was the August Coup? Who orchestrated it?
The August Coup was orchestrated by the hard-liners in parliament. These people kept
Gorbachev at his vacation home and demanded his resignation as Soviet President.
10. What were the most important reasons for the failure of the Coup?
The reasons that the Coup failed is because the hard-liners ordered troops to attack the
parliament building but they refused. The next day, the military withdrew its forces from
Moscow.
11. How did the 15 soviet Republics respond to the failed Coup?
All 15 soviet republics had declared independence
12. When Gorbachev stepped down as president, who became the next president?
Boris Yeltsin
13. What was the new name of the Soviet Union after this coup?
CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)
14. What was Yeltsin attempting to do by forming the CIS? What effect would it have on the
traditional Soviet Union?
His goal was to reform the Russian economy to a free market economy. He lowered trade
barriers, removed price control, and ended subsidies to state owned industries. This forced
thousands of people out of work and created economic hardship.
15. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin was faced with economic issues. What did
he do to attempt to solve these issues? Did it work? Why or why not?
He adopted a plan known as shock therapy this was a shift to free market economics. It did
not work, inflation soared to 800% and factories shut down.

16. When Yeltsin stepped down, a new leader was elected. What are some of the problems that
faced this new leader, Vladimir Putin?
There was a rebellion in Chechnya and fighting dragged on for many years. Also, there were
economic problems along with a lot of homeless children on the streets of Moscow. This made
for severe stress and unemployment and a decline in their standard of living.
17. What was the Chechnya issue? How did Putin deal with it? Was he able to end this issue
for the new Federation? Explain.
Chechnya declared its independence from Russia. Putin was able to deal with the rebellion by
putting 80,000 troops in Chechnya and then eventually pulled them out.
18. In what ways were the policies of Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin similar?
They all used military forces toward others being the Soviet Union.