The collapse of the USSR: a study of its motives / O colapso da URSS: um estudo das causas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

The major historical, political, social and economic reasons contributing to the collapse as well as the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 are the core aspects scrutinized in this study. In an effort to make sense of the phenomenon from a different perspective, departing from the genesis to the collapse of the USSR, data analyzed by some of the most renowned researchers has been used as a theoretical basis. In this sense, such an outcome is attributed to a series of combined factors. Not only the material and cultural backwardness of slow-tochange Russia in order to set up socialism, but also the consequent isolation of the Russian Revolution, a result - amongst other factors - of the political conventionalism that paralyzed the Western working class, are two of the main explanations pointed out. A third aspect equally relevant refers to the military attacks that Russia had to cope with, not to mention its huge human losses and the unbearable defense costs - a consequence of permanent external threats -, thus impoverishing the country. On top of that, there is - as a crucial component - the double-edged essence of the dictatorial political system for, if on one hand, it speeds up both industrialization and modernization, on the other hand, it also accounts for huge human losses, thus representing - from a given moment - an obstacle to the continuing economic and social development. A fifth chain of events worth highlighting is the failure of the extensive economic development pattern at the turn of the seventies, followed by the economic deceleration, almost on the verge of stagnation in the eighties, not to mention the conspicuous technological delay when compared to the capitalist world, where it had been in evidence since the seventies. In addition to this, the huge social, cultural and behavioral changes - which took place in the world as well as in the USSR, followed by both the Information Revolution and democratic mobilizations throughout Eastern Europe - undermined the foundations of the Soviet system. Furthermore, while the Perestroika - as a restructuring program - became the catalyst for dismantling the conservative bureaucratic structures of government led planning and management, on the other hand, it also accelerated the democratization of the political government, which produced chaos. Last but by no means least, the nationalist mobilizations allied to the restoration offensive determined the downfall of the Soviet system. By and large, the final process responsible for the collapse of the USSR resembles more a combination of consecutive revolutions or a series of democratic mobilization - very similar to the bourgeois revolutions in many aspects given that its causes and demands do not differ substantially from the ones arisen in the 1789 and 1848 revolutions, - with the dismantling of a debilitated and outdated political system, since productive and social forces in full development in its interior could not fit into such a structure anylonger

ASSUNTO(S)

causas do colapso da união soviética; desagregação da urss; fim do sistema soviético death of the soviet system; disband of the urss; reasons for the collapse of the soviet union

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