Collapse Of The Soviet Union: Internal and External Factors

Ahaz Makhdoom


Internal and External factors that led
to the collapse of the Soviet Union:

INTERNAL FACTORS:

● Gorbachev’s reforms in the 1980s were one of the main reasons for the
collapse of the Soviet Union, these were the factors through which more
issues within the Union spread such as economic setbacks and political
instability. However, external factors are just as important to consider when
looking at the collapse of the Soviet Union such as the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan.

● Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and
with him he brought a relatively different system of governance along with
reforms which aimed to restructure the economic and the political system of
the USSR.

● These include Perestroika and Glasnost which were the most prominent of
them all. Perestroika aimed to bring economic reforms with more freedom
and lesser intervention of state in matters of trade.

● Through agricultural reforms, for example Gorbachev tried to legalize
individual farming and leasing of state land to farmers, it was flawed
because even though farmers were allowed to buy land, it was still
state-owned.

● He decreased decentralized economic controls and encouraged enterprises to
become self-financing.

● He tried to transform the Soviet economy from a centrally planned economy
to a market oriented economy and this process was very rapid and so it