The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Was the main cause a popular revolution? - A short overview

Presentation / Essay (Pre-University) from the year 2020 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Europe in the Cold War, grade: 10/10, , language: English, abstract: The essay discusses the main causes of the dissolution of the Soviet Union - the liberalisation of politics, economic decline, changes in social consciousness, the loss of the Eastern European sphere of influence, and nationalism within the republics of the USSR. The August coup of 1991 is named as the short-term, final trigger. It concludes that the main cause of the collapse was not a popular revolution of the 'ordinary people'. Rather, Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika weakened the Communist Party's own power structures, thereby destroying all forms of control and exposing the disparities between propaganda and real life.