Fall of the Soviet Union
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Table of Contents
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"...By 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev – who had been the second most powerful man in the world – was suddenly president of nothing. The Soviet Union no longer existed. Russia itself, the very heart of the Soviet Union, had seceded and declared itself to be a sovereign state. And with that, the Soviet Union ceased to exist..."
Key Terms
- Mikhail Gorbachev
- Bipolar Arrangement
- Soviets in Afghanistan
- Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)
- Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
- Command economy
- Glasnost
- Perestroika
- Soviet Socialist Republics
- Boris Yeltsin
Guided Viewing Questions
- What were the long-term causes of the fall of the Soviet Union?
- What were the short-term causes of the fall of the Soviet Union?