What is the mystery of the collapse of the USSR and how has life changed in one of its 15 republics?
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On December 8th, 1991, the three founding states of the Soviet Union signed the Agreement on the cessation of the existence of the USSR. The country contributed to the collapse of the colonial world, which gave an example of life in the new economic system of socialism, which was able to defeat fascism and was the first to send a man into space. But just 69 years later, the USSR’s desire for communism, the dream came to an end and the country that once occupied the sixth part of the planet collapsed into 15 separate countries. Historians and scholars argue that the collapse of the USSR arose mostly due to problems with socialism, but the experience and contemplation described in my mother’s interview, about her youth in Belarus during the collapse of the USSR, reveal that the capitalist model of society had exhausted itself, by the end of the 20th century, and to prolong its existence for some time, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the seizure of its sales markets and partially resources were needed.
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Of course, it is foolish to deny the words of historians about the existence of problems in the structure of socialism.
First of all, the problem was the prohibition of religion. 1“Bolsheviks got rid of Russian Orthodoxy: they confiscated churches and monasteries and used them for their everyday needs: as storages, hospitals, prisons, and factories.” The fact of absence of religion, as a way of self-control of people’s behavior, influenced the attitude to moral principles and contributed to the development of corruption, theft, greed, and bureaucracy.
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Secondly, in the USSR there were huge restrictions on freedom. There was no freedom of speech, borders were closed, and those who disagreed with the government were sent to the Gulag camp, 2“a system of Soviet labor camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons.”
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Thirdly, the USSR of the 1970s and 80s was a “domestic alcoholics” country. During these years the statistics of alcohol consumption reached their maximum, an ordinary Soviet citizen drank an average of 10.6 liters of alcohol per year. As my mother said, “Алкоголизм это был бич того времени,” which means that alcoholism was one of the main problems of the time. According to her story, even in our small relatives in my grandmother’s generation, whose mature years fell just in the period of the 60s – 80s, both her sisters’ husbands died due to alcoholism. Alcohol had a huge impact on the ability to work and the responsibility of people, especially the male part of society.
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Fourthly, the government of the USSR lost the trust of the population of the country through Pavlov’s reform. As my mother mentioned this event, “In 1 day, without warning, the government devalued the money of the entire population of the country. All my family’s savings became completely worthless.” The money that her parents saved for their children’s weddings or education depreciated in 1 day. On January 22, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a decree according to which the old banknotes of the 1961 model with a value of 50 and 100 rubles were withdrawn from circulation. The reform was announced on the “Vremya” program at 9 pm when most banks and shops were closed. From midnight, these banknotes stopped circulation. Such an event led to the fact that the currency reform marked an intensification of the crisis of people’s confidence in the authorities. 3“The failed perestroika, the terrible deficit, and poverty gave rise to bitterness and a wary attitude towards any actions of the authorities.”
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But even despite these and many other shortcomings of socialism, many people believe that the collapse of the USSR could have been avoided if other countries were not interested in influencing the situation.
The secret is that the engine for the operation of the capitalist system is the presence of markets for goods. Previously, capitalist countries (England, Spain, Germany, and others) had colonies from which they took resources and were sold goods, but after the Second World War, most of the colonies ended their existence (largely with the help of the USSR). Also, between the Western world and the USSR, there was a constant struggle for territories where they spread not only their ideology (capitalism or socialism, respectively), but also their influence, cooperation, and the sale of goods. Examples of such ideological conflicts were Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, and others. Thus, the USSR interfered with the development of capitalism and, at the same time, was a huge country that didn’t need foreign goods.
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However, after the collapse of the USSR, a huge market for the sale of goods opened for the capitalist countries. It happened because the economic chains between the countries of the USSR collapsed. As my mother mentioned, “at the time of USSR 1 product could be produced at several enterprises located in different republics.” But now, due to new borders, customs duties, and delivery difficulties, it has become unprofitable to bring goods into the economic chain. The countries of the former USSR began trade cooperation with other different countries (many of which were western capitalistic).
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Also, immediately after the collapse of the USSR, store shelves began to fill with imported goods, which was previously impossible. This is confirmed by the history of the famous Soviet store “Beryozka”, this store was engaged in the sale of imported goods, access to which had only privileged and wealthy people before 1991. Despite the very high prices, such as 4″a kilo of bar chocolate in the US cost $1.5, and in the Soviet foreign exchange store – $15.” the store was in very high demand due to the lack of an alternative. But in the success in the mid- 1990s, the privatized “Beryozka” chain of stores was liquidated as unprofitable. The reason for this was that after the collapse of the USSR, the shelves of all stores began to fill with goods from Western countries and the store lost its uniqueness.
Thus, we can conclude that there was no mystery in the collapse of the USSR, but it was made to preserve the existence of the capitalist world for some time.
1 Culturelogia RU. N.d. “How religion was fought in the USSR, and what came out of the confrontation between the state and the church.” https://kulturologia.ru/blogs/100121/48629/#google_vignette
2 Russia Beyond. N.d. “Everything you should know about the USSR.” February 24th, 2020. https://www.rbth.com/history/331732-soviet-union-history
3 Gazeta Ru. Sofia Krakova. “Robbed to the skin: how the country survived Pavlov’s reform.” August 28, 2018. https://www.gazeta.ru/business/2018/08/28/11928133.shtml
4 Ural Galant. Olga Lyubimova. “Success stories: BEREZKA store – the legendary Soviet store.” March 25th, 2014. https://uralgalant.ru/blog/istorii-uspekha-magazin-berezka-legendarnyy- sovetskiy-magazin.html
*1 “In the countries of capitalism – the violation of working people rights, In the countries of socialism – the right to work” 1948 https://russiatrek.org/blog/art/socialism-vs-capitalism-propaganda-posters/
*2 Mikhail Gorbachev and George W. Bush during a meeting in Malta, December 1989 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/opinion/cold-war-american-soviet-victory.html
*3 Blowing up the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 1931 https://www.rbth.com/history/331732-soviet-union-history
*4 1929 Photo: TASS photo chronicle https://www.pinterest.com/pin/497295983836173099/?mt=login
*5 “Yoga of local latitudes.” https://kulturologia.ru/blogs/050118/37224/
*6 S. Belyakov/TASS 1991 https://www.gazeta.ru/business/2018/08/28/11928133.shtml
*7 “Imperialism is the enemy of nations. Fight against imperialism!” Soviet poster, 1971 https://www.facebook.com/sovietvisuals/photos/imperialism-is-the-enemy-of-nations-fight-against-imperialism-soviet-poster-1971/2591388854260676/
*8 Currency shop “Beryozka”. Photo: Graham Turner, 1990. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/09/moscow-then-now-interactive-photographs-guardian-archive-russian
*9 Photo from the catalog of the store “Beryozka” https://www.rbth.com/history/328174-beryozka-shops-soviet-foreign-currency