http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/soviet_end_01.shtml#top
In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan revived cold-war policies and rhetoric, referring to the Soviet Union as the "evil empire" and escalating the nuclear arms race; some have argued this stance was responsible for the eventual collapse of Soviet Communism while others attribute it to the inherent weakness of the Soviet state.
The demise of the Soviet Union began when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power as its General Secretary in 1985. Understanding the bad state of the Soviet economic and financial affairs, he brought a message of reform and change. He announced two new policies- glastnost and perestroika-which he thought would save the communist system. However, these new policies would ultimately overturn the Soviet system.
Glasnost
Glasnost did away with the strict censorship, which the government had practiced for decades. Russian for "openness," glasnost allowed Soviet citizens to speak openly about their society's problems. Banned books were made available, and jamming of foreign radio broadcasts was stopped.
Perestroika
Glasnost was only the first step. Next came perestroika, Russian for "restructuring." Perestroika was not an attempt by Gorbachev to destroy communism, but an attempt to end the ineffciency and corruption that were so common. Some features of private enterprise returned under perestroika. Product prices would rise when production costs rose. Local factories had more power of their decisions as planning was decentralized. Finally, multicandidate elections would be held, although each candidate had to be a member of the communist party.
From 1989 to 1991 the cold war came to an end with the opening of the Berlin Wall (On June 12, 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev to go further with his reforms and democratization by tearing down the Berlin Wall. In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate next to the wall, Reagan stated: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate; Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
As Gorbachev-inspired waves of reform propagated throughout the Eastern bloc, grassroots organizations, such as Poland's Solidarity movement, rapidly gained ground. In 1989, the Communist governments in Poland and Hungary became the first to negotiate the organizing of competitive elections. In Czechoslovakia and East Germany, mass protests unseated entrenched Communist leaders. The Communist regimes in Bulgaria and Romania also crumbled, in the latter case as the result of a violent uprising. Attitudes had changed enough that US Secretary of State James Baker suggested that the American government would not be opposed to Soviet intervention in Romania, on behalf of the opposition, to prevent bloodshed. 4? The tidal wave of change culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, which symbolized the collapse of Eastern European Communist governments and graphically ended the Iron Curtain divide of Europe.
The collapse of the Eastern European governments with Gorbachev's tacit consent inadvertently encouraged several Soviet republics to seek greater independence from Moscow's rule. Agitation for independence in the Baltic states led to first Lithuania, and then Estonia and Latvia, declaring their independence. Disaffection in the other republics was met by promises of greater decentralization. More open elections led to the election of candidates opposed to Communist Party rule.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Yeltsin, vowing to transform Russia's socialist command economy into a free market economy, endorsed price liberalization and privatization programs. Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a small group of people
The Soviet Union's collapse into independent nations began early in 1985. After years of Soviet military buildup at the expense of domestic development, economic growth was at a standstill. Failed attempts at reform, a stagnant economy, and war in Afghanistan led to a general feeling of discontent, especially[citation needed] in the Baltic republics and Eastern Europe. Greater political and social freedoms, instituted by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, created an atmosphere of open criticism of the Moscow regime. The dramatic drop of the price of oil in 1985 and 1986, and consequent lack of foreign exchange reserves in following years to purchase grain profoundly influenced actions of the Soviet leadership.1?
Several Soviet Socialist Republics began resisting central control, and increasing democratization led to a weakening of the central government. The USSR's trade gap progressively emptied the coffers of the union, leading to eventual bankruptcy. The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991 when Boris Yeltsin seized power in the aftermath of a failed coup that had attempted to topple reform-minded Gorbachev
In August 1991, Yeltsin won international plaudits for casting himself as a democrat and defying the August coup attempt of 1991 by the members of Soviet government opposed to perestroika. He left office widely unpopular with the Russian population as an ineffectual and ailing autocrat.
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