Political Changes in Europe Since the Fall of the Soviet Union

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Political changes in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union On Christmas day 1991, The Soviet Unions former president Mikhail Gorbachev resigned. He declared his office null and void. He then gave the Soviet Nuclear missile codes to the new Russian president Boris Yelstin. The Russians then lowered the Soviet flag and raised the Russian tricolor. The very next day the USSR was officially dissolved. This was a result of political unrest among the Soviet people. This was all caused by a multitude of different factors. All of this culminated in the forceful overthrow of the government or a “ coup d’état “. During the 80’s the Soviet economy began to collapse in upon itself. The country relied on inefficient factories and dated technology, while the people had to buy low-quality products and still suffered from little to no social freedoms. The Soviet people were becoming increasingly frustrated by this. Which led to Mikhail Gorbachev coming to power, and him promoting his policy of “ Glasnost “ or “ openness “. The fall of the Soviet Union didn’t go off without a hitch though. The Russians lost direct control over a lot of territory. They lost control of over one third of the former Soviet territory. These areas held over half of the former Soviet population at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This was followed by the collapse of former Soviet economic ties. Large-scale economic disaster befell the newly formed Russia. This crash was said to be even worse than the “ great depression “ that hit Americans in the early 1900’s. Furthermore The fall of the Soviet economy didn’t only effect the newly formed Russia. It hit the Cuban economy hard, the Cubans lost over 80% of its imports and exports with the collapse. Also their overall gross domestic product dropped by 34%. Also it caused a complete implosion of the North Korean
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