One problem with ideology was that the two powers openly criticised each other’s policies. Khrushchev was very critical about the Great Leap Forward, which led to the withdrawal of Soviet economic aid. Part of the reason was that Khrushchev did not agree with the ideological methodology of things such as the ‘back-yard’ furnaces. It was different to how the Soviets did it. Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech.
Nicholas II was the last tsar of the Romanov dynasty, and his own arrogance and incompetence was a key factor in what led him to that title. His decision to maintain an autocratic government, fight in the Russo-Japanese war, and, ultimately, drag Russia into World War I, proved he was not fit to rule, and his actions led to the destruction of his dynasty. In these ways, Nicholas II, while faced with many problems, may have survived had he not ruled the way he did. Nicholas II was an implacable autocrat, and his fear of change alienated the Russian people from their leader. When Nicholas was young, he witnessed his grandfather, Alexander II, being assassinated by terrorists.
So which of these reasons was the most important? The most important reason for the overthrow in Eastern Europe was the economic decline in the USSR. Simon J Ball (1998) also argued that “there is little doubt that the Cold War came to an end as a result of Soviet economic failure. This failure led in turn a failure of nerve amongst the Soviet governing elite.” Ball suggests that if the Soviet Union did not experience an economic failure then they may have been able to keep power and it was that economic failure that triggered the other factors. By 1986 the Soviet economy suffered from both hidden inflation and pervasive supply shortages which were aggravated by an increasingly open black market that undermined the official economy.
The limited nature of the revolution was one of the main factors which weakened prospects for democracy, when Ebert was trying to form a government he still had a problem that the radical communists were still looking to turn Germany into a communist state similar to the Soviet Union and thus to put down this rebellion and get support of the army he made an agreement with Groener. The agreement was that the army would support the government if the army and civil service were left unchanged. This was the main reason that democracy was irreversibly weakened, because the civil service and army generals were all right-wing conservatives providing a powerbase for the radical right. This limited democracy because the radical right thought that democracy was weak and indecisive, the radical right though was weakened because the radical left was way more powerful initially in post war Germany, but the radical right would help democracy until the radical left was no longer a threat and would act as ticking time bomb of support. This could have acted as a powerbase for the Kapp Putsch and the eventual rise of the Nazis.
Communism in the Cold War "The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want, they spread and grow in the evil soil of the poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive." as said by Harry S. Truman on march 12, 1947 in The Truman Doctrine. While Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all had the same same Cold War intention of ending communism, their ways of achieving their goal were different.The Cold War was an angry dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union about whether we should spread or contain communism (Ayres 817).
Gorbachev, who was the new General Secretary in 1985, was to a large extent contributed to the break-up of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. Unlike Stalin and his processors, Andropov and Chernenko , he tried to reform Soviet Union by highly promoting democracy among the Soviet satellites through the democratic programs. Among the two democratic programs which he had carried out, Glasnost was the program which led to the break-up of the USSR while the consideration of economic reform led to the break-up of the Warsaw Pact. Glasnost, which means openness, granted the people more freedom. Such as freedom of speech, voting rights, cutting off the power of the communist party, as well as releasing dissidents like Sakharov.
Lenin described Trotsky as “...personally perhaps the most capable man in the present C.C...’ However, Trotsky also had weaknesses and made mistakes that Stalin was able to use to his advantage. To some Trotsky came across as an arrogant character and lacked support in critical areas of the party. He was also seen as an ‘outsider’ due to his background and past. The biggest mistakes that Trotsky made where a result of his poor judgement. Trotsky underestimated Stalin and what he was capable of (creating a triumvirate with Zinoviev and Kamenev, using this alliance to defeat him).
Alexander III had one goal when he came to power after his father’s death, it was mainly centred on Russification and to rid Russia of a lot of western ideas, these ideas were mainly ones that Alexander III personally thought were weakening the country’s national identity. He wanted Russia to be like the great ‘Russian’ nation that he had heard about growing up and he believed that outside influences and reforms were killing off what he perceived to be the better Russia. He made a lot of reforms of his own which reversed those of his fathers, such as more open education for poorer people, and women were no longer allowed to go to university. This does not mean however that he undid ALL of his father’s reforms, as he did not reform the Russian military as that only strengthened the nation in his eyes when compared to things like education which taught more liberal ideas. The Russification that Alexander III embarked on wasn’t all good news for Russia as it lead to widespread racism towards the Jewish population and other religious minorities.
In turn this would destroy Britain commercially and their industrial economy allowing Napoleon to take over Britain however did not work and left Napoleon worse off then he was before. His next mistake was the Peninsular war and as a result weakened his empire even more by the Spanish guerrillas, Germans, and Italians turning against him. Lastly his third mistake lost him most of his soldiers and the tactic used to defeat him was the scorched-earth policy, by the Russians. These mistakes greatly weakened Napoleons Empire. The empire was then declared war on by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria.
The Cold War, along with attitudes and doctrines formed within it, continues to shape the world, years after its end. The Cold War ended, arguably, because of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, and economic problems left over from older administrations. The Cold War had its origins in the direct aftermath of World War 2, but simply leaving it at that would be too simple. The Cold War began as a result of political tension between the United States and Soviet Russia; the Soviet ideology, as listed in the Communist Manifesto, states that the bourgeoisie, those that own the means of production and the capitalist doctrine as a whole are the enemies of the proletariat. To Marx and Engel, the capitalist system as used during the Industrial Revolution created a class system, which oppressed the proletariat.