7(b). Factors for the collapse of the Soviet Union and world socialism in 1991

Nassoro Habib Mbwana

The Soviet Union or Union of Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed after the Russian Empire by the second Soviet president, Joseph Stalin in 1924. Until 1953 under Stalin the USSR was the second giant nation after USA. Originally, USSR raised after the October 1917 socialist revolution done by the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov (Lenin) overthrowing Prime Minister of the provincial gov.which had combined the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks after overthrowing Tsar Nicholus II in the March Russian revolution. Before 1917, Russia was a poorly semi-capitalist state as transformes from feudalism since 1860 when the serfs were freed by the Emancipation of Serfs Act in 1861. Since 1861, the serfs were denied their rights while poverty was increasing. Poverty was accelerated when the Tsarist regime forcefully entered the First World War. Now, the Bolsheviks (socialists) and Mensheviks (white minority, capitalists). ********** So, from 1945 the Soviet Union started to disintegrate due to some reasons but after the death of Pres. Stalin in 1953 the elements agaisnt communism started to appear. The rise of Mikhail Gorbachev into power in 1985 brought the Soviet Union and world socialism into an end. The collapse of USSR left the USA as the only leading capitalist state with ambition of global domination