USSR
Storyboard Text
- In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was less productive than the United States, which was starting to drag down the Soviet economy and security. It took the Soviets longer than the Americans to process their raw materials and build new structures.
- Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms were unable to save the Soviet Union —and in fact, some historians argue that the reforms actually made the USSR fall apart more quickly.
- The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was graphic evidence, not only of how obsolete the Soviet technology was, but also of the failure of the old Communist system. The accident became a symbol of the crumbling Soviet infrastructure and its inability to keep up with America’s economy and technology.
- The Berlin Wall was entirely destroyed by 1990. With varying degrees of violence and democracy, these Eastern European nations decided —and were allowed by the Soviets — that Communism no longer best served the needs of their citizens.
- Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Communist Party and Soviet Government, and the Soviet Union was no longer a country; the former Soviet Union dissolved into 15 separate nations.
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