(Strayer, 126) For the Soviet Union, the period of time during and immediately after the Second World War was in reality, yet another cruel landmark in the numerous wars, revolutions and crises which had been influencing and destroying the country since the year 1905, and when in the year 1985 Gorbachev took over the administration and management of the country, the people of the Soviet Union hoped for some form of relief from the years of oppression that they had been subjected to under various leaders, including Stalin, Khrushchev who denounced Stalin and caused communists to defect from the party in large numbers, Brezhnev, under whose rule the Soviet government gradually changed from a personal dictatorship to oligarchy, Sakharov, who helped create the world's first Soviet H. bomb, Chernenko, Andropov, and several others. (Lecture 16: 1989: The Walls Came Tumbling Down)

Gorbachev was an individual and a leader who was keenly aware of all the problems that his country was facing at the present time, and when in April 1986 a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded, causing major damage to people and to property, he went public and admitted the true facts of the accident, despite extensive media cover up operations. The able leader also coined two terms 'perestroika' meaning restructuring, and 'glasnost' meaning openness, and it was his hope that these two principles would help transform the Soviet Union into a democracy. However, all was not well in his country, and Gorbachev entered into a bitter rivalry with Boris Yeltsin, who stated publicly that reforms was brining about disunity. Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Beylorussians, and Armenians all demanded independence, and inter-ethnic rivalry became a major problem, and when in 1990 Russia declared its independence under Yeltsin, things had come to a head. Gorbachev admitted that he would be interested and willing to create a new federal union...

(Lecture 16: 1989: The Walls Came Tumbling Down)
In October 1990, Gorbachev stated, "Unfortunately, our society is not ready for the procedures of a law-based state," and soon enough, the people of the Soviet Union started their fight for a communist dictatorship. The U.S.S.R. had collapsed, bringing in its place utter confusion, in which part of the citizens wished for a return to traditional communist values, while the other part wished for a more Westernized style of governance. Gorbachev admitted that the Soviet satellite states all had to go their own way, and that they could be independent if they wished. East and West Germany became united at this time, when the Berlin Wall was broken down, and the rising problems of inflation, decreased production, increased unemployment, food shortages, blatant corruption and ethnic conflict all created an environment of disarray and chaos, all of which contributed to the fall of the U.S.S.R. In 1990. Gorbachev's efforts at reform for his country had all failed. (Lecture 16: 1989: The Walls Came Tumbling Down)

References

Kreis, Steven. (2000) Lecture 16: 1989: The Walls Came Tumbling Down. The history guide, lectures on twentieth century Europe. From http://www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture16.html

N.A. Biographies and the Division of Europe. February, 1999. http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/TERMINE/1999/kbiog29.htm

N.A. Russia, the Gorbachev Reforms. At http://www.russiansabroad.com/russian_history_205.html

N.A. World War II in the Soviet Union. 2003 http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/USSR.html

Olson, Ron. Homework Helpers: From Reconstruction through the Dawn of the 21st Century.

Career Press. 2007.

Strayer, Robert. Why did the Soviet Union collapse?

M.E. Sharpe. 1998.