HIST 3203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Gulag, Union Of Sovereign States, Boris Yeltsin
Document Summary
Soviets were watching the collapse of soviet regimes in eastern europe, showing to everyone that communism was not permanent or irreplaceable. Policies had beed attempted, but the command economy was collapsing, but there was no strong economy to replace it. By 1989, shortages were getting worse and worse, which was damning to gorbachev. A state committee to protect the environment was set up. People became more conscious of bad air, water, etc, and. By 1980, russians still accounted for more than half of the soviet population. Other nationalities were growing faster, especially the muslims. Demographically they were becoming outnumbered, and thus, russian nationalism was on the upsurge. massive resentment over affirmative action was prominent. Gorbachev resisted the soviet breakup, but he was such less interested din keeping control in eastern europe. He did not regard, unlike previous leaders, that the satellite states were important. Everywhere, there was the elimination of communism monopoly. Only in romania was there conflict over communism.
