1. Collapse of Soviet Union By: Hayley Robinson

3. Soviet workers expected to produce goods with little in return

4. Enhanced reputation with testing of hydrogen bonds – 1953 & Sputnik I – 1957

5. People shortchanged – housing shortage was severe. The average Russian family lived in a one room apartment.

6. Stalin distrusted competitors, had little respect for communist party leaders

7. 1946 – government decreed all literary/scientific work had to conform to the political needs of the state

8. March 5, 1953 – Stalin dies

10. Leonid Brezhnev dominant leader – 1970's

11. Brezhnev emphasized heavy industry

12. Government's central planning led to bureaucracy that discouraged efficiency & led to indifference

13. Collective farmers had no incentive to work hard

14. Communist ruling class had become corrupt

16. Rise in infant mortality rates

17. Dramatic surge in alcoholism

20. First meant to restructure economic policy, but realized this would fail without political reform

21. At Communist Party conference in 1988, he established a new Soviet parliament – Congress of People's Deputies

22. He did away with a constitutional provision that guaranteed the Communist Party a “leading role” in government

23. As Communist Party being less closely tied to the Soviet Union, the first secretary (Gorbachev) had less power

24. March 1990 Gorbachev was Soviet's first and last president

26. 1989-1990 – calls for independence in Soviet Georgia, Latvia, Estonia, Moldavia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Lithuania

27. December 1991 – Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus announced the Soviet Union had “ceased to exist”

28. Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, & responsibilities were given to Boris Yeltsin, the new president of Russia

29. Soviet Union

30. Spielvogel, Jackson J. &quot;Decline of the Soviet Union.&quot; World History Modern Times . Glencoe, 2005. 657-60. Print. Wilson, Steve. &quot;Fall of the Soviet Union.&quot; Essortment Articles: Free Online Articles on Health, Science, Education & More.. 2002. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. < http://www.essortment.com/all/fallofthesovi_rkcm.htm >. &quot;Fall of The Soviet Union.&quot; The Cold War Museum . Web. 15 Apr. 2010. <http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp>. Citations