World Cultures 11

Unit II: Russia

Name _______________________________
Date _______
Block ___________

Read the article entitled The Collapse of the Soviet Union and complete the questions below.
Indentify/define each of the following: [remember to answer fully]
a. Politburo a principal policy making committee of a communist party.
b. Soviet hard-liners - politician who sticks stubbornly to a particular position or policy.
c. coup s sudden violent and illegal seizure of power from a government.
d. CIS a loose federation to former soviet territories.
e. shock therapy-an abupt shift to free-market economics.

1. Identify and define two early changes that Gorbachev made? How were these changes
different from previous Soviet leaders?
Changed what writers could publish and he also created a totalitarian state.
2. Why would it be ineffective for the central government to decide what should be produced
all over the country?
3. Explain Gorbachevs third reform and how it would help to move the country toward
democracy.
He wanted to modernize and prop up the centrally planned economy.
4. What was the IMF Treaty? Why did Gorbachev agree to sign it? What effect do you think
this Treaty had on the Cold War?
The international monetary fund is an international organization that was initiated in 1944 at
the Bretton woods conferences and formally created in 1945 by 29 member countries. It
Banded Nuclear missiles with ranges of 300 to 3,400 miles.
5. What effect did Gorbachevs reforms have on Russian ethnic minorities?
They now had no power over their own land or anything.
6. Which satellite nation was first to defy Gorbachev? How did Gorbachev respond?
Moscow and he made an effective campaign of civil resistance.
7. What was Boris Yeltsins position in Soviet government? Why did he oppose Gorbachev?
He was the Russian president
8. What name was given to the older communist members in parliament? What opinion did they
have regarding both Gorbachev and Yeltsin? Explain your answer.
Democratization
9. What was the August Coup? Who orchestrated it?
The August coup is when the hard lines detained Gorbachev at his vacation house on the black
sea.
10. What were the most important reasons for the failure of the Coup?
The military withdrew its forces from Moscow.
11. How did the 15 soviet Republics respond to the failed Coup?
All 15 republics have now declared independence.
12. When Gorbachev stepped down as president, who became the next president?
Boris Yeltsin is the next ruler.

13. What was the new name of the Soviet Union after this coup?
Commonwealth of Independent States.
14. What was Yeltsin attempting to do by forming the CIS? What effect would it have on the
traditional Soviet Union?
He wanted to make sure the Soviet Union was over with.
15. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Yeltsin was faced with economic issues. What did
he do to attempt to solve these issues? Did it work? Why or why not?
Shock therapy is the way that he attempt to solve these issues.
16. When Yeltsin stepped down, a new leader was elected. What are some of the problems
that faced this new leader, Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin was now the new leader.
17. What was the Chechnya issue? How did Putin deal with it? Was he able to end this issue
for the new Federation? Explain.
Putin dealt with the rebellion in Chechnya- a popular move that helped him win the presidential
election in 2000.
18. In what ways were the policies of Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin similar?
They were all leaders and they all enforced laws and rules for their people to follow. The laws
were all different and the way they ruled was different but they all had some power and used it
to create, what they thought, a better place for some of their people and themselves.