How Did the Soviet Empire Really Crumble? Part 1

Many are quick to credit the United States’ successful foreign policy of containment on communism as leading to the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc. Even many of Russia’s former communist leaders secretly blame the U.S. for the lost of their empire.

While there is definitely some truth to the belief that the United States played a role, it was Moscow’s greed and conceited belief that it could control the lives of nearly a fifth of world’s population spread over an area nearly the size of North America that became its undoing. A look back into history would’ve shown the leaders in the Kremlin that no one has ever been successful in maintaining such a large empire for a sustained period. Trying to hold together an empire with more than 20 different nationalities and nearly 500 ethnic groups could only end in ultimate failure. A look into how the Soviet Union was formed would show that it was destined for disaster from the start. There were deep nationalistic divisions since the beginning.

Ordinary Ukrainians, for instance, did not take it too well when their government agreed to merge with Russia and became a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Most Belarussian citizens were similarly disheartened. During World War II, as the German army swept through the Soviet Union, many Ukrainians initially took sides with Germany in hopes that they could regain their independence. After the war, Josef Stalin punished the Ukrainians dearly for their betrayal.

Red Army occupation of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria brought those countries under the Soviet Union’s “sphere of influence” and carefully-rigged elections gave those countries Soviet-styled communist governments, essentially making them puppets of the Soviet Union and became known as Soviet “satellite states”. Despite Moscow’s best attempts to present to the world one great big happy family of Soviet-style communist governments, deep resentment among this family remained. Poland and Czechoslovakia, for instance, having suffered complete occupation under Nazi rule during World War II, maintained deep animosity toward East Germany. Hungary, which had actually aligned itself with Germany during the war in hopes of retaking Transylvania from Romania, remained bitter toward both East Germany and Romania. And centuries-old grudges among Estonians, Latverians, Lithuanians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians and Ukrainians also continued to persist. With so much hate and discontent under one roof it was only a matter of time before some of the members would try to make a quick dash for the front door.

In 1956, Hungary would become the first when its communist leader instituted reforms and began showing signs of cracking. They were not to succeed; Soviet troops and tanks were sent in to restore full communism. Twelve years later, in what became know as the “Prague Spring”, Czechoslovakia made a similar attempt to dislodge communism and met a similar response from Moscow.

It should be noted that while the Soviet Union did draw criticism for its heavy-handed tactics in the domestic affairs of other countries, not once did the United States or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization stand ready to send military assistance to these countries trying to breakaway from Soviet control.

Despite Moscow’s frequent intrusion in their affairs and success at ruining any attempt to breakaway from Soviet rule, dissent toward Soviet-style communism not only persisted but actually became stronger and bolder. The late-1970’s saw the creation of the underground opposition Solidarity Movement in Poland which frequently organized workers’ strikes in protest against communist rule.