The Fall of the Soviet Union

After nearly 70 years as one of the world’s most fearsome empires, the Soviet Union collapsed peacefully and with little fanfare. 

“I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of president,” its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared in a televised address on Christmas Day, 1991. “We’re now living in a new world.” 

Over the previous six months, many of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union had declared independence as it became increasingly clear that their people wanted freedom. Gorbachev’s resignation was the final nail in the empire’s coffin. 

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) had been a mighty superpower spanning Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with its capital in Moscow. It stretched across 11 time zones and covered one-sixth of Earth’s land. It effectively kept a third of Europe prisoner, blocking people’s escape with troops, tanks, and concrete walls. And its decades-long battle for global supremacy with the United States edged the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.

Spurred by a dying economy and its own citizens’ thirst for liberty, the Soviet Union’s disintegration 35 years ago upended the global power balance and left the U.S. as the world’s sole superpower. 

“The collapse of the Soviet Union was the most important event on the global stage since World War II,” says Timothy Frye, a Russia expert at Columbia University. “It meant the end of the Soviet Union’s global empire and the end of a political and economic system that had followers around the world.”

After nearly 70 years as one of the world’s most fearsome empires, the Soviet Union collapsed quietly. 

“I hereby discontinue my activities at the post of president,” its leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, declared in a televised address on Christmas Day, 1991. “We’re now living in a new world.” 

Over the previous six months, it became clear that the country’s  people wanted freedom. Many of the 15 republics that made up the Soviet Union had declared independence. Gorbachev’s resignation was the last straw. 

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) had been a mighty superpower spanning Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The capital was in Moscow. The country stretched across 11 time zones and covered one-sixth of Earth’s land. It effectively kept a third of Europe prisoner. It blocked people’s escape with troops, tanks, and concrete walls. For decades, the U.S.S.R. battled the United States for global supremacy. It edged the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.

Thirty-five years ago, a dying economy and a push for freedom from its citizens caused the disintegration of the Soviet Union. It upended the global power balance and left the U.S. as the world’s sole superpower. 

“The collapse of the Soviet Union was the most important event on the global stage since World War II,” says Timothy Frye, a Russia expert at Columbia University. “It meant the end of the Soviet Union’s global empire and the end of a political and economic system that had followers around the world.”

The Soviet Union started idealistically, with the theory that everyone should share society’s wealth. Communism, its founding ideology, argues that privately owned businesses and industries should be confiscated and collectively owned by the state for everyone’s benefit. 

In 1917, as World War I (1914-18) devastated Russia, Vladimir Lenin, the head of a Communist faction known as the Bolsheviks, helped lead the Russian Revolution. The revolution toppled Russia’s monarch, Czar Nicholas II. Following several years of civil war, Lenin established the Soviet Union out of the former Russian Empire and some of its neighboring territories.

Lenin and his brutal successor, Joseph Stalin, remade the vast, mostly agricultural nation into an industrial giant, but at a staggering cost: At least 40 million people died from famine, persecution, and mass executions under Stalin. 

During World War II (1939-45), the Soviet Union joined forces with the U.S. and Great Britain and helped defeat Nazi Germany. But after the war, the Soviets installed puppet Communist governments* in Eastern European nations captured from Germany, such as Poland and Albania. Soviet control of those countries led former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to declare that an “iron curtain” had fallen across Europe, dividing the democratic West from the Communist East (see timeline, below). The divide developed into what we now call the Cold War (1945-91)—a standoff between Communism and the capitalism of Western nations, led by the U.S. 

In 1949, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb, becoming the second country in the world with nuclear weapons after the U.S. and sparking a frantic arms race. The threat of nuclear war became so ingrained in American life that people built bomb shelters in their homes, and schools taught students to “duck and cover” under their desks in the event of an attack. 

“There was a real risk of things getting out of control and real miscalculations being made,” says Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “The terror of it was very real.” 

In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told Western diplomats, “History is on our side. We will bury you.” Six years later, the Cuban Missile Crisis—a tense 13-day standoff following the U.S. discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba—brought the world closer to nuclear war than it ever has been. The Soviets removed the missiles under American pressure.

*A puppet government is one that appears independent but is actually controlled by an outside power.

The Soviet Union started idealistically. It was founded on Communism—the theory that everyone should share society’s wealth. Communism argues that privately owned businesses and industries should be confiscated and owned by the state for everyone’s benefit. 

In 1917, World War I (1914-18) had devastated Russia. Vladimir Lenin, the head of a Communist faction known as the Bolsheviks, helped lead the Russian Revolution. The revolution overthrew Russia’s monarch, Czar Nicholas II. Several years of civil war followed. Lenin established the Soviet Union out of the former Russian Empire and some of its neighboring territories.

Lenin and his brutal successor, Joseph Stalin, remade the large, mostly agricultural nation. They created an industrial giant, but at a terrible cost. At least 40 million people died from famine, persecution, and mass executions under Stalin. 

During World War II (1939-45), the Soviet Union joined forces with the U.S. and Great Britain. It helped defeat Nazi Germany and captured Eastern European countries from Germany. After the war, the Soviets installed puppet Communist governments* in those countries, such as Poland and Albania. Soviet control of those countries led former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to declare that an “iron curtain” had fallen across Europe. It divided the democratic West from the Communist East (see timeline, below). The divide developed into what we now call the Cold War (1945-91)—a standoff between Communism and the capitalism of Western nations, led by the U.S. 

In 1949, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb. It became the second country in the world with nuclear weapons and sparked a frantic arms race with the U.S. The threat of nuclear war became so ingrained in American life that people built bomb shelters in their homes. Schools taught students to “duck and cover” under their desks in the event of an attack. 

“There was a real risk of things getting out of control and real miscalculations being made,” says Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “The terror of it was very real.” 

In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told Western diplomats, “History is on our side. We will bury you.” Six years later, a tense 13-day standoff began following the U.S. discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world the closest to nuclear war it’s ever been. The Soviets removed the missiles under American pressure.

*A puppet government is one that appears independent but is actually controlled by an outside power.

Throughout the 1970s, as the U.S. economy suffered from widespread inflation and Soviet-backed guerrillas helped Communist North Vietnam defeat American troops, much of the world wondered if Khrushchev could be right. But by the 1980s, the Soviet Union was in decline. The regime imprisoned dissidents, attempted to crush democratic movements in Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia) and Poland, and invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 1979. That war dragged on for almost a decade, further fanning Russians’ anger at their leaders. 

At the same time, the Soviet economy was sinking. Bureaucrats decided what state-run factories could manufacture, and people waited years to buy a car or get a phone—or bribed someone to jump the line. Ordinary Soviet citizens were forbidden from traveling abroad and had almost no access to international news. Soviet teens couldn’t watch American movies or even buy a pair of blue jeans.

“The extent to which the Soviet Union was sealed off from the outside world is hard for us to grasp in the era of the internet,” says Frye. 

During the 1970s, the U.S. economy suffered from widespread inflation and Soviet-backed guerrillas helped Communist North Vietnam defeat American troops. Much of the world wondered if Khrushchev could be right. But by the 1980s, the Soviet Union was in decline. The regime imprisoned dissidents. It attempted to crush democratic movements in Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia) and Poland. Neighboring Afghanistan was invaded in 1979. That war dragged on for almost a decade, further fanning Russians’ anger at their leaders. 

At the same time, the Soviet economy was sinking. Bureaucrats decided what state-run factories could manufacture. This led to people waiting years to buy a car or get a phone, unless they bribed someone to jump the line. Ordinary Soviet citizens were forbidden from traveling abroad. They had almost no access to international news. Soviet teens couldn’t watch American movies or even buy a pair of blue jeans.

“The extent to which the Soviet Union was sealed off from the outside world is hard for us to grasp in the era of the internet,” says Frye. 

In 1985, an energetic new leader named Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union. He thawed icy relations with Western nations and relaxed restrictions on freedoms at home. His policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed people to say and read what they wished. And he tried to improve the broken economy with free-market reforms known as perestroika. 

But Communist diehards sabotaged Gorbachev’s economic initiatives, and daily life grew even worse. Disrupted supply chains led to a massive shortage of all kinds of goods, and prices for them soared. 

The end of the U.S.S.R. began in 1989, when Eastern Europe’s puppet states started to allow free elections and then opened their borders. With its own problems mounting at home, the Soviet Union announced it wouldn’t intervene militarily. That November, Communist East Germany opened the gates of the infamous Berlin Wall that had kept its citizens prisoners, and crowds streamed out. 

In December 1991, Russia—the largest and most important state in the Soviet Union—and 10 other Soviet republics proclaimed independence, forming a new alliance of sovereign nations called the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev soon bowed to the inevitable. At 7:32 p.m. on Christmas Day, guards lowered the red hammer-and-sickle Soviet flag at the government headquarters in Moscow. The white, blue, and red Russian flag rose in its place. The Soviet Union was no more.

In 1985, an energetic new leader named Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union. He thawed icy relations with Western nations. Restrictions on freedoms were relaxed at home. His policy of glasnost, or openness, allowed people to say and read what they wished. And he tried to improve the broken economy with free-market reforms known as perestroika. 

But Communist diehards interfered with Gorbachev’s economic initiatives. Daily life grew even worse. There was a shortage of all kinds of goods because of disruptions in the supply chains. With less supply, prices soared.  

The end of the U.S.S.R. began in 1989. Eastern Europe’s puppet states started to allow free elections. Then they opened their borders. The Soviet Union announced it wouldn’t intervene militarily. That November, Communist East Germany opened the gates of the infamous Berlin Wall that had kept its citizens prisoners. The crowds streamed out. 

In December 1991, Russia—the largest and most important state in the Soviet Union—and 10 other Soviet republics proclaimed independence. They formed the Commonwealth of Independent States, a new alliance of sovereign nations. Gorbachev accepted what was happening. At 7:32 p.m. on Christmas Day, guards lowered the red hammer-and-sickle Soviet flag at the government headquarters in Moscow. The white, blue, and red Russian flag rose in its place. The Soviet Union was no more.

Olga Sunden was 13 and living in southern Ukraine when the U.S.S.R. collapsed. In the aftermath, she remembers a boom in Ukrainian culture and the thrill of finally being able to travel. 

“After independence, the whole world became open to me,” she says. 

The U.S.—with the world’s largest economy, overwhelming military strength, and cultural dominance—remained as the world’s sole superpower, giving it unprecedented global influence. With no nuclear-armed Cold War enemy anymore, the U.S. cut back on military spending. 

In the past two decades, however, that era of American invincibility has come to a close with China’s economic and military rise. With more than 1.4 billion people, China has the world’s largest population and its second-largest economy. These developments have led some scholars to view China as an emerging superpower. 

Russia flirted with democracy in the 1990s, but it slipped back to strongman rule when President Vladimir Putin took control in 1999. Putin, a former Soviet spy, has remained in power and steadily consolidated control. Despite Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule, the Russian economy has stabilized and most citizens live relatively comfortably—as long as they don’t challenge the government. 

The fortunes of the former Soviet republics and satellite states have been mixed. Today most of the Eastern European nations that escaped the Soviet orbit—such as Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia—are healthy and prosperous democracies. But many of the Soviet Union’s former states, especially those in Central Asia, still have repressive governments. 

Olga Sunden was 13 and living in southern Ukraine when the U.S.S.R. collapsed. She remembers a boom in Ukrainian culture and the thrill of finally being able to travel. 

“After independence, the whole world became open to me,” she says. 

The U.S.—with the world’s largest economy, overwhelming military strength, and cultural dominance—remained as the world’s sole superpower. The U.S. cut back on military spending because there was no nuclear-armed Cold War enemy anymore. 

In the past 20 years, however, that era of American invincibility has come to a close. China has seen an economic and military rise. With more than 1.4 billion people, China has the world’s largest population. It also has the second-largest global economy. These developments have led some scholars to view China as an emerging superpower.  

Russia flirted with democracy in the 1990s, but it slipped back to strongman rule when President Vladimir Putin took control in 1999. Putin, a former Soviet spy, has remained in power and steadily consolidated control. Despite Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule, the Russian economy has stabilized. As long as the citizens don’t challenge the government, they can live relatively comfortably. 

The former Soviet countries have had different outcomes. Most Eastern European nations, like Poland, Czechia, and Slovenia, are now successful democracies. But many former Soviet states in Central Asia still have strict governments.

Ukraine, one of the largest and most historically important former Soviet states, has found itself in a tug-of-war between Russia and the West. For decades, many Ukrainians sought closer ties with Western Europe, but Russia has resisted the idea of losing influence there. In early 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine, launching a brutal war with hopes of winning control of the nation. 

Instead, Ukraine fought back with determination. Its European allies and the U.S. have given Ukraine advanced weaponry and ammunition to help keep the Russian army at bay. Four years later, the bloody conflict has killed as many as 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers and more than 40,000 Ukrainian civilians. The fighting has destroyed vast swaths of the country and displaced more than 10 million people. 

The toll for Russia has been even higher: Nearly 1 million Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Some analysts see a direct connection between the war in Ukraine and the collapse of the Soviet Union 35 years ago. 

Putin “has a deep frustration that Russia has lost its status as a great power,” Hill says. “Putin sees the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to reverse everything that has happened in Europe in the last 35 years.”

Ukraine is one of the largest and most historically important former Soviet states. Since the collapse of the U.S.S.R., it has found itself in a tug-of-war between Russia and the West. For decades, many Ukrainians sought closer ties with Western Europe. Russia has resisted the idea of losing influence there. In early 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine, launching a brutal war with hopes of winning control of the nation. 

Ukraine fought back. Europe and the U.S. sent weapons to help. After four years, the war has killed about 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers and more than 40,000 civilians. Large parts of the country have been destroyed, and more than 10 million people have fled their homes.

The toll for Russia has been even higher: Nearly 1 million Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the war, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Some analysts see a direct connection between the war in Ukraine and the collapse of the Soviet Union 35 years ago. 

Putin “has a deep frustration that Russia has lost its status as a great power,” Hill says. “Putin sees the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to reverse everything that has happened in Europe in the last 35 years.”

Additional reporting by Sonya Sunden.

Additional reporting by Sonya Sunden.