USSR Leaders
Who introduced glasnost and perestroika?
Gorbachev
In the Soviet economy, who owned major industries?
The state
What does "perestroika" mean?
Restructuring
What does "glasnost" mean?
Openness
Which US President increased pressure on the USSR during the 1980s?
Ronald Reagan
Which Soviet leader delivered the Secret Speech criticising Stalin?
Khrushchev
What was the name of the powerful Communist Party body that made the most important decisions in practice?
Politburo
Which 1988 reform legalised private cooperatives?
Law on Cooperatives
Which major disaster exposed the dangers of secrecy in the USSR?
Chernobyl
What was the nickname given to Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative?
Star Wars
Which Soviet leader was responsible for the Brezhnev Doctrine and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968?
Brezhnev
What economic system relied on government planners setting production targets?
The command economy / Soviet planned economy
What was the purpose of the Joint Venture Law?
To allow Soviet enterprises to work with foreign partners and earn hard currency.
Who was the key adviser who promoted the idea of glasnost?
Alexander Yakovlev
Who won a landslide election victory in Moscow and became a symbol of political opposition?
Boris Yeltsin
Name the two Soviet leaders who ruled between Brezhnev and Gorbachev.
Andropov and Chernenko.
According to the Soviet power pyramid, where did ordinary citizens sit in the structure?
At the bottom.
Name one major economic problem caused by perestroika reforms.
Inflation, shortages, or supply crises
What was significant about the 1989 Congress of People's Deputies elections?
They were the first genuinely competitive national elections in Soviet history
What event on 9 November 1989 became the most visible symbol of communist collapse in Eastern Europe?
The fall of the Berlin Wall
Which leader both introduced political reforms and unintentionally helped create conditions that allowed Yeltsin to challenge Communist Party authority?
Gorbachev
Why was centralisation both a strength and a weakness of the Soviet system?
It allowed control and coordination but made it difficult to respond effectively to problems and shortages
Was perestroika's biggest problem structural weaknesses, reform design, or political resistance? Defend your answer.
Open-ended judgement question - as long as they can justify it - give points
Explain one way glasnost strengthened the Soviet Union and one way it weakened it.
Open-ended evaluation.
Rank these from most important to least important in causing the collapse of Soviet power and justify your top choice:
Points if answer is justified!