Key Leaders
This Soviet leader criticised Stalin's abuses and introduced limited reforms.
Who was Nikita Khrushchev?
This policy promoted greater openness and freedom of information in the USSR.
What is glasnost?
This decades-long rivalry dominated Soviet foreign policy after World War II.
What was the Cold War?
The Soviet Union officially dissolved in this year.
What is 1991?
This nation emerged as the largest successor state to the USSR.
What is the Russian Federation?
This Russian politician became the first President of the Russian Federation in 1991.
Who was Boris Yeltsin?
This policy sought to restructure the Soviet economy.
What is perestroika?
This military alliance, led by the United States, opposed the Soviet bloc.
What is NATO?
By 1991, this many republics made up the Soviet Union.
What is 15 republics?
What is Pizza Hut?
This Soviet leader's policies of military expansion and economic stagnation contributed to problems in the 1980s.
Who was Leonid Brezhnev?
This reform allowed for multiple communist candidates and some independent candidates in elections.
What was demokratizatsiya?
This expensive competition strained Soviet resources throughout the Cold War.
What was the arms race?
This failed event led by communist hardliners in 1991 accelerated the collapse of the USSR.
What was the August Coup?
Many former Soviet republics faced this difficult transition in the 1990s.
What was the shift from a command economy to a market economy?
This leader was briefly held under house arrest during the August 1991 coup attempt.
Who was Mikhail Gorbachev?
Increased freedom under glasnost encouraged people in Soviet republics to demand this.
Sovereignty
This 1989 event symbolised the collapse of communist control in Eastern Europe.
What was the fall of the Berlin Wall?
These movements within republics such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia challenged Soviet authority.
What were nationalist or independence movements?
The corruption and economic mismanagement in the years after the collapse of the USSR paved the way for the rise of conservative forces and this leader.
Who is Vladimir Putin?
Short-lived Soviet leaders before Gorbachev. Their inability to solve economic problems highlighted the need for reform.
Who were Andropov and Chernenko?
A major arms control agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union, signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on 8 December 1987.
What was the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty)
Soviet involvement in this 1979-1989 conflict is often compared to America's experience in Vietnam.
What was the Soviet-Afghan War?
On December 25, 1991, this event marked the symbolic end of the Soviet Union.
What was Gorbachev's resignation and the lowering of the Soviet flag over the Kremlin?
Historians debate whether the Soviet collapse was caused more by economic problems, political reforms, or this growing force.
What is nationalism?