Title: Gorbachev’s Reforms: The Factor which Broke the USSR? | by Ethan Friend | History of Yesterday
Headings: Gorbachev’s Reforms: The Factor which Broke the USSR?
Gorbachev’s Reforms: The Factor which Broke the USSR?
Was the USSR’s final leader the cause of its colapse?
Gorbachev’s Reforms
Boris Yeltsin
Nationalism
Economic Weakness
Conclusions

Content: It also led to the emergence of Boris Yeltsin as a popular figure, whose aim was to replace the USSR with independent states. Boris Yeltsin
Yeltsin played a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 also. After being elected in the 1989 elections, he used his democratic mandate to step up his criticism. He formed and led the Inter-Regional Deputies Group (IRDG) which was effectively an oppositional group to the Communists. Yeltsin presented himself as a key rival of Gorbachev, and successfully questioned his right to rule since Gorbachev had never stood for election. He used the August coup of 1991 as a pretext to ban the Communist Party in Russia, seizing Communist Party assets and undermining the Party’s ability to control the Union. Yeltsin emerged from the coup a hero, whereas Gorbachev’s reputation was further damaged. Yeltsin also held secret meetings with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus, who agreed to destroy Gorbachev’s new Union Treaty by forming the CIS. Following this, he also persuaded the leaders of the Soviet military to abandon the USSR and form a new Russian army. Without an army, Gorbachev had no way of holding the union together.