MGP+Ho+Joon


 * The DEATH of a Nation **Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?

** Preface ** : One of the mysteries of the world was the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union era, which was also the Cold War era, the Soviets had displayed themselves as a major contender of the title "Superpower," and had posed the single greatest threat to the Americans. However, without much warning, it was gone. Since this historical event had a significant impact on the modern world, I thought it would be an interesting subject to deal with. The three projects answer the key question--Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?--from slightly different point of view. While the conclusions are similar, these three different projects approach the subject matter from various perspectives, adding diversity to the whole project.

In the first genre, I dealt the subject in a research paper. One of the strengths of a research paper is its formality. Since my topic of the Soviet Union is academic and serious, the research paper would accurately provide the readers with genuine information based on an argumentative format. Therefore, this paper is a straightforward answer of the question for my project and I aim to convince my reader(s) of my thesis through my factors of analyses: economic, social and political.
 * Introduction of Genre #1 ** :

Why? Why? And why? **Multi Genre #1** Ho Joon Chun Mr. Stephens English 10G

1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. And the world was in a shock--at least to the outside world. But in fact, according to Boris Yeltsin, the initial Russian President, the collapse was "inevitable" (Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily). More than a decade later, the search towards the mysterious failure attracts analysts worldwide. However, whatever the reason is, to state a single event leading to the Red Army’s collapse would only justify one’s ignorance. There were a multitude of factors that led up to Soviet Union’s disbandment, the most important of which was the flawed structure upon which the country was operating.

The planned economy that the Soviet Union was running on was uncompetitive and ineffective. First, because of the Communist ideology of equality, wages among all workers were equal--equally low. (Masakach) This discouraged many from working to their fullest potential, since the quality of work did not matter; one would receive the same amount of money at the end of the day. Plus, a lack of proper maintenance and surveillance made it even easier for workers to slacken off at work. It was not surprising to encounter upon workers who would play Sudoku during the working hours. As a result, the economy became inefficient. On top of that, the economy fluctuated heavily because of the enormous sums of money wasted by the government. In the Space Race against the U.S., the Soviet Union poured colossal amounts of money into developing technology. Though the Soviets had won eventually, the price of this victory was a drained national reserve. However, the government continued to expand on its military consumption and used large portions of the budget to acquire missiles and tanks. What was ironic though, was that most of their missiles were later discarded because of an agreement with the United States. Finally, the economy was too reliant on oil. As a leading producer of oil, the Soviets depended on annual oil export for the majority of their income. This was a huge risk since decline in oil production or price might hurt the Soviet economy--as it did in 1985. (Gaidar)

The shabby economy, meanwhile, contributed to a social distress and turmoil. Because productions were constantly halted, factories and shops would remain closed for days when their products ran out. "They could not buy a good pair of leather boots or a good television set or a computer made in the Soviet Union, because all the boots and the electronics were swallowed up by the military procurement." (Collapse of Soviet Union) This phenomenon was due to its planned economy since, unlike capitalism, planned economies usually cannot take demands into account when making supplies. In addition, farmers who owned small family farms were forced to give up their land and start collective farming instead, which the government believed would be the solution to the insignificant amount of national agricultural production. This, however, enraged the farmers whose lands were taken without negotiation. Failure to respect such individual's rights caused deep resentment to build up in the society. Not to mention, the people were left vulnerable too. In the Great Purge, Stalin had massacred innocent civilians, citing them as "enemy of the people." (Great Purge) These practices became common and instances where the secret police would assassinate political criminals grew rapidly. Thus, the people had too little right to protect themselves or their interests, causing social havocs.

Finally, the political structure contributed to the Soviet Union’s failure. As it ran on dictatorship, a single leader ruled the USSR. This was, indeed, the root of the problem, since one man having absolute power allowed for corruption to occur. Therefore, the economy could only be heavily flawed. Simultaneously, the people’s thoughts were often unheard of or taken into account. This was a major obstacle to improving the society since people constitute any society and their interests should constitute the society's interest. Obviously, it was the opposite for Soviet Union. In fact, history proves to us that dictatorship cannot survive. Julius Caesar had expanded the Roman Empire but had been assassinated by the people due to his selfishness and ignorance. The same could be applied for Alexander the Great and Napoleon. Thus, historical patterns show the intimate connection dictatorship has with failure. In the case of the Soviet Union, it was no different, except for the fact that a dictatorship was followed by another dictatorship and another.

The real problem, therefore, could be identified as a lack of maintenance that in turn, led to a deep flaw in the economic, social and political structures of the USSR. Failure to sustain economic growth was the result of impulsive national spending. Government's inadequate concern towards individuals in the public sparked an outrage among civilians. And it was simply impossible for one ruler to control the gigantic Soviet Union. It is, therefore, justified to point to the mismanagement of USSR's structures by its government as the fatal mistake that tore the Soviet Union apart.

** Work Cited ** Brooman, Josh. STALIN AND THE SOVIET UNION: USSR, 1924-53 (LONGMAN 20TH CENTURY HISTORY SERIES). New York: Longman, 1988.

Brooman, Josh. The Cold War (20th Century History). New York: Longman, 1997.

"Collapse of Soviet Union." Revolutionary socialist culture of peace. 16 Sep. 2009 http://sfr-21.org/collapse.html

"Collapse of the Soviet Union (Overview)." World History: The Modern Era. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 2 September 2009 http://www.worldhistory.abc-clio.com

Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy: Battle of Ideas. Dir. William Cran. Perf. Daniel Yergin. DVD. Wgbh Boston, 2002.

Gaidar, Yegor. "Grain and Oil." AEI (American Enterprise Institute). 19 Apr. 2007. 16 Sep. 2009 http://www.aei.org/issue/25991

"Great Purge" World History: The Modern Era. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 2 September 2009 http://www.worldhistory.abc -clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=21&entryid=309716&searchtext=great+purge&type=simple&option=all

Masakach, Miyazaki. A Brief History of the World 2. Japan: Nipon Jitsugyo Publishing Co., 2001. 1 September 2009  Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily "People in the News-Boris Yeltsin." NewsBank-Special Report. 7 Dec. 2006. 11 Sep. 2009 http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Static?p_product=Yeltsin&f_location=yeltsin&p_theme=current&p_action=doc&p_nbid=G56D4FSFMTI1MzA5NjQ2Mi4zMDkyNjI6MTozOmtpcw&f_docnum=115DF9E5495C2DE0&f_topic=2&f_prod=WAFP&f_type=&d_refprod=SPECIALREPORTS 

"WHY DID THE SOVIET UNION COLLAPSE." Reality Home Page towards a new socialism. 16 Sep. 2009 http://reality.gn.apc.org/polemic/whydid.htm

 In this genre, I wrote a story from the perspective of an ex-department leader in the past Soviet Union. This is a third person narration of a scene in a court trial. He is standing on trial and is justifying his decision to "squander" (that is the opinion of the masses) government money. From this different angle, I developed the story and arrived at a conclusion, which is stated by the main character in the last part. Therefore, through an unexpected character such as Gor, it allowed me to think from his perspective and effectively answer the question.
 * Introduction of Genre #2 ** :

The Hearing ** Multi Genre #2 **

(Ex-) General Gor smelled trouble. Never had he, in his twelve years of career in the Military and Financial Departments, felt so nervous before. But now, even his job seemed to be on the brink of disappearing. He slowly headed for the court hearing about to take place in a mere ten minutes. It was, of course, regarding the mismanagement of federal funds that his department was in charge of.

The court room was densely packed, teemed with reporters eager to jot down a few points that were going to be the headlines the next day. As the minute hand struck twelve, it started.

"Mr. Gor, let me repeat the conviction upon which you were called upon: mismanagement of federal funds in the last decade. The court has received a figure that twelve trillion rupees have been spent for defense purposes. May I ask what specifically the defense purposes were?"

"... Nuclear weapons, sir. Missiles, atomic bombs, guns, you name it."

Gor's reply drew gasps, even from the reporters. It was a wide held belief that the Soviet Union had possessed these weapons, but never had anyone even dared to make the assumption that a trillion rupees existed in this country, not to mention a dozen trillion rupees.

"Why, as an important figure in the previous regime, did you ever put huge amounts of money into those?" The judge asked, shaking, evidently trying to control his emotions.

"It was, as stated in the documents, for defense purposes. The United States had been well ahead of us in terms of weapons of mass destruction. Their technology was capable of blowing up Moscow, and our intelligence agencies had even confirmed our danger. In such a circumstance, I had believed we had obligations to protect our state and safety, and even if tons of money had to be sacrificed, we could not overlook the matter."

The courtroom was dead quiet. And Gor began to recover his confidence. Surely, they could not criticize or punish him for his patriotic actions. Then suddenly, a reporter jumped up and offered a question, "Do you think that twelve trillion rupees were justified for our poor economic status in the past?"

That question did render him defenseless. Amidst the harsh orders by the judge and a frenzy of movements by the reporters, Gor was engrossed in his own thoughts. To him, however hard he tried to think otherwise, that twelve trillion rupees could not be justified; the weapons of mass destruction were never used in the end, serious political conflicts arose and the people had to starve because of that. Indeed, his mind was in a confused state: in the past, he was taught that all these were for the national interests. But wasn't the national interest protecting the civilians?

But the judge's question interrupted Gor's line of thinking. "Even when the funds were near bottom, you chose to continue on the nuclear weapons and deny everyone an economic relief. Why was that so?"

"We were dictated by fear. The only reason the United States dared not attack us openly was because it perceived us as a great threat likely to retaliate. Imagine what would have happened should we suddenly announce that we were going to stop all nuclear programs because we were poor. The U.S. would bombard us with missiles and exterminate the existence of a Soviet Union. Whatever steps the U.S. was going to take, we could not take the chance. That is why..."

Silence ensued. Probably everyone in the room 109 was speculating the same question, 'Whose fault was it then?'

As the hearing closed for the day and Gor was being led back to his dormitory, he wondered about the same question too. "Maybe it wasn't anyone's fault. Maybe we were just fated to collapse." He mumbled to himself as he lit up a cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke.

** Work Cited **

Shoamanesh, Sam Sasan. "Iran's George Washington: Remembering and Preserving the Legacy of 1953 . 25 Oct. 2009 .

In this final genre, I wrote a poetry that describes the collapse of the Soviet Union and made a podcast of myself reciting it. This poetry is linked to the question of the reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union since it criticizes the people's blind following of the government and their indifference and helplessness that worsened the environment and allowed the government to cheat on them. It directs--or at least, partly directs--the fault at these people. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the tone of the poem changes: first from grief to that of self-criticism.
 * Introduction of Genre #3 **

Over. It's Over. **Multi Genre #3** Alas! It is the last! Without a blast Is collapsed. Streets rot And people ought too; Separate Desperate.

But why care? Do you miss their glare Or was it pure loyalty That made your country a biggity?

They had missiles to shoot But no groceries to put In a store Because they were poor?

Who are you to blame? It was your eyes that were lame That watched those greeds Transforming into cruel deeds. And your idle brains That let them steal your grains.

Lenin! Stalin! Who called them heroes When they turned a rose Black But never back.

Over. It's over.



** Work Cited **

"WWII Photos: The people of Vladivostok listen to a Soviet radio announcing Germany's attack on the Soviet Union." __WWII Photos__. 25 Oct. 2009 <http://wwiiphotos.blogspot.com/2009/04/people-of-vladivostok-listen-to-soviet.html>.

**Bonus But... Just wait... Before I end this Multi-Genre-Project, here is a clip that I would recommend you to watch! Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has something to say to you about the future of Russia as well his thoughts regarding the collapse of the Soviet Union. Enjoy! media type="youtube" key="Ee1MM6prcik" height="344" width="425" **

** Epilogue ** From this project, I definitely became more aware of the history of the Soviet Union as well as the valuable lessons that istory can actually provide, such as the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union. To be honest, I was rather ignorant before this project about the Soviet Union and had very biased opinions of them, some common yet offensive assumptions about communism and Stalin. However, these genres allowed me to look at the situation from different perspectives. More importantly, since the three genres all had very differing structures and points of view, I learned that there is never a single aspect to a problem. As I conclude my MGP, I hope that this project was informative and that the readers could have acquired a better knowledge of the Soviet Union and its policies. Simultaneously, I tried to make it as interesting and new, especially the last two genres, so that it would be easier and better to understand the gist of the problem.