NYSED Global History and Geography Online Resource Guide: Turningpoints

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China and India (Chindia) Became Major World Economic Powers

Much of the economic woes of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s can be traced to its failed invasion of Afghanistan and the cost of its military rivalry with the United States. In 1985, Mikail Gorbachev gained control of a Soviet government that was war weary, suffering from economic decay and vocal protests against the government at all levels, The election of Lech Walesca and the Fall of the Berlin Wall illustrates the discontent felt by the subject peoples in Eastern Europe. In August 1991, the Soviet Baltic republics declared their independence from the USSR, and in December, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declared the Soviet Union dead, Boris Yeltsin attempted to revamp the Russian economy by adopting a free market system. Yeltzin resigned in December 1999, and in 2000, Vladimir Putin was elected president. Russia’s economy shrank, and Russian industries proved to be less competitive internationally; the former Soviet satellites, however, proved to be more completive in the global market place.

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Conflict

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Civics,
Citizenship, and Government

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Related Topics:

Cold War Era

Mikhail Gorbachev
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Ethnic Conflict
Boris Yeltsin
Vladimir Putin

Global Migrations

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