The fall of Communism in the Soviet Union was a milestone event. In the beginning, the promise of the elimination of classes and guaranteed employment appealed to many people of Russia. The Soviet Union became a super power, and only US was more powerful. Although Krushchev started a process of slight reform, he was also blamed for the Russia’s "defeat" during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and of not accomplishing anything toward the reunification of Germany under East German rule. The Soviet Union’s low standard of living dropped dramatically in 1985. The people were angry because the Communist Party failed to fulfill its promise of employment, free health care, and a high level of comfort in exchange for their obedience.

March 1985 marks a turning point in the Communist rule of Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev was elevated to the position of General Secretary. He was aware of the current social upheaval occurring and that change in the political system must occur for Communism to survive. He set out to confront the problems that were troubling the people of Soviet Union. He came to power with two main aims: “Perestroika” and Glasnost”, which means restricting and openness respectively. State control was loosened and individual initiative encouraged with capitalist features introduced. Profiteering in allowed, military spending was reduces and introduced more political changes in the government. He expanded the authority of the Soviet presidency and transferred power from the Communist party to popularly elected legislatures in the union republics. People were given more freedom, in expression, religion and more democracy. However, the removal of central control caused inflation, lack of sustainable market economy, unstable factories and lack of support from the government officials to help out the new changes in place. The freedom granted to the people have also introduces criticism towards the government, unleashed emotions that was pent up within the people against the Communist rule for decades and the transparency of the government’s actions like corruption and the defeat of Soviet Union internationally had undermined the people’s confidence in the Soviet Government. That was when the Nationalist forces became stronger as the year went on. The USSR finally lost the support of the people in 1991, and Gorbachev resigned his position as president of the USSR.

There were many social problems under the Soviet Union, including a substantial amount of alcoholism mostly due to the living and working conditions, and substantial amount of crime. There was also extreme discrimination against women. They found it hard to find decent employment, and they were expected to also take care of household duties on top of their jobs. Women were also very scarce in government. Relations among the different ethnic groups were very tense and sometimes openly hostile. The Russian language was the language in which most transactions had to occur and it was encouraged to be learnt with the purpose of making a single Soviet culture. This made the tension in the Soviet Union even stronger. The education system also caused tension because it was set up to teach students to be obedient to the Communist Party. The health care system was under-funded, most hospitals were under-staffed and the equipment was outdated, medical supplies were also scarce. Poor standards of sanitation and public hygiene lead to an increased annual death rate and a drop in the birth rate. It is shown that all the social problems and years of bad management of resources of the country is why the economy slowed and citizens’ support for the Communist regime diminished. The problems are made worse by the commitments of the Soviet Union abroad, with vast amounts of money spent trying to compete with the US in the arms and space race and financially supporting other communist regimes in Eastern Europe. The cost in case, equipment and lives was immense and turned many ordinary Soviet citizens against the government.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0112205/communismfalls.html
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/fall-of-communism-in-russia-faq.htm
http://www.factsmonk.com/fall_of_communism_in_russia