History Sphere Podcast

The December 1991 Independence Referendum in Ukraine sent shockwaves across the USSR, forcing decisive action upon the leaders of the other republics. Events finally came to a head at a small hunting lodge in Belarus near the border with Poland.

In the immediate aftermath of the August 1991 coup attempt, Boris Yeltsin used his newfound political ascendancy to subdue and humiliate Mikhail Gorbachev, thereby bringing the central Soviet government under his effective control. This power grab would have far-reaching consequences in the non-Russian republics.

Resistance to the August 1991 coup attempt in the USSR took many forms, which were both cunning and creative. The event itself, however, set the stage for more difficult times to come.

In August 1991, the brewing political crisis in the USSR brought on by the constitutional reforms of Perestroika came to a head, as members of the security, military, and Communist Party establishment launched an attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev and roll back the reforms.

The events of 1921 and 1956 that lie at the foundation of modern Georgian nationalism resurfaced amidst the reforms of Perestroika in the 1980's. In 1989, the rising tide of nationalism would collide with tragedy to propel Georgia inexorably toward independence from the USSR.

The Caucasus is a region that, though it is not of Russia, is deeply central to the Russian identity. This beautiful and diverse part of the world has also played a central role in the political and military history of the Russian Empire, the USSR, and modern Russia.

Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev were both men of remarkable talent and drive. Yet, their inability to work together toward a common goal led to an intense rivalry that weakened, rather than strengthened the efficacy of Perestroika, and helped to hasten the final demise of the USSR.

Boris Yeltsin, though he was once overwhelmingly popular, is today remembered by most Russians as the corrupt leader responsible for Russia's degradation in the 1990's. His real legacy is actually significantly more complicated. Without Yeltsin, the Soviet Union would not have collapsed the way it did, and modern Russia would look very different.

Throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, Glasnost awakened an irrepressible movement for independence in the Baltic States. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to formally declare independence from the USSR, precipitating a crisis.

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were the smallest republics of the USSR, yet the international politics concerning them are among the most far-reaching consequences of the USSR's disintegration. An understanding of their history is therefore crucial understanding the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 capped of a year of tumultuous change across Eastern Europe. Its brutal conclusion marked the end of the Communist Era in Eastern Europe.

Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution is often overshadowed by the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, which took place only a few days earlier. However, it was a deeply fascinating chapter, and an important domino in the fall of Eastern Bloc Communism.

On November 9, 1989, a series of blunders by the East German Communist regime set in motion a chain reaction of events that led to the fall of the most infamous symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall.

In the late summer and fall of 1989, upon receiving news of the reforms there, huge numbers of East Germans made their way to Hungary hoping to escape across the border to Austria and on to West Germany. The ensuing refugee crisis initiated a series of events that forced the Communist regime in East Germany into a struggle for its very survival.

The partition of Germany was never meant to be permanent, but materialized by accident as a practical solution to the unbridgeable divide between the Soviets and their erstwhile Western allies on what to do with their defeated German enemies in the wake of the Second World War. This divide placed Germany on the front line of the Cold War for more than four decades.

After 1956, the Communist leaders of Hungary elected to rule with a softer touch than was employed elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Hungary became just the second domino to fall in the series of revolutions that spread across Eastern and Central Europe in 1989.

In the summer of 1980, the workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland went on strike to demand the reinstatement of a fired coworker and the recognition of their independent trade union. They were soon joined by workers around the country. What began as a relatively moderate labor movement soon transformed into a social and political revolution that would unravel Communism in Poland.

In addition to the widespread loss of faith in the Soviet system by ordinary citizens as a result of the Chernobyl disaster, by 1987, the Soviet Union also faced a deepening economic crisis. The reforms of Perestroika were an attempt to remake this failing system and save the USSR.

The initial response of the Soviet government to the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl was the perfect storm of incompetence, callousness, and shameless lies. This bungled exposed the flaws in the Soviet system its own people and to the wider world.

In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station suffered a catastrophic failure when the poor decisions of the plant's electrical engineers combined with a critical design flaw in the reactor. The result was the worst nuclear accident in history.

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev did not yet have the political capital or the right people in place to enact his bold domestic reforms. However, in the realm of foreign policy, he was able to make a splash more quickly.

Mikhail Gorbachev was a natural leader and a skilled administrator, but little about his early life led people to believe that he would usher in an era of revolutionary change when he became General Secretary in March 1985.

The period between the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 is often glossed over in histories of the Soviet Union. Yet, much of what happened in this time period provides vital context for the turmoil that would rock the USSR in the coming decade.

The Guerilla forces who faced the Red Army in Afghanistan have been defined in various lights. To some, they were the heroic defenders of Afghanistan's freedom. To others, they were bloodthirsty terrorists. In truth, they were mostly ordinary people forced to live in extraordinary and difficult times.

The war in Afghanistan was a bridge between the old Soviet Union and the new Russia. The soldiers of the Red Army who fought in it came from every republic and region of the USSR, and the war left an indelible mark on those who survived.

Between 1973 and 1979, there were three violent coups in Afghanistan, generating a crisis that culminated in the full-scale Soviet invasion of the country. It would be a war with few, if any, redeeming qualities. There were no good guys and everybody lost.

Afghanistan is a country at the crossroads of the world. Just about every major Eurasian Empire has been entangled in Afghan affairs at some point. The history of Afghanistan brings clarity not just to our understanding of the decline of the Soviet Union, but the entire modern world.

The Soviet Union was an officially and aggressively atheist state. However, religious traditions were strongly rooted among the peoples of the USSR. Even amidst an atmosphere of persecution, various Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities persevered and even thrived.

As Brezhnev pushed back against the reforms of his predecessor, members of the Soviet intelligentsia who had been inspired by the Khrushchev thaw, refused to be silenced. By the 1970's, underground human rights organizations were springing up all over the USSR. While the KGB could destroy individual groups, they had greater difficulty containing the ideas that inspired them.

When the Soviet Union and several Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, it put an end to the reforms of the Prague Spring. However, it also fractured the Communist World, leading Albania to defect from the Warsaw Pact and deepening the Soviet rift with China.

The Brezhnev era was, socially and politically, the most stable in the history of the USSR. However, it is also the period in which its economic decline accelerated. The complete collapse of the 80's and 90's had its roots in the mismanagement of the 60's and 70's.

In October 1964, a plot was executed to force Nikita Khrushchev from power. Khrushchev's fall, not so coincidentally, was concurrent with the rise of his protege - Leonid Brezhnev.

In October 1962, the presence of nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba brought the world to the brink of catastrophe. The ensuing Cuban Missile Crisis was also a pivotal moment in the decline of the USSR.

The islands of the Caribbean, which are today popular tourist destinations, were once home to some of the most concentrated suffering in human history. Above all, it was the Caribbean sugar industry that fueled the inhumanity of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The unlikely success of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement in the late 1950's is one of the most fascinating underdog stories in world history, and it set the stage for the most dramatic moment of the Cold War.

For a relatively small island nation, Cuba has consistently had an outsized impact on world history, shaping the destinies of empires and superpowers. Cuba's destiny in the modern world was forged, above all, by one man - Fidel Castro.

The Space Race began as a mere extension of the Cold War arms race, but it soon took on a life of its own. The achievements of the Soviet space program early in the race set the standard for all future space exploration.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was one of the most remarkable events of the 20th Century, and it led to a significant escalation of the Cold War.

Nikita Khrushchev was a deeply complicated figure. He was capable of terrible ruthlessness, but could, at times, come across as a very sympathetic and even admirable figure. Whatever our opinion of him, his impact on the history of the Soviet Union is undeniable.

On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died from a cerebral hemorrhage, setting in motion a struggle for power between his subordinates.

Despite their emergence as a superpower, the postwar Soviet Union faced a series of challenges brought on by the destruction of the war and economic mismanagement by Stalin and the Communist Party.

In July 1945, the leaders of the Big Three came together to decide the fate of the world in Potsdam, Germany. As they prepared to meet, an explosion in the New Mexico desert would fundamentally change the world forever.

When Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met in Tehran and Yalta, they sought to resolve their differences and lay the groundwork for the new postwar order.

As the Red Army advanced across Eastern Europe, they discovered horrifying evidence of Nazi atrocities. When they got to Germany, they committed a few of their own.

The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most decisive moments in world history. At an appallingly high cost, the Red Army turned back the Nazi tide and began the long march toward victory.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched a devastating surprise attack on the Soviet Union. The Soviet people faced the possibility of annihilation and overcame it.

By the late 1930's, the clouds of war were already approaching the Soviet Union. Stalin's foreign policy was dominated by the existential threat posed by the rise of Fascism in Europe.

After securing his position as the unquestioned leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin sought to will history forward and eliminate all threats to his regime with a series of brutal campaigns against alleged internal enemies.

No figure looms quite as large over the history of the USSR as Joseph Stalin. From humble origins on the periphery of the Russian Empire, he would rise to become one of the most influential world leaders of the 20th Century.

The October Revolution of 1917 transformed Russia into the world's first Communist state and set the stage for the defining events of the 20th Century.