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Was the demise of the Soviet Union caused principally by American policies or growing domestic unrest across the Eastern bloc?

Student Name: XIANG MA
Student ID Number: 2112688
Module Code: V12153
Module Title: The Contemporary World since 1945
Module Convenor: Sarah Browne

At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist country with the largest territorial area suddenly disintegrated without any war and foreign invasion, which was one of the most important global events in the 20th century and it shocked the world to a huge extent[1].Since then, there have been heated debates and discussion about what caused the demise of the Soviet Union. Some scholars think that internal factors such as social crisis and growing domestic unrest led to the end of the Soviet Union while others believe external factors like the policies of the US and Western Europe resulted in the end of the Soviet Union. This essay strongly agrees that the demise of the Soviet Union was caused principally by growing domestic unrest across the Eastern bloc rather than American policies.

The Soviet Union was a multi-ethnic country built on the ruins of the Czarist Russia characterized by its nation. The ethnic issue of the Soviet Union was longstanding. During the history of more than 370 years starting from Moscow Grand Duke Ivan IV declared him to be Czar and established the Czarist Russia in 1547 until the Czarist Russia was overthrown in 1917, the Czarist Russia merged Transcaucasia, Central Asia, the Baltic countries, Siberia and the Far East one after another[2]. As a result, its territory expanded 8 times of its original one and it conquered more than 120 nations. To consolidate its brutal rule, every Czar implemented cruel oppression and enslavement in the conquered nations. In addition, every Czar tried their best to promote the Great

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