Why the soviet union disintigrate

Inspite of the Soviet economy growing at a rapid pace after the Second World War, people were growing wary of the Soviet system and began opposing it in later years. This was because of the following reasons:

• Since the state controlled all factors of production, the Soviet system became very bureaucratic and authoritarian making life difficult for the citizens
• Democracy and freedom of speech was denied to the people
• The Communist Party of Soviet Union controlled all institutions and it was not accountable to the people

Mikhail Gorbachev  was the General Secreatary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985. He believed that reforms were necessary to keep USSR at par with the West. He initiated policies to democratise and reform the Soviet Union.  The efforts of Gorbachev to give some degree of autonomy to people in the Soviet Union made people to demand more rights and freedom. They started protesting against their own governments and the communist regimes began to fall one after the other. Boris Yeltsin was a member of the Communist party who gradually began to believe in free market economy and democracy. After the introduction of reforms in Soviet Russia by Gorbachev, a coup took place in Russia encouraged by the Communist Party. Yeltsin vehemently opposed this coup and people too did not want to now live under the communist regime. The coup failed and Yeltsin emerged as a national hero. He won elections in Russia and in December 1991, under his leadership- Russia, Ukraine and Belarus- three major republics of the USSR disbanded the Soviet Union. THis finally led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.