Breakup of the Union

Breakup of the Union

By the end of the 20th century, the Soviet Union faced economic and political problems.

Mickhail Gorbachev announced two reforms: Perestroika and Glasnost. In the revolutions of 1989 the USSR lost its satellites (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia) in Eastern Europe. Suffering from low pricing of petroleum and natural gas, ongoing war in Afghanistan, outdated industry and pervasive corruption, the Soviet planned economy proved to be ineffective, and by 1990 the Soviet government had lost control over economic conditions. There were shortages of almost all products. By December 1991, the shortages had resulted in the introduction of food rationing in Moscow and Saint Petersburg for the first time since World War II. Russia received humanitarian food aid from abroad. The Supreme Soviet of Russia withdrew Russia from the Soviet Union on December 12. The Soviet Union officially ended on December 25, 1991, and the Russian Federation (formerly the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) took power on December 26.