-
The Cold War
The Cold War was a military rivalry but it was also a struggle for power and control between the United States and the Soviet Union due to different forms of govenrment, economic systems, and ways of life. The Cold War was basically a conflict between communism and capitalist democracy. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
The Cuban Missle Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. -
General Economic Reform Program
This reform included scrapping Khrushchev's regional economic councils in favor of resurrecting the central industrial ministries of the Stalin era. Opposition from party conservatives and cautious managers, however, soon stalled the Liberman reforms, forcing the state to abandon them. -
Droughts
Droughts occurring irregularly throughout the 1970s forced the Soviet Union to import large quantities of grain from the West, including the United States. -
Developed Industrial Country
As a developed industrial country, the Soviet Union by the 1970s found it increasingly difficult to maintain the high rates of growth in the industrial sector that it had sustained in earlier years. Increasingly large investment and labor inputs were required for growth, but these inputs were becoming more difficult to obtain. Although the planned goals of the five-year plans of the 1970s had been scaled down from previous plans, the targets remained largely unmet. -
Congress of People's Deputies and State Council
Through a constitutional amendment made by Mikhail Gorbachev, the Supreme Soviet became a permanent parliament which was elected by the Congress of the People's Deputies. In the 1989 Soviet legislative election the Soviet people, for the first time, elected candidates democratically. -
President and the Cabinet
In 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev created the office of the President of the Soviet Union, the head of the executive branch. In the meantime, the Council of Ministers was dissolved and replaced by the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR. The new cabinet was headed by the Premier. Gorbachev's election as President marked the third time in one year he was elected to an office equivalent to that of Soviet head of state; he was elected by the Congress of People's Deputies on all three occasions. -
Political Status
Russia's president determines the basic direction of Russia's domestic and foreign policy and represents the Russian state within the country and in foreign affairs. The president appoints and recalls Russia's ambassadors upon consultation with the legislature, accepts the credentials and letters of recall of foreign representatives, conducts international talks, and signs international treaties. A special provision allowed Yeltsin to complete the term prescribed to end in June 1996 and to exerc
