Chapter – 2

The End of Bipolarity

In this post we have given the detailed notes of class 12 Political Science Chapter 2 (The End of Bipolarity) in English. These notes are useful for the students who are going to appear in class 12 board exams.

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In One Sight

This lesson tells about the Soviet Union, how the Soviet Union came into existence, developed itself and how it had to face the disintegration due to cold war in the end.

The Soviet Union was formed in 1917 … inspired by communist ideology … joined the victorious bloc in world war II … became a superpower after world war II … started competing with America … deterioration of the soviet system … dissolution of the Soviet Union … Shock Therapy.

Formation of The Soviet Union

• The Soviet Union was formed in 1917 after the Bolshevik Revolution
• The Soviet Union is called the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). 
• There were a total of 15 republics in the Soviet Union, that’s how the Soviet Union was formed by joining 15 different countries.
• The Soviet Union was created to secure the interests of the poor.
• It was established according to socialism and communist ideology

What Was The Soviet System?

• The soviet socialist republic (USSR) was formed after the socialist revolution of 1917 in Russia.
• Its aim was to establish an equalitarian society,
• In which a society based on equality was to be created by ending capitalism and private property. 
• This system was called the soviet system.
• In other words, the soviet system is the system by which the Soviet Union developed itself.

Economic Features of The Soviet System

• The soviet system was based on socialism where all economic decisions were taken by the government keeping the society in mind.
• The soviet system had a planned economy (planning refers to planning for the future taking into account the resources currently available).
• Minimum standard of living (minimum standard of living means a situation in which a person has all those facilities without which it is difficult for him to develop normally.)
• Unemployment is negligible (unemployment was almost non-existent in the soviet system)
• Advanced communication system
• State ownership was the dominant form of ownership
• State control over land and other productive assets
• The consumer industry was very advanced (manufacturing from a small pin to a large item like a car)
• Huge reserves of energy resources (the Soviet Union had all the major energy resources such as minerals, oil, iron, steel etc. In abundance.)

Political Features of The Soviet System

• Only one party rule ( the Soviet Union was ruled by only one party called communist party ) .
• Opposing capitalism , private ownership and free trade
• No freedom to form any other political party

History of The Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin’s Regime ( 1924-53 )

He led the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953 and he played an important role in the development of the Soviet Union.

Work

• Promoted industries
• Won the second world war
• Forced agglomeration of farming

Soviet Union and The Cold War

• After the end of world war II in 1945, two super powers emerged in the world.
• Of which the first was America and the second was the Soviet Union.
• Due to having two super powers, The Era of Cold War started in the world.
• Both the super powers started trying to prove themselves better than the other superpower.

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev took command of the Soviet Union after Joseph Stalin

Main Events

• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Space race
  • (launch of sputnik, sending Yuri Gagarin into space)
• Building the Berlin Wall

Effects of The Cold War on The Soviet Union

• High expenditure in the manufacturing of weapons
• Lag behind western countries
• Fall of the economy
• Slow growth
• Diverted attention from the problems of the country

Mikhail Gorbachev

• In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the USSR.
• Two policies, Glasnost (Openness) and Perestroika (Restructuring), were formulated by Gorbachev to reform the Soviet Union.
• Which had the main objective to bring peace in the Soviet Union.

Political Reforms

• Promoted democracy.
• Withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan and Eastern Europe
• Helped in the unification of Germany

Financial Improvement

• Stopped the arms race.
• Attempts were made to promote economic development.
• Promoted privatization.

The Dissolution of The Soviet Union

• Gorbachev tried to reform the Soviet Union.
• But his efforts were completely unsuccessful.
• Those who wanted these reforms said that the reforms are taking place very slowly and those who were opposing these reforms continued to oppose them.
• Because of this Gorbachev did not get support from anywhere.
• In 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
• By 1991, the Soviet Union had completely disintegrated.

Reasons of The Dissolution of The Soviet Union

• Failure to fulfil the aspirations of the people.
• Dominant bureaucracy.
• Dominance of communist party.
• Heavy expenditure in the manufacturing of weapons
• Lag behind western countries
• Russian Dominance
• Fall of the economy.
• Feeling of freedom in the people
• Immediate causes
  • Emergence of a sense of freedom in the minds of the people
  • Gorbachev’s reforms (Perestroika and Glasnost)

Consequences of The Dissolution of The Soviet Union

• End of Cold War
• Beginning of American supremacy
• End of Arms Race
• End of Soviet Union
• Rise of 15 new Countries
• Russia became the successor of the Soviet Union.
• Blow to socialist ideology
• Emergence capitalist ideology
• Ban on the communist party in USSR.
• Countries who got independence from the Soviet Union adopted democracy and capitalism
• Russia got all the rights which Soviet Union had, such as permanent membership in the security council of the United Nations and the status of the Nuclear State.
• All the treaties made by the Soviet Union were now to be performed by Russia.

Shock Therapy 

• When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, shock therapy was created by the world bank and the international monetary fund to establish the capitalist system in the newly formed countries.
• Soviet Union was built on the socialist ideology and all the industries there used to work under the government. Now after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, capitalist system was to be established in all these countries. 
• Shock therapy was a provision to hand over all government industries to private hands by auction.
• In other words, turning the government sector into a private sector was shock therapy.

Purpose of Shock Therapy

• Privatization of State Estates
• Free Trade
• Connecting Soviet Countries to Western Economies

Results of Shock Therapy

• Completely unsuccessful.
• Russia’s industrial structure collapsed
• Fall in Russian currency ruble.
• Destruction of social welfare system
• Big companies were sold at very low price.
• Increase in economics inequality
• Food crisis
• Encouraged black marketing
• History’s largest garage sale
  • Shock therapy was called the biggest garage sale in history because big companies were sold at the price of junk.

Why Did This Happen?

This happened because all the citizens were given vouchers to participate in the auction. These vouchers were sold by those citizens to the black marketers because they needed money and at the same time they were not in a position to participate in this sale.

Communist Countries And India

• Relations between India and communist countries have been good since the beginning.
• Russia has been helping India from the very beginning.
• Both dreams a multipolar world.
• Both countries believe in democracy.
• 80 bilateral agreements were signed between India and Russia in 2001.
• India is one of the largest Russian arms buyers.
• India imports huge amount of oil from Russia.
• Russia helps India in many scientific projects.
• Russia always supported India on Kashmir issue.

Arab Revolution (Arab Spring)

Tunisia

• Tunisia is a country in North Africa
• Zine el Abidine ben ali was the president here since 1987 
• It was a dictatorial Government
• The media there was controlled and it could not show anything against the Government.
• Due to these things, people were subjected to atrocities and they did not get justice.

The Beginning of The Arab Revolution

The Arab revolution started because of the self-immolation of a poor man named Mohammad Bouazizi.

Who Was Mohammad Bouazizi ?

• Mohammad Bouazizi was a poor man
• He was born on 29 March 1984 in Tunisia.
• His father died when he was 3 years old.
• He started working from the age of 10 and used to sell fruits.

The Main Problem

• Mohammad Bouazizi had applied for license of a shop near the town hall but he was not able to get it.
• On December 17, when he reached the same place where he used to sell fruits every day, he saw that someone else was selling his goods there.
• He talked to the person and tried to remove him from there and when he did not agree, he talked to the police.
• But the police took away his fruits and his belongings and insulted him as well as bear beat.
• Due to all these things, he became very sad and in anger, he sprinkled kerosene on himself and set himself on fire and committed suicide.
• People tried to save him but he could not survive.
• While committing self-immolation, his cousin ali made a video of the incident and this video became viral on social media because of Facebook.
• He died on 4 January 2011 and thousands of people attended his funeral.

After The Death of Mohammad Bouazizi

• After the death of Mohammad Bouazizi, no strong steps were taken, due to which the anger of the people increased further.
• People in Tunisia started protesting in large numbers.
• To suppress the protest, bullets were fired on them by the government, so that people could sit peacefully in fear but this did not happen.
• Due to the hike in protest, curfew was imposed and later emergency was also imposed.
• But in the end ben ali resigned from his post and ben ali’s rule came to an end.

Why Did The People of Tunisia Revolt?

• Anger
• Dictatorship
• Corruption
• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Suicide of Mohammed Bouazizi

After The Success of The Movement In Tunisia, The Movement Gradually Spread Throughout North Africa and Arab Countries.

Consequences of The Arab Spring

• Arab revolution did not succeed
• It benefited only in Tunisia
• Libya and Syria were completely destroyed by the Arab Revolution
• Military rule became stronger in some countries
• Saudi Arabia and other countries handled the situation wisely

Middle East Crisis

• There are mainly two topics we have to talk about in the middle east crisis.
  • Afghanistan Crisis (1979–89)
  • First Gulf War

Afghanistan Crisis (1979–89)

• Afghanistan’s Political System

  • Afghanistan remained separate from both the world war and the cold war
  • Some political changes were made in 1960 by king Zahir Shah of Afghanistan.
  • Elections held in Afghanistan
  • Given political rights to the people
  • Emphasis on women education
  • He was deposed in 1973 by the king’s cousin Dawood khan and he himself became the president and prime minister of Afghanistan.

• Socialist Intervention

  • After 5 years, in 1978, the people’s democratic party of Afghanistan (pdpa) overthrew the government of Dawood Khan.
  • Pdpa was a socialist party
  • Under the land reform process, they started taking land from people who had a lot of land and started distributing this land among those who did not have land.
  • Because of this, the people of the village of Afghanistan got angry with the government because they had lands in high amount.
  • Due to the land reforms villagers started revolting
  • The government tried to suppress this rebellion but did not succeed.

• USSR And Afghanistan

  • The socialist government formed in Afghanistan sought help from the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union helped by providing weapons and other materials.
  • Yet the villagers could not be controlled
  • Seeing the system deteriorating, in 1979, the Soviet Union sent its army to Afghanistan.
  • The sending of soviet troops to Afghanistan was opposed by the general assembly of 34 Muslim countries and the United Nations
  • But the Soviet Union did not listen to anyone and took full control of the cities of Afghanistan and the communication system there.

• Afghanistan War (1979–89)

  • During this, a war started between the people of Afghanistan and the army of the Soviet Union and the people of Afghanistan named it the war of religion.
  • The people of Afghanistan were supported by the us and thus the two superpowers came face to face in the Afghanistan War.
  • Osama Bin Laden was also involved in this war and due to this war, many terrorist organizations like Taliban and Al Qaeda Emerged.

• End of Afghanistan War

  • In 1985, Gorbachev became the president of the Soviet Union and began to change the system of the Soviet Union.
  • During this time, he withdrew his army from Afghanistan and by 1989 the Soviet army was completely out of Afghanistan.
  • This is how the Afghanistan war ended

• After The End of The Afghanistan War

  • Even after the withdrawal of the USSR army, the problem in Afghanistan did not end
  • Civil war started between all the terrorist groups that had developed such as Al Qaeda, Taliban and other Groups.

Gulf War

• Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1990
• World countries tried to convince Iraq but Iraq did not agree
• At the end, UNO allowed the use of force on Iraq.
• This military operation was named operation desert storm.
• UNO forces were sent to attack Iraq. Although this army was a mixed army of 34 countries, but 75% of the soldiers were from America and the general of this army was also American.
• Saddam Hussein, who was the president of Iraq at that time, said that this war would be a war of a hundred wars, meaning that it would be very difficult to defeat Iraq, but nothing like this happened and Iraq was easily defeated in a few days and had to withdraw from Kuwait. .
• During this war America made an open display of its powers.
• America used smart bombs in this war and therefore it was called computer war.
• Simultaneously, this war was broadcasted live on TV, due to which it was called video game war.
• This decision to attack Iraq, taken by UNO was called dramatic because no such decision had ever been taken by UNO before.

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