Mikhail Gorbachev ascended to power in 1985, bringing with him new ideas for radical changes in a struggling nation. Gorbachev demanded reforms however he did not anticipate the consequences. Society's dissatisfaction, dissolutionment and despair with the way communism operated resulted in change (Resnick 7). Gorbachev's reforms included glasnost

The fact that the governments were hard pressed to govern society and politics is illustrated by the weakness and incoherence of the institution. The question in post-soviet politics was not "who governs?" but "does anyone govern here?" (Colton, Legvold 18). Political institutions of the sovereign republics were suffering birthing and growing pains. The breakdown of old patterns brought social support for the government; however, Russia is still facing the cost of the transition from communism to democracy.

The process of creating a free market environment is always slow. Russia had never known private industrial capitalism. Many citizens wanted the drastic reforms to slow down or change, as there was great disappointment with the private market driven economy. Tremendous disparities developed; privatization meant differences in income, wealth and status, which directly defied past socialism. A few were getting rich in this new economy but the majority of citizen were worst off than they had been under communist rule. Mafia and other crime circles controlled much of the economy. Nevertheless, many overseas investors were interested in Soviet economic development and wanted to be a part of this new consumer market (Stromberg 431). As a result foreign investment grew. The International Monetary Fund and Summit Conference of the Rich Nations also approved several billion dollars of loans to the struggling land (Stromberg 431). Despite the multitude of troubles, the World Bank judges privatization a success in the former Soviet Union (Stromberg 432). Russia was considered a "chaotic but dynamic society" by foreigners (Stromberg 432).

Democratization allowed Soviet people, through elections, to express their lack of respect for and dissatisfaction with the communist party. The democratic party of Russian founded in May 1990, was the closest to a modern political party. Lots of new parties, full of ideologies began; however, they were more like social clubs and discussion groups than political organizations (Colton, Legvold 37). In 1992, the new Russian constitutional court, its justices appointed for life only months before, took the landmark step of pronouncing a decree of President Yeltsin: the court set up a fused police and awarded state-security ministry legislatures authority over reorganization of the government department (Colton, Legvold 29). The incapacity of administrative structures and inadequacy of organizational relations between state and society caused further problems.

The desire for independence "broke the eternal union of fraternal people into 15 states" (Diuk and Karatnycky 1). Nearly half of the Soviet population was not Russian; therefore, the non-Russian people in USSR had an identity crisis (Diuk and Karatnycky 12). In the 1960s and 70s, inter-ethnic conflicts among national groups were already very intense; therefore, when "de-Stalinization" was introduced, all republics became committed to constructed democracy. Ethnic relations were affected by Stalin's designing of republic boundaries, which placed large national minorities with in each union republic, and by the ranking of republics and lesser ethnic homelands (Colton, Legvold 184). Seven decades of communist rule resulted in disrespect and resentment for government. Each nation was trying to figure out who they were and belonged in the world. Nationalism becomes an ideology within newly independent states (Diuk and Karatnycky 106). Loyalty to independent republics confused the lines of authorities and caused the division of the country. The republics (non-Russian) wanted to reach national independence but they tend to lose focus. The ethnic revolts of the 1980's became the international relations of the 1990s.

The overthrow of Mi

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Approximate Word count = 2542
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)