IN MID-1991 THE SOVIET UNION remained in a state of tur¬
moil after the weakening of the authority of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union (CPSU) had profoundly disturbed the socialist
system and unleashed broad nationality unrest. Mikhail S. Gor¬
bachev, the general secretary of the CPSU and president of the Soviet
Union, had recognized that the development of socialism (see Glos¬
sary) was faltering and that the cooperation of the Soviet people was
needed to revitalize the country’s economy and society. He endeav¬
ored to reform both the party and the socialist system without radi¬
cally altering either one. But Gorbachev’s attempts at political reform
and economic restructuring shook the centralized, authoritarian sys¬
tem that had been dominated and controlled by the party since the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The seriously flawed Soviet system
could not readily adapt to extensive reform and restructuring.
The historical experience of the multinational Soviet Union is varied and complex and helps illuminate contemporary events and institutions. The histories of the predecessor states of the Soviet Union—Muscovy and the Russian Empire—demonstrate some long-term trends having applicability to the Soviet period: the predominant role of the East Slavs, particularly the Russians; the dominance of the state over the individual; territorial acquisition, which continued sporadically; nationality problems, which increased as diverse peoples became subjects of the state as a result of ter¬ ritorial expansion; a general xenophobia, coupled with admiration for Western ideas and technology and disruptive sporadic campaigns to adopt them; and cyclical periods of repression and reform.
The death knell of the Russian Empire came in March 1917, when the people of Petrograd (present-day Leningrad) rose up in an un¬ planned and unorganized protest against the tsarist regime and con¬ tinued their efforts until Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. His government collapsed, leaving power in the hands of an elected Duma, which formed the Provisional Government. That government was in turn overthrown in November 1917 by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir I. Lenin. The Bolsheviks (who began calling themselves Communists in 1918) emerged victorious after a bitterly fought Civil War (1918-21). They secured their power and in December 1922 es¬ tablished the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union), which included almost all the territory of the former Russian Em¬
pire. The new government prohibited other political organizations
