The End of Bipolarity

Bipolarity means a world organised around two poles of power. From the late 1940s to 1991 these were the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR), each leading a bloc of allies. This chapter describes the Soviet system, why it collapsed in 1989–91, what happened to the countries that emerged — especially through ‘shock therapy’ — the conflicts that followed, and how India relates to these countries now, above all to Russia.

• Background you need: earlier editions of this book opened with a chapter on the Cold War era, which the current book no longer carries. Section 1 below gives that background in brief, marked Beyond NCERT.
• Links: Politics in India since Independence Chapter 4, India's External Relations (non-alignment, the 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty, Soviet mediation at Tashkent); Indian Economic Development Chapter 3, Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (India's own 1991 reforms — a gradual path, unlike shock therapy). Next in this book: Contemporary Centres of Power (who balances the US after 1991), Security in the Contemporary World (arms control) and Globalisation.
• UPSC: GS2 international relations (India–Russia, Central Asia, effects of great-power policies on India) and GS1 world history (communism, capitalism, the redrawing of national boundaries). Prelims has asked on the CIS (2006, 2008, 2009), the Gorbachev era (1986, 1989, 1990), East Europe in 1989 (1981, 1983, 1990), post-Soviet conflicts (2004, 2009, 2014, 2018, 2023) and Central Asia (1995, 2001, 2022, 2025); Mains on Central Asia (2018, 2024) and India's Russian and US defence ties (2020).

• Bipolarity: two camps led by the US and the USSR; the Berlin Wall (1961–1989, opened 9 November 1989) was its greatest symbol.
• Soviet system: one party (CPSU), planned economy, state ownership, welfare for all — but bureaucratic, authoritarian, stagnant; 15 republics, dominated by Russia.
• Gorbachev (General Secretary from 1985): perestroika and glasnost; East Europe broke free; August 1991 coup failed; Yeltsin rose.
• December 1991: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus found the CIS; Gorbachev resigns (25 December); Russia inherits the Soviet UN Security Council seat.
• Consequences: end of the Cold War, a unipolar US-led order, capitalism and liberal democracy dominant, many new states; shock therapy → 1990s ruin, revival from 2000.
• India: good ties with all; Russia the strongest — a shared multipolar vision, arms, energy, nuclear and space cooperation.

NCERT's overview: after the Wall fell, the East European countries of the Soviet bloc — NCERT says eight — replaced their communist governments one after another in response to mass demonstrations; Germany was unified; the Soviet Union stood by, and then itself disintegrated. The Cold War thus ended not by military means but through the mass action of ordinary people.

The USSR came into being after the socialist revolution in Russia in 1917, inspired by the ideal of an egalitarian society and opposed to capitalism. NCERT calls it perhaps the biggest attempt in history to abolish private property and design a society on principles of equality. Its makers gave primacy to the state and the party: the political system centred on the Communist Party, no other party or opposition was allowed, and the economy was planned and controlled by the state.

After the Second World War, the East European countries that the Soviet army had freed from the fascist forces came under Soviet control; their political and economic systems were modelled on the USSR. This group was called the Second World or the ‘socialist bloc’, held together by the Warsaw Pact and led by the USSR.

Strengths. The USSR became a great power after the war. Its economy was then more developed than any except the US: a complex communications network, vast energy resources (oil, iron and steel), machinery production, and a transport system reaching remote areas. Its consumer industry made everything ‘from pins to cars’, though of lower quality than in the West. The state ensured a minimum standard of living and subsidised health, education, childcare and welfare; state ownership of land and productive assets was dominant.

Weaknesses. The system became bureaucratic and authoritarian. Lack of democracy and of free speech stifled people, who expressed dissent in jokes and cartoons. The one-party system controlled all institutions and was unaccountable to the people. The party ignored the wish of people in the 15 republics to manage their own affairs, including culture; on paper Russia was one republic among fifteen, but in reality it dominated, and others felt neglected and suppressed.

Falling behind. In the arms race the USSR matched the US from time to time, but at great cost. It lagged behind the West in technology and infrastructure (transport, power) and, above all, in meeting citizens' political and economic aspirations. The invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 weakened it further. Wages rose but productivity and technology fell behind, causing shortages of all consumer goods; food imports rose every year. The economy faltered in the late 1970s and became stagnant.

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU from 1985, set out to reform the system so that the USSR could keep up with the information and technological revolutions in the West. His decision to normalise relations with the West and to democratise and reform the USSR had effects nobody intended. People in the East European countries of the bloc began protesting against their governments and Soviet control — and, unlike in the past, the USSR under Gorbachev did not intervene. The communist regimes collapsed one after another.

Inside the USSR the crisis escalated. The reforms were opposed by leaders within the party. In 1991 a coup encouraged by Communist Party hardliners failed: people who had tasted freedom did not want the old rule back, and Boris Yeltsin emerged a national hero by opposing it. The Russian Republic, where Yeltsin had won a popular election, began to shake off central control; power shifted from the centre to the republics, especially in the more Europeanised part of the USSR. The Central Asian republics did not ask for independence and wanted to stay in the federation.

In December 1991, led by Yeltsin, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus declared the Soviet Union disbanded. The CPSU was banned; capitalism and democracy were adopted as the bases of the post-Soviet republics. The declaration and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) surprised the other republics, especially in Central Asia; their exclusion was quickly solved by making them founding members of the CIS. Russia was accepted as the successor state: it inherited the Soviet seat in the UN Security Council, accepted all Soviet treaties and commitments, became the only nuclear state of the post-Soviet space and carried out some nuclear disarmament with the US.

How did the world's second most powerful country suddenly break up? NCERT says the question matters beyond the USSR: it was not the first political system to collapse and may not be the last. There is no doubt that the internal weaknesses of Soviet political and economic institutions, which failed to meet people's aspirations, were responsible. Years of stagnation led to severe consumer shortages, and many began to question the system openly.

Why did the economy stagnate? Partly clear: the USSR spent much of its resources on its nuclear and military arsenal and on developing its satellite states in Eastern Europe and within the Soviet system (especially the five Central Asian republics) — a burden it could not bear. At the same time, citizens learnt more about the West's economic advance; after years of being told their system was better, the reality of backwardness was a political and psychological shock. Politically, the party that had ruled for over 70 years was unaccountable; people were alienated by slow and stifling administration, rampant corruption, a system that could not correct its mistakes, unwillingness to allow openness, centralised authority, and privileges for party bureaucrats. The government lost popular backing.

Why did reform fail? Gorbachev diagnosed the problems accurately and promised to reform the economy, catch up with the West and loosen administration. Here, NCERT says, answers become controversial. The most basic answer: loosening the system set in motion forces and expectations few could predict or control. Some wanted him to move much faster and were impatient; others — party members and those served by the system — felt he moved too fast and threatened their power. In this ‘tug of war’ he lost support on all sides, and even supporters felt he did not defend his own policies.

The final, immediate cause was the rise of nationalism and the desire for sovereignty in the republics — Russia, the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Ukraine, Georgia and others. Two views: nationalist urges were present throughout Soviet history and would have produced a struggle with or without reforms (a ‘what-if’, but not unreasonable given the country's size, diversity and problems); or Gorbachev's reforms sped up nationalist dissatisfaction beyond control. Ironically, many had expected unrest to be strongest in Central Asia, given its ethnic and religious differences and economic backwardness; instead it was strongest in the more ‘European’ and prosperous part, whose people felt they were paying too high a price to keep backward areas in the Union.

NCERT notes three broad, enduring changes. First, the end of Cold War confrontations: the ideological dispute over whether socialism would beat capitalism was over; since it had driven the arms race, nuclear build-up and military blocs, its end demanded an end to the arms race and a possible new peace. Second, power relations changed, and with them the relative influence of ideas and institutions. Either the remaining superpower would dominate in a unipolar system, or several countries or groups would become important players in a multipolar one; as it turned out, the US became the sole superpower. Capitalism became the dominant international economic system; the World Bank and IMF became powerful advisers through loans for the transition; politically, liberal democracy emerged as the best way to organise political life. Third, many new countries emerged with their own aspirations: the Baltic and East European states wanted to join the European Union and NATO; the Central Asian countries wanted to use their location, keep close ties with Russia and also build ties with the West, the US, China and others.

The collapse of communism was followed by a painful transition from an authoritarian socialist to a democratic capitalist system. The model used in Russia, Central Asia and East Europe, influenced by the World Bank and the IMF, was called ‘shock therapy’. Its speed and intensity varied, but its direction was similar: a total shift to capitalism, rooting out Soviet-era structures; private ownership as the dominant pattern; immediate privatisation of state assets and corporate ownership; collective farms replaced by private farming. No ‘third way’ was allowed between state socialism and capitalism. Externally, development was to come through trade: a sudden switch to free trade, with free trade and FDI as the main engines, plus financial opening, deregulation and currency convertibility. Finally, the old trade alliances of the Soviet bloc were broken up: each state was linked directly to the West, to be gradually absorbed into the Western economic system, whose states and agencies now guided the region's development.

Consequences. NCERT's verdict: shock therapy did not lead to the promised utopia of mass consumption but brought ruin to economies and disaster to people across the region. In Russia about 90 per cent of industries were put up for sale; restructuring through market forces rather than industrial policy made whole industries disappear — ‘the largest garage sale in history’, with valuable assets sold at throwaway prices. Citizens received vouchers to take part, but most sold them on the black market because they needed money. The ruble fell dramatically; inflation wiped out savings; collective farms collapsed, leaving people without food security, and Russia began to import food. Russia's real GDP in 1999 was below that of 1989. Welfare was dismantled, subsidies withdrawn and large sections pushed into poverty; the middle class was marginalised; academics and intellectuals dispersed or emigrated; a mafia took control of many economic activities; privatisation created new inequality between people and between rich and poor regions.

Democracy came second. Building democratic institutions got less priority than economic transformation. Constitutions were drafted in a hurry; most, including Russia's, created a strong executive president and relatively weak parliaments. In Central Asia several presidents became very authoritarian — those of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan appointed themselves for ten years and then extended for ten more, allowing no dissent. Judicial independence was yet to be established in most countries. Revival began around 2000, mainly through exports of oil, natural gas and minerals: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are major oil and gas producers; others earn rent from pipelines; some manufacturing restarted.

Most former Soviet republics have been prone to conflict; many have had civil wars and insurgencies, complicated by the growing involvement of outside powers. NCERT's list: in Russia, Chechnya and Dagestan have had violent secessionist movements; NCERT says Moscow's methods against the Chechen rebels and indiscriminate bombing led to many human rights violations but did not end the aspiration for independence. Tajikistan suffered a long civil war; the region has many sectarian conflicts. In Azerbaijan's province of Nagorno-Karabakh, local Armenians wanted to secede and join Armenia. In Georgia two provinces demanded independence, causing civil war. There were movements against the existing regimes in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia, and disputes over river waters. The result: instability that made life hard for ordinary citizens.

Central Asia as a zone of competition. The Central Asian republics have vast hydrocarbon resources and lie next to Russia, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan, close to West Asia. After 11 September 2001 the US sought military bases there, paying governments to host bases and allow overflights during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia regards these states as its ‘Near Abroad’ that should stay under its influence; China has interests in their oil, and Chinese traders have settled around the borders.

Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The most severe conflict was in the Balkan republics of Yugoslavia: after 1991 provinces such as Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence; ethnic Serbs opposed this; a massacre of non-Serb Bosnians followed; NATO intervened and bombed Yugoslavia after the inter-ethnic civil war.

India has kept good relations with all post-communist countries, but the strongest are with Russia — an important part of India's foreign policy, embedded in a history of trust and common interests and matched by popular perception: Indian film stars from Raj Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan are household names in Russia and much of the former USSR, and Hindi film songs are heard across the region.

A shared vision. Russia and India share a vision of a multipolar world order, by which they mean: the coexistence of several powers; collective security (an attack on any country treated as a threat to all, requiring a collective response); greater regionalism; negotiated settlement of conflicts; an independent foreign policy for every country; and decision-making through a strengthened, democratised and empowered UN. NCERT says more than 80 bilateral agreements have been signed as part of the Indo-Russian strategic partnership.

Mutual benefits. India gains on Kashmir, energy supplies, information on international terrorism, access to Central Asia and balancing its relations with China. Russia gains because India is a major arms market (NCERT: the second largest) and the Indian military gets most of its hardware from Russia. As an oil importer India values Russia, which has helped during its oil crises; India seeks more energy imports from Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, including investment in oilfields. Russia matters for India's nuclear energy plans and helped its space programme, for example with cryogenic technology; the two collaborate on science projects.

Try each first. Q1–Q4 are also in the self-check.

Numbers

One-liners

• Bipolarity ended through people's action, not war: the Wall was opened by crowds.
• Soviet system = one party + planned economy + state ownership + welfare; weaknesses = bureaucracy, authoritarianism, stagnation, Russian dominance.
• Gorbachev's reforms set loose forces he could not control; the ‘tug of war’ cost him support on all sides.
• Nationalism in the more European republics was the final, immediate cause — not Central Asia, as many had expected.
• Russia is the USSR's successor: UN seat, treaties, nuclear weapons.
• Three consequences: end of Cold War, US-led unipolarity with capitalism and liberal democracy, many new states.
• Shock therapy: total, sudden capitalism → ‘largest garage sale in history’ → revival only from 2000 through oil and gas.
• India–Russia: trust and interests — a multipolar vision, arms, energy, nuclear and space cooperation.

Traps to avoid

• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania never joined the CIS; Georgia joined in 1993 and left in 2009 (UPSC 2006, 2009).
• The CIS was founded by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus; its executive seat is Minsk; the founding accord was signed at Viskuli in the Belavezha forest (UPSC 2008).
• Besides Russia, Soviet nuclear weapons were in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan — all three gave them up (UPSC 1992).
• The Berlin Wall opened on 9 November 1989; Germany reunified only on 3 October 1990.
• The Duma is post-1993 Russia's lower house, not the Soviet parliament; Russia's June 1990 declaration was of sovereignty, not independence.
• Tajikistan's civil war: 1992–97, not ‘till 2001’.
• Andropov, not Gorbachev, succeeded Brezhnev (1982); Chernenko came next; Gorbachev in March 1985 (UPSC 1983).
• Yeltsin headed Moscow's party committee — he was never its ‘Mayor’; Gorbachev died in 2022.
• Rourkela steel plant was West German-aided; Bhilai, Bokaro and Visakhapatnam were Soviet-aided (UPSC 2005).
• Slovenia broke away from Yugoslavia, not Czechoslovakia; Czechoslovakia split peacefully (UPSC 2004).

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• The Soviet system and its leaders: what USSR stands for (1981), why the October Revolution is marked on 7 November (1985), the first comprehensively planned economy (1991), Andropov succeeding Brezhnev (1983), the Moscow Olympics boycott after Afghanistan (1981).
• The Gorbachev era and 1989: the Reagan–Gorbachev Geneva summit (1986), the Geneva Accords on Afghanistan (1989), Dubček as glasnost's forerunner (1990); Poland — Solidarity and the 1981 strikes (1981, 1983) and the first popularly elected government of 1989 (1990).
• The CIS and successor states: CIS membership (2006: Estonia never joined), Viskuli (2008), Georgia's exit (2009); the post-Soviet nuclear states (1992); Tatarstan as a republic within Russia (1992); Russia's parliament (2005).
• Conflicts and NATO: Chechnya (2004, 2014), Kosovo (2009), the Balkans (2003, 2004), Crimea (2018), Nagorno-Karabakh (2023); NATO's founders (2007) and members (2025).
• Central Asia and India–Russia: Central Asian republics on the map (1995, 2001), those bordering Afghanistan (2022), INSTC (2025); the Delhi Declaration with Russia (2003), the nuclear action plan (2019), Rourkela vs Soviet-aided plants (2005), US trade after the Soviet collapse (1994).

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• GS2 2018: outside powers in Central Asia and India's joining the Ashgabat Agreement; GS2 2024: India's evolving relations with the Central Asian Republics — use NCERT's ‘zone of competition’ (Russia's Near Abroad, US bases after 2001, China's oil interests) and add connectivity (INSTC, Chabahar, Ashgabat), energy, SCO, the India–Central Asia Summit and security (Afghanistan).
• GS2 2020: significance of Indo-US over Indo-Russian defence deals for Indo-Pacific stability — set out both sides as in Exercise Q10: legacy Russian platforms and trust vs US technology, interoperability and Indo-Pacific partnerships; conclude with strategic autonomy and diversification.
• GS2 2025: ‘with the waning of globalisation, the post-Cold War world is becoming a site of sovereign nationalism’ — begin with this chapter's post-1991 order (unipolarity, liberal democracy, World Bank/IMF-led markets), then trace the turn (protectionism, contested borders, strategic autonomy); this question also draws on the Globalisation chapter.
• Answer frame for the Soviet collapse or India–Russia: system → weaknesses → Gorbachev's reforms → nationalism → consequences (three) → transition (shock therapy, both views) → India's relations (history, shared vision, mutual benefits, how they have changed). On present conflicts, state facts and each side's position; do not take sides.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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