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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“By the 1980s, the Communist system of the Soviet Union was incapable of maintaining the country’s role as a Superpower.” Explain this statement.

  • UPSC 2007
  • Disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Rise of the Unipolar World

By the 1980s the Soviet command economy had reached the point where it could no longer generate the surplus needed to sustain both a global military rivalry and a functioning civilian economy.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Structural Limits of the Command Economy
  • The Defence Burden and Military-Industrial Overstretch
  • Reagan's Renewed Arms Race and the Squeeze on Soviet Resources
  • The 1980s Oil Price Collapse and Fiscal Crisis
  • Perestroika's Failure to Reverse the Decline

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