Keeping large forces and supporting allied governments used resources also needed for daily life. Resistance to Soviet influence made those commitments politically costly too.
The USSR maintained large armed forces, nuclear weapons and forces stationed in Eastern Europe. Supporting allies and fighting in Afghanistan added further demands. These commitments were especially burdensome for an economy already struggling to produce more efficiently and improve people's daily lives. Skilled workers, equipment and money used for weapons were not available at the same time for homes, household goods or healthcare. This trade-off made reducing military commitments attractive to reformers.
Eastern European allies formed the Soviet bloc, a group of separate states tied to Soviet power. The Warsaw Pact was their Soviet-led military alliance. Control faced resistance: Soviet force suppressed the Hungarian uprising in 1956, and a Soviet-led invasion stopped reform in Czechoslovakia in 1968. In Poland, Solidarity began in 1980 as an independent trade union, an organisation defending workers' interests outside party control, and became a wider opposition movement. Polish leaders imposed martial law in 1981 under Soviet pressure, using emergency military powers to restrict freedoms and suppress opposition. Supporting allied governments required resources, while coercion deepened resentment.
Worked example: Connect a shortage to a foreign-policy choice
Why could economic difficulty encourage Soviet leaders to reduce confrontation abroad?
- Poor productivity and shortages created pressure to improve what families could buy and the services they could use.
- Maintaining forces, producing weapons and supporting allied governments also needed money, equipment and skilled workers. Those resources could not meet civilian needs at the same time.
- Reducing arms competition and some overseas commitments could release resources for improvement at home. This explains a reason to change policy, not why collapse had to follow.
Watch out for this
The Soviet army invaded Poland in 1981 just as it had invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Polish authorities imposed martial law in 1981 under Soviet pressure; do not invent a Soviet invasion of Poland that year.
Check your understanding
How did military commitments reinforce economic problems?
- Keeping troops abroad removed the need to spend resources supporting allied governments.
- They used resources that could otherwise help civilian production and services in an economy already struggling to improve them.
- Military production meant shortages of useful household goods were no longer politically important.