Dissolution of the Soviet Union

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/dissolution-of-the-soviet-union

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the date of belovezha accords?December 8, 1991
2. What is the number of nuclear warheads inherited by russia?Russia inherited approximately 27,000 nuclear warheads from the Soviet arsenal
3. What happened to the Soviet Union in 1991?In 1991 the Soviet Union broke apart into many smaller countries. The leaders signed the Belovezha Accords and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States.
4. Why did the Soviet Union split up?The Soviet Union had economic problems, people wanted better living standards, and many ethnic groups wanted their own countries. Gorbachev’s reforms let people speak out, which helped the split.

Cold War: A period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.
Geopolitics: The study of the influence of geography on politics and international relations.
Unipolar World: A global system where one state holds a predominant position of power.