What were the benefits of the USSR splitting up into many countries?

Question by 🙂: What were the benefits of the Soviet Union splitting up into many countries?
I need to know if the countries that split up from the soviet union benefited and why or why not.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Stu1012
It depends on how you look at it. Having lived in Russia and spoken to many I would say that there have been both benefits and disadvantages.

Your main Benefits are:

1. Russia: Russia gained it’s own government and some form of democracy (although is still not a democratic nation).

2. The Other former Soviet Republics: These countries gained freedom of policy, as well as the basic areas of national identity. 20 years after the “Raspad SSSRa” most countries have vibrant economies and identities where before the CPSU forced them into working as one, at a level not often suited to each country.

However: There were also disadvantages. Countries found several border points along vital railways and major roads. Currencies needed reforming, a process still ongoing, and in areas you have a problem with ethnic groups not happy with the countries that they ended up in – see Armenians in Nagorno-Kharabakh and Ossetians and Abkhazians in Georgia as a few of numerous examples.

I think overall we are far too early to say if there have been overwhelming benefits and disadvantages, however, the peoples are relatively happy to be able to use their own languages, have their own governments and thus their own states.

I would be able to give a more definite answer probably in about 10 years more. States like Moldova and Georgia are still going through teething troubles.

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