California Standard 10.9.7: Analyze the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union, including the weaknesses of the command economy, burdens of military commitments, and growing resistance to the Soviet rule by dissidents in satellite states and non-Russian Soviet Republics.
The collapse of the Soviet Union is explained. This section also identifies Joseph Stalin's successors, those being Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev.