Match List I with List II

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

A-III, B-I, C-IV, D-II

The correct answer is Option (3) → A-III, B-I, C-IV, D-II

Mikhail Gorbachev (Born 1931) Last leader of the Soviet Union (1985- 91); introduced economic and political reform policies of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness); stopped the arms race with the US; withdrew Soviet troops from Afghanistan and eastern Europe; helped in the unification of Germany; ended the Cold War; blamed for the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The declaration on the disintegration of the USSR and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) came as a surprise to the other republics, especially to the Central Asian ones. The exclusion of these republics was an issue that was quickly solved by making them founding members of the CIS. Russia was now accepted as the successor state of the Soviet Union. It inherited the Soviet seat in the UN Security Council. Russia accepted all the international treaties and commitments of the Soviet Union. It took over as the only nuclear state of the post-Soviet space and carried out some nuclear disarmament measures with the US. The old Soviet Union was thus dead and buried.

Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) The first elected President of Russia (1991- 1999); rose to power in the Communist Party and was made the Mayor of Moscow by Gorbachev; later joined the critics of Gorbachev and left the Communist Party; led the protests against the Soviet regime in 1991; played a key role in dissolving the Soviet Union; blamed for hardships suffered by Russians in their transition from communism to capitalism.

After the Second World War, the east European countries that the Soviet army had liberated from the fascist forces came under the control of the USSR. The political and the economic systems of all these countries were modelled after the USSR. This group of countries was called the Second World or the ‘socialist bloc’. The Warsaw Pact, a military alliance, held them together. The USSR was the leader of the bloc.