Question

How did glasnost and perestroika contribute to the fall of the Soviet Union?

Answer 1

Hint: The disintegration of the Soviet Union could have been foreseen from 1985 onwards where many conservative hardliners too saw the need for reform to be taken in order to make the Soviet style of state survive. Even so 1989 marked the year where the tatters of the USSR could be seen and in 1991 it finally fell.

Complete answer: After Michael Gorbachev came to power in the USSR, the need for reformation was seen as his primary doing. These reforms were both political and economic that led to fast destabilization of the region and the fall of Soviet Union.
The policy of glasnost was where transparency in the political and administrative processes started to be encouraged. In the USSR which was plagued with corruption by that time, this policy of transparency suddenly created a huge shift.
The policy of perestroika was aimed at many economic changes. It created the laws to allow corporate businesses, ease the foreign exchange laws and the central hold of the USSR was loosened to promote businesses. This created much hassle together.
It can be argued that these two reforms were much needed and well intentioned but backfired due to their hasty nature. Since there were too many changes, it came as a shock and destabilized the region, leading to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Note: Note : After the fall of the USSR, for more than a decade afterwards, the world became unipolar or dominated only by one power block. This was the time when the USA gained world dominance and capitalism became the ideology to be adopted by most developing nations.