Why Did Ukraine’s Economy Fail after the Collapse of the Soviet Union?

Abstract

Ukraine, a nation in Eastern Europe, has recently become world-famous. Being the second largest Soviet-bloc country, Ukraine has inherited huge amounts of Soviet legacy, including industries and militaries. Adding to its natural geographical advantages, most scholars at that time projected that Ukraine's economic take-off would be inevitable. However, the truth unexpectedly disobeyed the predictions: Ukraine became the slowest developing state among not only the former Soviet members but the global nations. To unfold the confusion, the paper is going to research Ukraine's economy after 1991 to find the basic reasons. It aims to parse the main causes of Ukraine's economic failure from three perspectives: its industrial structure, governmental reforms, and remaining domestic ethnic problems, and gradually spread out to construct the whole knowledge framework. The interplay between factors is also proposed to build the frame. The combination of quantized data and quantitative reasoning will provide better persuasions, helping readers intuitively understand the logic behind the phenomenon. The possible solutions are plus interspersed with the text, providing a wake-up call for else governments to avoid repeating the same mistakes.