his reforms created shortages and prices soared. Factories that could not survive without government help closed leading to high unemployment. the reforms were denounced by old line communists and bureaucrats whose jobs were threatened. Problems increased as glasnost fed unrest in the multinational soviet empire. the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained full independence. Germayne and Roland and Romania and Bulgaria broke out of the soviet orbit.Hard liners tried to overthrow him only to further weaken Gorbachev. as more soviet republics declared independence he resigned as president. and after 74 years, the soviet union ceased to exist.
