Chapter 11: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the USSR

Question 1

who were Gorbachev opponents ?

Answer 1

-liberal/ pro-reform who had the largetst party the Deomcratic Party which they argued for decentralisation, democratisation and union of repbulics, was set up in 1991 by Shervadnazdez and Yakovlev
-Soviet communist party of the bolshevicks from the conservative and reactionary side

Question 2

what happen in March 1990 and what did threat did the present to Gorbachev ?

Answer 2

-the CPSU leading role in the USSR came to an end following a sustained campagin by the Inter-Regional Group of Deputies plus soviet politcis now embraced a multi-party system
-This put a threat to Gorbachev as the CPSU losing it leading role also meant he losses support and no being to hold control for the long term. Also the multi party system made it more difficult for the party to be united and just created more opposition for Gorbachev

Question 3

what was the inter-regional group and who were memebers ?

Answer 3

• the inter-regional group was a radical reformist group within the Congress of People Deputies who put pressure on gorbachev to go further with his reforms
  -Yeltsin and Sakharov were memebrs of the group
  -and campagined for a key issue which was to remove the communist party’s monopoly of power in the USSR

Question 4

what happened in May 1990 and what threat did this present to Gorbachev?

Answer 4

-yeltsin was elected for the chairman of the Russian congress of peoples deputies which would give Yeltsin a platform to advocate for radical reform such as a new constituion and a market economy
-his election represnted his support and give him moral authority plus by being elected in the biggest SSR congress it gifted him lots of power which was a real danger to Gorbachev but also to the stability of the USSR and it republics

Question 5

what happened in June 1990 and what threat did this present to Gorbachev?

Answer 5

• Yeltsin resgined from the communist party and this was due to rifts between reformers and conservatives coming out into the open, this all happened in the eyes of the media. the party was losing memebrs and much of it drive. Yakovlev and Shevardnadze regined aswell
  -this meant Gorbachev power base was declining and desintergrating losing its support, but also meant yeltsin was a free agent to pursue his aims which was a real danger to the communist party

Question 6

what happened in 12th June 1990 and what threat did this present to Gorbachev?

Answer 6

-russian congress vote in a declaration of state of sovereignty for the RSFSR, this was not a decleration of indepndece from the USSR but it said that Russia was a sovergein state and stated that the USSR only had the powers over russia that russia decided
-which meant it made russia supreme and a serious threat to the USSR

Question 7

what happened in 15th June 1990 and what threat did this present to Gorbachev?

Answer 7

-Russian congress voted to amend the RSFSR constituion to allow different political parties
-this meant gorbachev was losing power and its support plus meaning the communist party was no longer supreme

Question 8

what happened in August 1990 and what threat did this present to Gorbachev?

Answer 8

-this was a radical plan to move the USSR to a market economy in 500 days was propsed which was supported by Yeltsin which was gorbachev decided against which alienated more refromsit
-market economy literally meant bringin back capitalism, he was losing support and being isolated

Question 9

what law did Gorbachev pass and whos power did he increase ? what did this led to

Answer 9

-he passed a law that allowed him to created a state of emergency
-he incrased the power of the KGB and law on restricting press of freedoms
-this led to yeltsin demand a new goverment in which he wouls share power with Gorbachev

Question 10

how did nationalities oppositiosn within the USSR stay at bay for so long ?

Answer 10

-nationalist oppsition stay up for so long due to the lack of control from the CPSU and lack of reducing the differences between this group/repbulics

Question 11

how did the loss of control in the soviet satellite state contribute to nationalist unrest ?

Answer 11

-gorbachev political refomrs weakened Moscow’s control of the Republics due to the loss of influence of the CPSU, the weakening of central control was crucial because several of the Republics included minority ethnic groups within their border and local tension now came to the open in the atmosphere of glastnost which also exposed historic soviet injustices towards the nationalities within the USSR

Question 12

what events happened in Georgia ?

Answer 12

-In April 1989 there was a march in support of independence which was attacked by soviet troops, this resulted in several deaths and calls for independence
-soverginty was delcared in novemebr 1989
-the call for independce was supported by almost 99% of georgians in the referndum of march 1991
-there were internal conflicts as georgia has its own disputes with regions wanting autonomy, self rule or complete independece
-this was heignthened by the decleration of union repbublic in 1991 by south ossetia which resulted in violent clashes with georgians
-georgains calimed that soveit intervention was aimed at helping the breakaway groups
-in may 1991 there was the first free election of a repbulcian leader in georgia although he was overthrown and killed follwing the break up of the union

Question 13

What events happened in Ukraine ?

Answer 13

-for a long time ukranie by the 1970s seemed pretty stable and loyal to Moscow
-the situation by the late 1980s became more difficult becasue those seeking to follow the path of perestoika disagreed with the traditionalist this led to the ukrainian party splitting with a majority group in parliament led by Kravchuck taking side with the a refromist group
-nationalist protest grew, culminating in a massive human chain commemorating ukraine’s short lives independce in 1918
-the orthodox ukrainan party lost its memebrship
-in july 1991 ukraine declared its own sovergeinty

Question 14

What events happened in the Baltics states ?

Answer 14

-the desire of freedom in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was not fulled by the grievance of annexation in 1940, there was also significatn economic and other issues
-nationalist demostrations developed, culminating in huge nationalist demonstrations across all three states in August 1989
-in feburary 1990 the estonian, lithuanian and lativia supreme soviets all declared their intetion of moving towards independece
-the move was rejected by soviet forces and they invaded lithuania, eventually yeltsin russia’s goverment recoginised independence and gorbachev hard line approach failed

Question 15

What events happened in belorussia ?

Answer 15

-belorussia suffered more than any other repbulic during the second world war with possibly a quarter of its population dying
-the communist remained strong in the belorussian parliament but faced increasing popular opposition by 1990 from among others the belorussian popular front
-the communsit party stood firm in the face of protest which included major strikes calling for politial changes
- on august 25 1991 the byelorussian SSR declared independence and on 19 september it was renamed the republican of belarus
- the soviet union was dissovled four momths and one day later on 26 decemeber 1991

Question 16

why did conseravatives criticise Gorbachev ?

Answer 16

-his reforms were challenging the nomeklatura system
-some of his economic reforms allowed private enterprise which were anti-soviet
-glasnost was corrupting them from their own history

Question 17

why had nationalist discontent became a much greater political issue by the 1980s ?

Answer 17

-USSR was more unstable politicallt with lots of opposition and ideas of different politcial parties
-glasnost allowed for the publishing of historic injustices which meant they knew more and thereforea allowed more protest
-as communist control was decreasing with the soviet empire it allowe more radical activity

Question 18

what did gorbachev propose in 1991 in a desperate attempt to keep the USSR together ?

Answer 18

-union treaty

Question 19

what were the causes of the August Coup 1991 ?

Answer 19

-Yeltsin growing power base authority in Russia was very threatining, which he used to advocate for gorbachev to resgin
-yeltsin winning presidency vote with a 57% vote which meant there was a dual power between gorbachev and yeltsin
-yeltsin decreed memeber of politcial parties could not be active within organisations such as the army and the KGB and recognised lithania as an independent state
-conservative felt gorbachev was not in control and yeltsin was taking over
-in august 1991 a union treaty was set up which would have removed the name ‘socialist’ from the repbulic titles if thist happened conservatives would lose their important power bases
-this conviced them to act but as well boosted by yeltsin activites

Question 20

what happend on the 18th August 1991 ?

Answer 20

-conseravtices acted after feeling threatend if the union treaty and detained gorbachev and declared a state of emergency

Question 21

why did conservative feel weakened ?

Answer 21

they felt weakened at the fact they had no obvious leader although they were driven by the desire of self-preservation aswell as by the beleif of communism

Question 22

what was gorbachev doing and where was him on 18 August 1991 ?

Answer 22

-he was working on a speech on his holiday home in Crimea

Question 23

what did previously Yakolev mention that would happen ?

Answer 23

he mentioned on televised interview that a coup was being prepared by a stalanist group within the communist party

Question 24

what happened to gorbachev at his holiday home in Crimea ?

Answer 24

-he was taken by suprise by four delegates and placed under house arrest, they dismantled the telephones so that Gorbachev had no contact with the outside world
-his holiday home was surronded by the KGB and put under intesnse pressure but still refused the delegates demands either to resgin or to sign a decree ordering a state if emegency

Question 25

who did the delegates represented ?

Answer 25

they represented a state of emergency committee a group of plotter which ad assumer power in Moscow

Question 26

who were put of the group of 8 ?

Answer 26

-they were led by Gennadi Yanaev and included appointed men by gorbachev such as Vladimir Kryuchkov, Dimitri Yazov, Valentin Pavkov and Boris Pugo

Question 27

what did the eight man commitee delcare ?

Answer 27

-they delcared a state of emergnecy and several decree one of ehich renounced the union treaty including the provision that individual repbulics laws should override the USSR laws
-several newspaper associated with glasnost were banned
-a naval blocakede was orderd against the baltic states
-tanks appeared at prominient sites around Mosocw and announced troops were sent into Leningrad

Question 28

what role did yeltsin have with the failure of the Augast coup 1991 ?

Answer 28

-yeltsin called for resistance to the coup through a dramtic gesture by standing in top a tank outside the Russian white house where he announced a presidential edict accusing the plotters of treason under Russian law
-this led to even more popular resistance to the coup in lennigrad ans civilians stopping any firther soviet tanks entering Moscow

Question 29

what did Yeltsin success showcase of the coup?

Answer 29

-it made the committe relaise that it had miscalculated and Yeltsin took over hte army and made it clear that he controlled everything on Russian territory

Question 30

what happened once the committe decree was cancelled ?

Answer 30

-the rebel leader were arrested with Pugo already committing suicide
-gorbachev flew back to Mosow

Question 31

why did the coup fail ?

Answer 31

-their failure to arrest Yeltsin who went against them and took advanatage of Gorbachev absence to take over Russia and accuse the plotter of treason putting the all supports towards him
-the conspirators did not have the support of all the armed forces including Moscow
-mant ordinary people came out on the streets of Moscow to defend the consituion
-the coup leader lacked sufficinet convistion initative or a coherent policy
-ironically the USSR had already deteriorated to the point that there was little for the coup leader to actuallt take over
-gorbachev role in the crisis and refusal to buckle to pressure was possibly a factors in the plotter losing thier nerve

Question 32

if the coup have’nt taken place would the USSR of survied ?

Answer 32

-had the coup not taken place probaly the USSR would have disintegrated anyway, however the coup did speed up the process becasue it gave a further impetus to forces in the republics trying to break away from Mosow

Question 33

why wasgorbachev critised for ?

Answer 33

-he was critised for failing to give sufficient credit to yeltsin for his release and for making a decleration that many in the party were still loyal to him when every memeber of gorbachev cabinet but on had supportted the coup or had not spoken against it, meaning he could no longer hide from the truth and reluctantly agreed that the goverment should resign

Question 34

what happened on 24 August 1991 ?

Answer 34

-gorbachev resigned as head of state and called for the dissolution of the party and other measures to be taken against its similiarto those alrady carried out by Yeltsin in Russia

Question 35

what happened on 29th august 1991 ?

Answer 35

-supreme soviet banned all activties by the communist party throughout the USSR because of its role in the coup

Question 36

what finally killed any prospects of a loosely federated soviet union surviving ?

Answer 36

-the secssion of ukraine in decemeber in 1991 which led to the disolvation of the union treaty and each republic creating its own army

Question 37

what was the CIS Decemebr 1991 ?

Answer 37

-russia, ukraine and belorussia formerd the commonwealth of independent staes were soon several other repbulics joined
-the cis was a loose organisation with no parliament or presidency where it agreed to honour international agreements signed by the now decree USSR
-it also agreed on the principal of unitary control of nuclear weapons
-lastly to resolve were economic arrangments between the states since these were bound up with the old soviet comman economy ,issues to do with the rights of minorities and ethnic and terrotorial disputes