Cold War (the end of the cold war)

Question 1

When did Gorbachev come to power in the USSR?

Answer 1

In March 1985

Question 2

What was the crisis going on in the USSR?

Answer 2

• The arms race and the war with Afghanistan were hugely expensive, the Soviet economy couldn’t support this
• Soviet goods were poor quality and soviet farming was inefficient, so grain had to be imported from the US
• The soviet government was becoming more corrupt and living standards in the West were much better

Question 3

What were Gorbachev’s two major policies?

Answer 3

• Perestroika
• Glasnost

Question 4

What does Perestroika mean?

Answer 4

restructuring

Question 5

What does Glasnost mean?

Answer 5

Openness

Question 6

What happened as a result of Gorbachev’s ‘Perestroika policy’?

Answer 6

• The government no longer told buisnesses exactly what they had to produce
• Gorbachev allowed private buisness ownership and allowed soviet buisnesses to trade with the Western powers

Question 7

What happened as a result of Gorbachev’s ‘Glasnost’ policy?

Answer 7

• He gave the Soviet people new rights
• Free speech was allowed and censorship was relaxed
• In 1989, Gorbachev created the USSR’s first elected parliament, so they could be chosen by the public

Question 8

What happened in the Geneva summit of 1985?

Answer 8

• Gorbachev met with Reagan and improved relations with the West
• Gorbachev’s open attitude softened Reagan’s hard approach

Question 9

When was the Disarmament treaty signed and what was it?

Answer 9

• 1987
• The USA and USSR agreed to remove medium range nuclear missiles from Europe within three years

Question 10

What did Gorbachev decide to do in 1988?

Answer 10

• Decided to abandon the Brezhnev Doctrine
• He told the United Nations that Eastern Europe now had a choice, the USSR wasn’t going to control it any longer

Question 11

Why did the Satellite states no longer fear the USSR?

Answer 11

As they would no longer use force to uphold communism in its satellite states

Question 12

What happened in October 1989 in East Germany?

Answer 12

• there were mass protests against the communist regime
• the East German government finally decided to reopen to border between East and West Berlin in November 1989. Free elections were promised and the wall was torn down

Question 13

What did the fall of the Berlin wall show?

Answer 13

The fact that relationship between the East and the West was transforming

Question 14

How did communist governments in Eastern Europe start to collapse, specifically in Poland?

Answer 14

• free elections were held in Poland in June 1989
• In 1990, a new non-communist government came into power and the USSR did not intervene

Question 15

What happened in October 1990, regarding East and West Germany, and what was this symbolic of?

Answer 15

• East and West Germany joined to form a single state again
• this was a powerful symbol that communism was over

Question 16

What was a huge collapse of the Soviet union?

Answer 16

In 1990 the three Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, declared independence from the
Soviet Union – these were not just Soviet satellites; they had been part of the USSR itself.

Question 17

Why were people fed up with Gorbachev?

Answer 17

• Felt he had done too little to stop the fall of communism in Eastern Europe – saw this as an act of weakness
• The economic reforms, perestroika, he had introduced had had no immediate effect: still food shortages and rising prices
• Other Russians wanted the complete collapse of the communist system

Question 18

When did Gorbachev resign?

Answer 18

On Christmas Day, 1991

Question 19

When did the USSR dissolve?

Answer 19

on the 26th December 1991

Question 20

How did the Warsaw Pact end?

Answer 20

• As more countries declared their independence from the USSR they also wanted to pull out of the Warsaw Pact, making it weaker

Question 21

When did the Warsaw Pact end?

Answer 21

July 1991