Did people power end the Cold War?

Question 1

What did the speedy and largely peaceful removal of all satellite regimes indicate?

Answer 1

An almost total collapse of popular legitimacy

Question 2

How did popular pressure push the process of change much further that Gorbachev wanted?

Answer 2

The Soviet leader envisaged a liberalised socialist commonwealth of East European states

Question 3

What did Gorbachev abandon?

Answer 3

The Brezhnev Doctrine and advocated freedom of choice (1988), which served as a clear signal to EE

Question 4

What did Gorbachev do at crucial points in 1989?

Answer 4

He urged the Polish and East German communist regimes not to use force against protestors

Question 5

What does the people power argument underestimate? 2

Answer 5

The overall impact of Gorbachev’s radically new approach to CW diplomacy after 1985
The consequences of Reagan’s ‘militarist counter-revolution’ and subsequent accommodation with the USSR for CW relations

Question 6

Prior to 1989, what did growing discontent in EE place increasing pressure for change on?

Answer 6

The satellite states, and the USSR