Fall of Communism Flashcards
How did Khrushchev manage to succeed Stalin despite being surrounded by better known and seemingly more capable rivals ?
What was Khrushchev’s Thaw ? How did Khrushchev transform the Stalinist state and the relationship between the Russian people and the communist party ?
What was the thinking behind Khrushchev’s secret speech at the Twentieth Party Congress?
How did his immediate audience and ultimate audience interpret his words?
What was meant by destalinization? Why were events in Hungary such a blow to Khrushchev’s designs for reform?
Why was Khrushchev deposed and why did the communist party endorse Brezhnev as Soviet premier ?
Did the communist system prosper or stagnate under Brezhnev?
From a structural perspective what reasons contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc from within?
Why did Gorbachev receive the reign in 1985? What were the planks of his reform program and
why did his program fail?
How did the Chernobyl disaster strengthen Gorbachev’s hand and accelerate his program for
reform?
How were the Revolutions of 1989 related to Gorbachev’s policies? What other events led to
the surprisingly rapid collapse of communism in Eastern Europe? What does this rapid collapse
say about the communist system?
What conditions facilitated the Revolutions of 1989? Why did most East Europeans view their
task in 1989 as democratic transition rather than a revolution away from communism?
How did post-communist transition diverge between Central Europe and Eastern Europe?
What difficulties did Russia exhibit in its transition towards democracy and a market economy?
How has Putin tried to reverse the dissolution of the Soviet Empire?
Why did reformers in Poland look at the price of eggs to evaluate the success of their economic
reforms?
What was shock therapy and how successful was this economic strategy in terms of liberalizing
the economy? Why did it prove so difficult to revive laggard communist bloc heavy industries?
How does contemporary Eastern Germany demonstrate the cultural
adjustments necessary to adapt to the new capitalist economy?
What is ostalgie?
Why are so many Eastern
Europeans now nostalgic about the calm life and security of the communist past?
How does public opinion in Romania reveal growing disillusionment with the post-communist
order after the Great Global Recession?
Why did the trauma of post-communist transition lead to violence in Bosnia?
How did the Srebrenica Massacre embarrass the UN and serve as a turning point in the Bosnian
War?
