Gorbachev + After the Cold War + the world apparently Flashcards
Let’s talk about Gorbachev
- came to power in 1985; 3rd successor in <3 years
- member of Politburo; trained as lawyer
- true Commie seeking to reform ailing system to compete with West/China
Gorbachev’s first reform
- wanted to decrease alcohol consumption (and by extension increase productivity) by decreasing vodka production by 10% in 5 years
- done in 1 year
- black market still provided the vodka, meaning that the tax base (of alcohol) was lost instead
What reform announced in 1986?
PERESTROIKA (“economic restructuring”)
- encouragement/reward of private initiative; Enterprise Law established independence of small businesses
- BASICALLY: tried to adopt policies of market economy without any previous experience w/ private businesses
- should’ve recollectivized agriculture but didn’t
Nuclear facility that exploded
Chernobyl
Andre Sakharov
- dissident and nuclear scientist released from exile in Gorky
- open critic of Soviet system
What reform announced in 1988?
GLASNOST (“openness”)
- greater freedom of expression & press
- *with limits on gov secrets, medical records, propaganda
- led to questioning and criticism of Soviet system/central planning
Gorbachev’s foreign policy
- encouraged satellite states in Eastern Europe to “follow their own paths”
- negated Brehznev Doctrine
- announced non-intervention in Warsaw Pact countries and encouraged reform abroad
- 1989: withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Reagan + Gorbachev begin talks on arms reductions (Gorbachev more popular abroad so visit US)
Consequences of G’s fp
in Eastern Europe…
- Communist party leaders’ stability threatened w/o support of USSR/Red Army
- Radical/violent change possible
- Fall of the Berlin Wall!
Leader of Poland
Lech Waleser
- Solidarity leader
- first president of free Poland
- also first non-Communist leader of Soviet bloc state
Hungarian leader
Nemouth = Prime Minister
Boris Yeltsin
Moscow Party Chief
- initially supported Gorbachev, then grew impatient
- condemned Gorbachev+party in indictment
- supported by students + intellectuals
- dismissed by Gorbachev for being a Stalinist
Events in Hungary
May 2, 1989: barbed wire cut b/w border with Austria (symbolic removal of Iron Curtain)
June 16: Imre Nagy honored with hero’s burial in Hero Square
Oct. 7: Communist Party disbanded, reconstituted as Hungarian Social Party
-democratic electoral procedures
-reform programs to fit developing Hungary
EG response to removal of barbed wire
EG refugees asked Hungarian Embassy to travel to Hungary –> Austria –> WG
- Summer of ‘89 = 6000 refugees
- EG cuts off accessibility so EG’s go to Embassy in Prague and continue emigration
- “freedom trains”
EG refugee response contd.
Demonstrations (EB, Dresden) call for democratic reform
-**Erich Honecker (leader) replaced with Krenz (then entire EG cabinet resigns, Politburo reorganizes; in 1990, Honecker arrested and exiled to Chile, Communists voted out of office)
End of the Berlin Wall
November 9, 1989: Berlin Wall opened @ midnight by EG guards
First member to leave Warsaw Pact
Sep. 1990: GDR (German Democratic Republic or East Germany)
Velvet Revolution
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Oct. 28, 1989: 10,000 demonstration inWenceslas Square
Nov. 20: 200,000 march through Prague demanding free elections
Nov. 25: Communist Party leadership resigned
Nov. 27: entire Czechoslovakian work force goes on strike
Dec. 10: elections held
Civic Forum
mass movement during Velvet Revolution to create political opposition to Czech Communist Party
Vaclav Havel
Czech writer arrested in January, served time until May
-eventually elected as new president
Ceausescu
brutal, Stalinist dictator of Romania
-quells any revolutionary fervor that resembles events in other Soviet bloc states
Romania
Dec. 17, 1989: anti-gov demonstrations in Timisoara (protesting the arrest of Rev. Toaks: a spokesperson for Romania’s 2mil Hungarians)
Dec. 25: Ceaucescu + family seized in coup (later executed)
Elections held in May 1990
Securitate
Ceaucescu’s police force
After the Cold War: West had means of influence through…
Economy.
-incentives, granting/withholding loans
ACW: greater integration of…
West and East
ACW: Warsaw Pact dissolved in…
1991
ACW: New and unprecedented dependence on…
Oil, which complicated international affairs
-West + Europe = greater consumption
ACW: Latin America
continues to develop. Poverty + drug trade high
ACW: China
industrial/economic development BUT human rights struggles
ACW: Russia
plagued w/ corruption + economic downturns
- joined global economy
- inflation = 2000% in 1992
- gained UN Security Council seat
ACW: Eastern Europe
High unemployment (11-15%)
- wages low, prices high
- lack of experience in private enterprise
- economic problems in reunified Germany (Oct. 1990)
Cold War exacerbated…
- chronic poverty
- environmental degradation
- ethnic conflict
- proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
Economic Issues in Gorbachev’s reforms
- economies weak bc of stagnation (focus on big political changes, not availability of bread); required capital and patience
- 1990 Comecon dissolved (this regulated trade in Soviet bloc)
- —trade barriers bc EE currencies not convertible to W currencies
German unification
-world says no; France concerned with past strength
-Gorbachev submits to reunification as sovereign state w/ membership in NATO
JULY 1, 1990: economic reunion: Western goods in Eastern markets (bought w/ either currency)
OCTOBER 2, 1990: political reunion: reconstruct Berlin + entire east; Kohl = leader (past leader of WG)
Events in Lithuania
Lithuania = Baltic state; therefore IN the Soviet Union, unlike satellite states (Germany, Romania)
- Separtist movements from nationalistic forces
- crushed by Red Army in Jan 1991, 13 killed
- Gorbachev claimed ignorance
Downfalls of Gorbachev
- perestroika failed to revive economy; problems with harvest/transportation/distribution of crops
- no private property or market economy
- inefficient currency reform
- consolidated power to become as influential as Stalin (drove reformists out of power)
Coup against Gorbachev
- July/August 1991 tension bw Gorbachev + Yeltsin when Pres. Bush came to USSR to sign disarmament treaty
- After, G flies to Crimea for vacation
- Yeltisin –> Kazakhstan, leaving Moscow unguarded
- 8 sr. party officials stage coup d’etat
- —Yeltsin comes back to Moscow, climbs on tank, and rallies crowd
- Aug 22: power restored, Yeltsin + Gorbachev agree to share power
