Superpower Relations - 3.3 The collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe

Question 1

What are Gorbachev’s reforms summarised by?

Answer 1

Glasnost and Perestroika

Question 2

What does GLASNOST mean?

Answer 2

Russian for ‘openness ‘ or transparency’. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was used to describe Gorbachev’s new, open attitude to goverment and foreign relations

Question 3

What is PERESTROIKA?

Answer 3

Russian for “reconstruction’. It was used in the Gorbachev era to describe his programme for reorganising and restructuring the Soviet State

Question 4

What other signs was Gorbachev’s new rule a clear sign of change in policy for the USSR?

Answer 4

• The Brezhnev doctrine which had dominated the Soviet Union relations with its satelite states and the west since the time of the ‘Prague Spring’,would now be dropped. This meant the Soviet Union wouldn’t get involved in domestic affairs of other communist countries
• The Soviet Union would reduce spending on arms and defence and withdraw from Afghanistan

Question 5

How did Gorbachev’s arrival change relations with the US?

Answer 5

Gorbachev’s arrival changed relations with the US as Gorbachrev was different to the other leaders not booking to expand communism, but reform the Soviet Union from the inside, and to work with the US to reduce Cold war tensions.

Raegan saw that there was a real oppurtunity to end the Cold War and to adopt a more open approach to the Soviet Union, whilst at the same time sticking to his overall aim

Question 6

What happened in 1990?

Answer 6

The Baltic States of Lithuania, Lativia and Estonia declared independence

Question 7

What happened on August 1991?

Answer 7

Communist hardliners Staged a coup against Gorbachev. Coup then defeated by a group led by Boris Yeltish

Question 8

What happened after the coup in August 1991?

Answer 8

Gorbachev continued in government, although his authority had been damaged. Leaders of Soviet Republics look to take advantage of his weakness and join together in a Commonwealth of states

Question 9

What happened on the 25th of December 1991?

Answer 9

Gorbachev finally resigned and announced the break-up of the Soviet Union

Question 10

What happened to the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 10

It was also dissolved on the 25th of February 1991