The Collapse of Communism Flashcards
What Phillip Roth quote does McDermott and Stibbe use to demonstrate how quick communism fell?
“People think of history in the long term … but it is in fact a very sudden thing”
What did the fall of communism represent?
First time there was a change in European political landscape so drastic which wasn’t the result of war or revolution
What is the ‘civil society’ grand narrative to explain the collapse of communism?
‘Dissident intellectuals’ and other oppositional forces, in their struggle against the repressive system, exposed the immorality and powerlessness of the communist state
Has the ‘civil society’ grand narrative been discredited?
Yes - many believe civil societies were the outcome of the collapse and not its cause, instead believe the ‘uncivil society’ (incompetent and corrupt communist establishments) which hastened the collapse
What is the ‘Gorbachev factor’?
Historian Archie Brown believes his policies of perestroika, glasnost and refusal to bail out satellite states in the hope that reforming movements would gain influence led to the falls of 1989
What has caused historians to highlight the peaceful, revolutionary and democratic nature of the events of 1989?
Arab spring of 2011
Rose Revolution in Georgia
What position does the book take?
Events of 1989 was a genuine and popular revolution with complex socio-political causes (doesn’t mean the collapse of communism was inevitable)
Communism not just an unnatural system but but a powerful and not wholly negative historical force capable of modernising societies
What is the longue duree comparative view of the fall of communism?
Contextualises the events of 1989 in the revolutionary traditions and spirit of 1789 and 1917
What is at the centre of many historians narratives of 1989?
The GDR and fall of the Berlin Wall
What does this book at the centre of their narrative?
Role played by Hungary’s reformist communist leaders in destabilising the Warsaw Pact alliance by opening border with Austrian and allowing East German refugees through
What is key to any interpretation of the events of 1989?
To focus on the complex interplay between internal and external developments as opposed to an exclusive emphasis on geopolitical struggles and the triumphalist rhetoric of a ‘freedom loving’ USA beating the ‘totalitarian’ USSR
Should not see it as the preamble to the collapse of the Soviet Union but as a historical event in its own right
What was the key divergence between the east and the West in the 1980s?
West = flexible labour markets, openness to new tech, consumer driven policies and willingness to pay the price of unemployment for the sake of economic progress East = obsolete industry, bureaucratic resistance to reform, debt to the west and constant shortages
By 1989 what was the GDP of Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe?
40%
What increased the significance of poor economic performance in Eastern Europe?
The visibility of of the rising living conditions in the west e.g. tv and radio and family reunions made possible by the Helsinki act of 1975
What were communist bureaucracies hesitant to introduce capitalist reforms e.g. removing state subsidies to increase competition?
Concerned that they would lead to job losses and social discontent and harm their attempt to appease workers (communism only claim to legitimacy at this point was its lack of unemployment, unlike in the west)
Why was communist policies over subsidies as double edged sword?
Communist claims to champion workers interest may lead to them uniting in anger over wages, prices, shortage and lack of independent unions
Why did loans from the West not necessarily help the economic foes of the east?
Communist leadership spent it to subsidise food and housing instead of investing in new technologies
What external factors may have led to the fall of the eastern block?
The diminished international standing of the USSR e.g. not intervening in Poland when they legalised the independent trade union ‘Solidarity’ - fears soviet army was overstretched govern their involvement in Afghanistan
What increased the notion of the diminished standing of the USSR in the world?
The rapid succession of leaders in the early 1980s following the death of Brezhnev, (then Andropov and then Chernenko)
How did human right factor into the fall of the eastern bloc?
The USA could use the USSRs breakage of the human rights section of the Helsinki agreement as a tool to shame them to make political and humanitarian concessions
What evidence is there of the limited impact of human rights groups in the eastern bloc?
Attempt to organise a open letter exposing human rights violation by the Ceausescu regime was crushed by the secret police and its chief sponsor jailed
Give an example of a human rights group in the eastern bloc.
GDR - Working Group for GDR Citizenship Rights
What impact did the championing of human rights have?
Although usually a diplomatic tool the local exposure of abuses undermined the moral authority and reputation of the communist system
How did people in the west find out about historical human rights abuses by the communist east?
In the 1970s dissident works began to be published highlighting the crimes of the Bolsheviks and Stalin e.g. work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn e.g. one day in the life of Ivan Desonovich
What evidence is there that human rights groups didn’t have a huge role?
In the eastern bloc refusal to conform could lead to unpleasant consequences e.g. blocked promotion or university place
Why do western historians tend to do in relation to small dissident groups?
Exaggerate their role and mythologise them as selfless heroes
What was the ‘live within truth’ idea?
Not to participate in communist rituals/lies and overcome their fear to rediscover their oppressed identities e.g. not voting on farcical elections or organising a rock concert (exposes feebleness of system which reliance on compliance to a lie to survive)
What else moralise protestors in Eastern Europe?
Harsh practical realities e.g. state of the environment or religious freedom
Describe environmental concerns role.
Increasing concern following Chernobyl disaster - concerns over air quality spread beyond activists to normal people
I’m paired y western environmental movements
Became a way protest against soviet hegemony
How did many movements become radicalised?
Even though they were non-confrontational they were treated by the authorise as if they were
What fissures undermined the authority of the communist leadership?
Many youth organisation provided cover for alternative forms like jazz and peace movements
What effect did exposure to civil society for communist officials have?
Their sense of purpose, internal cohesion and unity was undermined by long term association with alternative idea systems e.g. security forces unsure of how to react to peaceful protest
How does your perspective on the role of Gorbachev differ depending on which methodological approach you champion?
If emphasis on military, political and economic decline making then Gorbachev is at fault
If emphasis on social movements and mass participation then he plays a lesser role
What was the key impact of Gorbachev ?
His rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine of soviet military intervention to uphold communist regimes in Eastern Europe
What was the key goal of Gorbachev in regards to Eastern Europe?
Not to provoke the fall of socialism that occurred but to gradually extend his domestic policies to Eastern Europe - replace staunch conservatives with young reformers to revitalise communism
What was the motive or Gorbachev hopes of reform in Eastern Europe?
Save money for the USSR - less instability meant they could spend less money on arms and invest more in new technology and commercial relations with the west
Did Gorbachev abandon Eastern Europe to focus on domestic issues?
No - only hoped an end to bloodshed and return to stability to champion liberalised form of communism
What were the limitations of dissent movements?
Too small and unrepresentative of the wider population - modest membership of a few thousand and concentrated in a few large cities e.g. Warsaw and Prague
Were dissent movements divided?
Yes - some wanted to renew community system whereas others wanted to break with soviet hegemony
Why did the west champion gradual constitutional reform in Eastern Europe as opposed to revolutionary change?
As they were negotiating with Gorbachev over issue of arms and don’t want him to be confronted and therefore weakened
What evidence is there that internal leadership in Eastern European countries had a part to play in their demise?
In Poland, in response to large scale strikes in August 1988 the regime went into talks with the opposition - these ended in an agreement to log the ban on solidarity and stage semi free elections
What were the results of the Polish election of 1989?
Solidarity won in a landslide - securing 99 out of 100 seats in the senate
What is another example of communist rulers in Eastern Europe facilitating their own fall?
Ceausescu’s brutal dictatorship e.g. paid of all outside debt by reducing domestic consumption - led to bare shelf’s, unseated homes and regular electricity cuts - led to protests swelling
What was the result of Romanian protest?
1104 people killed in wide scale violence
What was the effect of the fall of communism of the western left?
Made them more conservative, defending the welfare state and the benefits of a mixed economy against new-liberalist claims became their main concern instead of proposing an alternative to capitalism
What was the effect of the fall of communism on Eastern European politics?
Less about the realignment of left and right and more about and more about personal feuds - transition to liberal democracy exposed old rivalries that had been frozen beneath the ground of normalised Communist rule e.g. shown in break up of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia
Did Eastern European countries adapt well
Not necessarily - concepts such as democracy, human rights and a market economy were poorly embedded in mass consciousness, especially since for so long many held a cynical view of political processes
Did Eastern Europe transition to capitalism well?
No - by 1992 Eastern European national income was 77% of what it was in 1989
Led to increase in social inequality e.g. amount of Hungarians in poverty rose from 10 to 30%
What else happens to Eastern Europe following their transition post-1989?
Rise in cynicism towards politics as parties battled to become the main anti communist force and many elites tried to bargain to maintain their positions
What were the internal events in Eastern Europe after 1989?
Elite turnover occurred in government institutions
Civil society became a reality as opposed to an underground possibility
Major innovations in mass media, ensuring freedom of information and less state intervention
What was the foreign policy effect of the events of 1989?
Withdrawal of soviet forces from Eastern Europe
Collapse of Warsaw and COMECON - end of soviet hegemony
Eastern European countries eventually joined NATO and the EU
What is the final conclusion?
Events due to the actions of those demanding freedom to live outside politics, those who rejected Marxism and communist leaders for which the collapse of communism was an unintended consequence of their recognition that the old system would no longer work
