The Collapse of Communism

Question 1

What Phillip Roth quote does McDermott and Stibbe use to demonstrate how quick communism fell?

Answer 1

“People think of history in the long term … but it is in fact a very sudden thing”

Question 2

What did the fall of communism represent?

Answer 2

First time there was a change in European political landscape so drastic which wasn’t the result of war or revolution

Question 3

What is the ‘civil society’ grand narrative to explain the collapse of communism?

Answer 3

‘Dissident intellectuals’ and other oppositional forces, in their struggle against the repressive system, exposed the immorality and powerlessness of the communist state

Question 4

Has the ‘civil society’ grand narrative been discredited?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is the ‘Gorbachev factor’?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What has caused historians to highlight the peaceful, revolutionary and democratic nature of the events of 1989?

Answer 6

Arab spring of 2011

Rose Revolution in Georgia

Question 7

What position does the book take?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is the longue duree comparative view of the fall of communism?

Answer 8

Contextualises the events of 1989 in the revolutionary traditions and spirit of 1789 and 1917

Question 9

What is at the centre of many historians narratives of 1989?

Answer 9

The GDR and fall of the Berlin Wall

Question 10

What does this book at the centre of their narrative?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What is key to any interpretation of the events of 1989?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What was the key divergence between the east and the West in the 1980s?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

By 1989 what was the GDP of Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe?

Answer 13

40%

Question 14

What increased the significance of poor economic performance in Eastern Europe?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What were communist bureaucracies hesitant to introduce capitalist reforms e.g. removing state subsidies to increase competition?

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Why was communist policies over subsidies as double edged sword?

Answer 16

Communist claims to champion workers interest may lead to them uniting in anger over wages, prices, shortage and lack of independent unions

Question 17

Why did loans from the West not necessarily help the economic foes of the east?

Answer 17

Communist leadership spent it to subsidise food and housing instead of investing in new technologies

Question 18

What external factors may have led to the fall of the eastern block?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What increased the notion of the diminished standing of the USSR in the world?

Answer 19

The rapid succession of leaders in the early 1980s following the death of Brezhnev, (then Andropov and then Chernenko)

Question 20

How did human right factor into the fall of the eastern bloc?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What evidence is there of the limited impact of human rights groups in the eastern bloc?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Give an example of a human rights group in the eastern bloc.

Answer 22

GDR - Working Group for GDR Citizenship Rights

Question 23

What impact did the championing of human rights have?

Answer 23

Although usually a diplomatic tool the local exposure of abuses undermined the moral authority and reputation of the communist system

Question 24

How did people in the west find out about historical human rights abuses by the communist east?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What evidence is there that human rights groups didn’t have a huge role?

Answer 25

In the eastern bloc refusal to conform could lead to unpleasant consequences e.g. blocked promotion or university place

Question 26

Why do western historians tend to do in relation to small dissident groups?

Answer 26

Exaggerate their role and mythologise them as selfless heroes

Question 27

What was the ‘live within truth’ idea?

Answer 27

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)

Question 28

What else moralise protestors in Eastern Europe?

Answer 28

Harsh practical realities e.g. state of the environment or religious freedom

Question 29

Describe environmental concerns role.

Answer 29

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

Question 30

How did many movements become radicalised?

Answer 30

Even though they were non-confrontational they were treated by the authorise as if they were

Question 31

What fissures undermined the authority of the communist leadership?

Answer 31

Many youth organisation provided cover for alternative forms like jazz and peace movements

Question 32

What effect did exposure to civil society for communist officials have?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

How does your perspective on the role of Gorbachev differ depending on which methodological approach you champion?

Answer 33

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

Question 34

What was the key impact of Gorbachev ?

Answer 34

His rejection of the Brezhnev doctrine of soviet military intervention to uphold communist regimes in Eastern Europe

Question 35

What was the key goal of Gorbachev in regards to Eastern Europe?

Answer 35

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

Question 36

What was the motive or Gorbachev hopes of reform in Eastern Europe?

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Did Gorbachev abandon Eastern Europe to focus on domestic issues?

Answer 37

No - only hoped an end to bloodshed and return to stability to champion liberalised form of communism

Question 38

What were the limitations of dissent movements?

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Were dissent movements divided?

Answer 39

Yes - some wanted to renew community system whereas others wanted to break with soviet hegemony

Question 40

Why did the west champion gradual constitutional reform in Eastern Europe as opposed to revolutionary change?

Answer 40

As they were negotiating with Gorbachev over issue of arms and don’t want him to be confronted and therefore weakened

Question 41

What evidence is there that internal leadership in Eastern European countries had a part to play in their demise?

Answer 41

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

Question 42

What were the results of the Polish election of 1989?

Answer 42

Solidarity won in a landslide - securing 99 out of 100 seats in the senate

Question 43

What is another example of communist rulers in Eastern Europe facilitating their own fall?

Answer 43

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

Question 44

What was the result of Romanian protest?

Answer 44

1104 people killed in wide scale violence

Question 45

What was the effect of the fall of communism of the western left?

Answer 45

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

Question 46

What was the effect of the fall of communism on Eastern European politics?

Answer 46

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

Question 47

Did Eastern European countries adapt well

Answer 47

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

Question 48

Did Eastern Europe transition to capitalism well?

Answer 48

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%

Question 49

What else happens to Eastern Europe following their transition post-1989?

Answer 49

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

Question 50

What were the internal events in Eastern Europe after 1989?

Answer 50

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

Question 51

What was the foreign policy effect of the events of 1989?

Answer 51

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

Question 52

What is the final conclusion?

Answer 52

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