The Collapse of Soviet Control of Eastern Europe Flashcards
What was the impact of “New Thinking” on Eastern Europe and Gorbachev’s loosening grip?
His new ideas made negotiations with the USA possible. INF 1987.
Perestroika led to more trade between Communist and non-Communist countries and this made reformers in Poland (Solidarity) and Hungary bolder in challenging their continued membership of the Warsaw Pact.
He ended the war in Afghanistan.
Glasnost created more openness in the USSR with the work of the government being televised for the first time.
National identities began to form right across Eastern Europe and this led to Nationalist protests against the Warsaw Pact.
What was the importance of the fall of the Berlin Wall?
The embodiment of the collapse of the USSR’s control over Eastern Europe.
It demonstrated that the Red Army would no longer interfere with the will of the people in a European State.
It led to the reunification of Germany and Europe along the principles of Capitalism and Social Democracy.
What was the background to the collapse of the USSR?
Perestroika and Glasnost gave confidence to Nationalist movements across Europe and even a Russian movement within the USSR.
→ Hardliners in Gorbachev’s government blamed him for the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. His position became more difficult when, in 1990, States within the USSR itself (E.g. Latvia and Lithuania) declared independence.
→ A coup was attempted but Boris Yeltsin blocked it.
→ In this moment of weakness, the States of the USSR all declared freedom from the USSR and Gorbachev resigned with Yeltsin taking over straight away as President of a new Russia.
What was the importance of the end of the Warsaw Pact?
It was the falling apart of the Cold War.
The end of military and economic intervention in Eastern Europe by the USSR.
The spread of liberal and democratic principles led to Francis Fukuyama declaring “The end of history”.
