The End of the Cold War 1985-92 Flashcards
When did the Afghan Communist party overthrow the monarchy?
What did they then begin to do?
April 1978
Began a radical reforming programme (educated women, re-distributed land)
Created widespread Islamist opposition
What did the USSR fear would be the result of the widespread Islamist opposition to the reforms of the Afghan Communist party?
The development of Islamic fundamentalism in its southern Republics
When did Soviet troops invade Afghanistan?
What did they then do and why?
December 1979
Executed their unpopular President Amin and replaced him with Kamal
Hoped Kamal would crush Islamic fundamentalists in a matter of weeks
How many Mujahideen guerilla fighters fought the Soviet occupation, for how long, and where were they based?
Ring any bells?
200,000 Mujahideen guerilla fighters fought the Soviets for 10 years in inaccessible mountain territories bordering Pakistan
Similar to the US Vietnam war
What did the US see the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as?
Soviet expansionism
How did President Carter show his dislike for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?
- Suspended grain exports
- Boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games
- Refused to sign SALT II
How did Reagan proxy-fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan?
Who else was involved?
- Financially supported the Mujahideen
- In 1986 gave ground to air missiles
- 1986 shared military intelligence
China also helped
How did Western Europe react to the Afghan War?
- Thatcher: supported US stances
- France and FRG: tried to maintain detente, merely condemning the invasion verbally
How much of government funds did Reagan spend on armaments between 1981-5
30%
When did Reagan announce SDI/Star Wars?
What was it?
1983
ABM shield composed of nuclear missiles and lasers in space
When did the USSR mistakenly shoot down a South Korean passenger airliner?
Consequences?
1st September 1983
Refused to take responsibility (US had been disguising spy-planes as commercial airliners)
Relations so bad that Andropov feared that an annually scheduled NATO exercise might be a nuclear attack
Describe the difficulties in the succession of Soviet leadership after Andropov
- 1984 - Andropov dies
- Chernenko becomes leader
- March 1985 - Chernenko dies
- Gorbachev becomes leader
What was the Soviet economic system was poor at adapting to?
Supplying consumer goods for competitive prices that were readily available in capitalist states
The USSR’s total production was only how much of the US GNP?
Other difficulties/ the reasons?
37%
Could not adapt to:
- Inflation
- Rising oil prices
- Global economic depression of the early 1980s
Why weren’t workers motivated to work?
- Given same wages no matter how hard worked
- No feeling of comradeship or working towards good of country
- Poor living conditions, high food prices etc
- Knew about corruption in USSR government
- Far superior living standards to workers
How was worker apathy damaging the economy?
Thieving
Low production rates
People took a three day weekend (as a result of…)
Drunkeness
Led to physical degredation
What was Gorbachev’s plan for perestroika?
Economic reform:
To increase investment into technology
To decentralise the economy
What was Gorbachev’s plan for Glasnost?
Opening politics to the masses:
- Reduced censorship
- Investigative journalists could expose disasters like Chernobyl
- New political organisations estabilished
- Democratic Union
- Religion was tolerated
- Books by former dissedents were published 1988-9
When was the Congress of People’s Deputies established with elections held for it?
Why arguably not so big a deal atm?
May 1989
No power at that point
When did Gorbachev cancel Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution?
What were the effects of this?
February 1990
Got rid of guarentee of Communist supremacy
In March elections:
Most long-term Communist officials were rejected and
Gorbachev elected first President of USSR
What were Gorbachev’s policies towards disarmament?
April 1985 - stopped increasing the number of SS-20 missile installed in E Europe
1986 - At Reykjavik failed to get Reagan to give up on SDI
1987 - At Washington both agreed to withdraw medium-range missiles from Europe
When did Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan?
Where there any downsides?
1989
Peace did not last…
How did Gorbachev significantly aid in the Soviet bloc’s disintegration?
July 1989
Denounced the Brezhnev Doctrine and encouraged reform in eastern European Communist states
Describe the fall of Communism in Poland
- 1988 inflation up to 200%
- Strikes led Communist party to recognise Solidarity as a trade union. Negotiations began with Solidarity leaders + Catholic Church
- 7th April 1989 Round Table Agreements
- Solidarity = political party
- New constitution created
- 4th June elections
- Solidarity won 92/100 seats in Sejm’s upper house
- 160/161 could win in lower house
- 16th August Gorbachev made clear would not intervene
- Removed Communist control of army and police with collapse of Communism in GDR + Czechoslovakia
- January 1990 Polish Com. Party -> Social Democrat Party
- November Jaruzelski resigned, Walesa elected president
What was the agreement made about Solidarity’s position in the Sejm at the Round Table talks?
Could compete for 35% of seats in lower Sejm
Upper house elected in free elections
Houses would jointly elected a president
Which ministerial positions did the Communist party take in the coalition government with Solidarity?
Why?
- Defense
- Interior
- Transportation
- Foreign Trade
Plus Jaruzelski = president
Because there was dissent within the Communist Party regarding the inclusion of Solidarity in a possible government
How did communism fall in Hungary?
- March 1989 Kader replaced with Grosv - reformist
- Hungarian Socialist Party transformed into more western democratic party (HSP)
- March 1990 HSP won less than 11% of vote
- 1994 HSP returned to power in alliance with Free Democrats
- 1996 poll HSB were most popular party
HSP had made a successful transformation into a left-wing social democratic party
Why was the Bulgarian leader Zhivkov doomed to be kicked-out in this era of change?
He was corrupt:
-
Cronyism
- Bought western goods
- Access to best education for children
- Receive up to 500% higher salary than other officials
- ‘Bulgarianisation’
- Explusion of 200,000 ethnic Turks
- International condemnation
What became of Zhivkov?
July 1989 Bulgarian foreign minister Mladenov got Gorbachev’s permittal for a ‘change of direction in Bulgaria’
9 November Zhivkov forced to resign
After Zhivkov’s fall, what became of Bulgaria?
- Opposition parties agreed on free elections for June 1990
- Bulgarian Communist Party -> BSP
- 1992 BSP entered a coalition government
- Dec 1994 BSP narrowly won outright majority
-
1996-7 BSP defeated
- Elections called in response to economic crisis
- Sept 1996 fears that the ‘ghost of communism’ was returning
Bulgaria failed in medium term to distance itself from the legacy of communism
What did the GDR need to do in order to survive into the Gorbachev era?
Why?
Win the loyalty of its population
Because could no longer appeal to Soviet power to maintain law and order
Why did it seem unlikely that the GDR would survive?
By summer of 1989 GDR’s ecomony suffered from centralised planning and top-heavy system of bureaucratic control
Only kept afloat by massive loans from West as a result of Ostpolitik
What major challenge did the GDR face regarding Austria, Poland, and Prague?
What previous crisis could you link this to?
When Austria opened its borders 150,000 East Germans went across border to FRG
Honecker forced to grant them + thousands more fleeing to West German embassies in Poland and Prague exit visas
The Berlin crisis of 1958-61
Did Honecker’s belated grants of exit visas help restore confidence in the GDR?
No - made his handling of the crisis seem unsure
What was Honecker forced to tolerate, and why?
A series of large but peaceful strikes in Leipzig in Sept-Oct 1989
Gorbachev would not support a hardline policy
When did Gorbachev visit the GDR and what was his message to Honecker?
5th October 1989
‘Life punishes latecomers’
What event pushed the government to let people cross the Berlin Wall?
What was the response to the government’s proposed action?
4th November 1989
Half a million protesters congregated in East Berlin for further reform and right to travel abroad
2 days later Krenz’s government agreed to issue permits for travel up to 30 days - rejected by Volkskammer as insufficient
What final events lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
9 November 1989
All GDR citizens with passports given right to an exit visa for any border crossing - including to west
Meant to take effect from Nov 10th but announced prematurely at press conference
Guards facing a crowd of 20,000 opened the crossing points through Wall - Wall fell
What did the fall of the Berlin Wall inspire in Czechoslovakia?
The Velvet Revolution
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, what was the situation in Czecholovakia?
Small opposition group
Adamec announced only economic reforms similar to Prague Spring, but not political
What caused the Velvet Revolution?
Fall of Berlin Wall
A demonstration in honour of the death of a student killed in the WWII German occupation turned into a mass protest
Describe the events of the Velvet Revolution
- 19 Nov 1989 Civic Forum of 12 opposition groups formed
- 7 Dec Adamec resigns - new gov. in which Coms are minority
- 29 Dec Havel elected president
- Persuaded USSR to withdraw troops - initially agreeing to remain in Warsaw Pact
- Became clear that Germany would reunite - pressed for pact’s dissolution with Poland and Hungary
- 1992 Split into Slovakia and Czech Republic
Why was Ceausecu so unpopular?
Corrupt:
11,00 room palace while country in economic hardship
Describe Ceausescu’s fall and Romania’s changes
- Nov 1989 Gorbachev agrees overthrow providing Coms still dominant
- 1st revolts in Timisoara
- 21 Dec spread to Bucharest
- Army sided with people
- Ceausescu fled with wife
- 22 Dec NSF formed
- Talks with opp. -> established a Council for National Unity
- 25 Dec Ceausescu captured + killed
- May 1990 NSF won majority, Iliescu president
- 1996 NSF decisively defeated by Social Democratic Union
When was Germany reunified?
After what?
2nd October 1990
‘Two-plus Four talks’ between
- FRG Chancellor Khol
- Bush
- Gorbachev
- GDR
- British
- French
What did the ‘Two-Plus Four talks’ agree?
- Germany remained in NATO
- Cancelled allied power residual rights
- Accepted Oder-Neisse Line
When did the Warsaw Pact dissolve?
What did this mean?
1991
East + West ‘no longer adversaries’
What were the main factors for Communist decline 1979-88?
Soviet Problems 1979-85
US Pressure
Gorbachev’s policies
What made 1989 a ‘year of change’?
Overthrow of communism in Poland
Hungary
Bulgaria
GDR + fall of Berlin Wall
What were the main consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Velvet Revolution
Fall of communism in Romania
Reunification of Germany
Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact
Overall, what were the three main factors that led to the end of the Cold War?
Communist decline 1979-88
Popular unrest + ‘year of change’ in 1989
The fall of the Berlin Wall
