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AS History (Cold War) > The End of the Cold War 1985-92 > Flashcards

The End of the Cold War 1985-92 Flashcards

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1
Q

When did the Afghan Communist party overthrow the monarchy?

What did they then begin to do?

A

April 1978

Began a radical reforming programme (educated women, re-distributed land)

Created widespread Islamist opposition

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2
Q

What did the USSR fear would be the result of the widespread Islamist opposition to the reforms of the Afghan Communist party?

A

The development of Islamic fundamentalism in its southern Republics

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3
Q

When did Soviet troops invade Afghanistan?

What did they then do and why?

A

December 1979

Executed their unpopular President Amin and replaced him with Kamal

Hoped Kamal would crush Islamic fundamentalists in a matter of weeks

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4
Q

How many Mujahideen guerilla fighters fought the Soviet occupation, for how long, and where were they based?

Ring any bells?

A

200,000 Mujahideen guerilla fighters fought the Soviets for 10 years in inaccessible mountain territories bordering Pakistan

Similar to the US Vietnam war

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5
Q

What did the US see the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as?

A

Soviet expansionism

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6
Q

How did President Carter show his dislike for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

A
  1. Suspended grain exports
  2. Boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games
  3. Refused to sign SALT II
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7
Q

How did Reagan proxy-fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan?

Who else was involved?

A
  1. Financially supported the Mujahideen
  2. In 1986 gave ground to air missiles
  3. 1986 shared military intelligence

China also helped

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8
Q

How did Western Europe react to the Afghan War?

A
  • Thatcher: supported US stances
  • France and FRG: tried to maintain detente, merely condemning the invasion verbally
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9
Q

How much of government funds did Reagan spend on armaments between 1981-5

A

30%

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10
Q

When did Reagan announce SDI/Star Wars?

What was it?

A

1983

ABM shield composed of nuclear missiles and lasers in space

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11
Q

When did the USSR mistakenly shoot down a South Korean passenger airliner?

Consequences?

A

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

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12
Q

Describe the difficulties in the succession of Soviet leadership after Andropov

A
  • 1984 - Andropov dies
  • Chernenko becomes leader
  • March 1985 - Chernenko dies
  • Gorbachev becomes leader
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13
Q

What was the Soviet economic system was poor at adapting to?

A

Supplying consumer goods for competitive prices that were readily available in capitalist states

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14
Q

The USSR’s total production was only how much of the US GNP?

Other difficulties/ the reasons?

A

37%

Could not adapt to:

  1. Inflation
  2. Rising oil prices
  3. Global economic depression of the early 1980s
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15
Q

Why weren’t workers motivated to work?

A
  1. Given same wages no matter how hard worked
  2. No feeling of comradeship or working towards good of country​
  3. Poor living conditions, high food prices etc
  4. Knew about corruption in USSR government
    1. ​Far superior living standards to workers
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16
Q

How was worker apathy damaging the economy?

A

Thieving

Low production rates

People took a three day weekend (as a result of…)

Drunkeness

Led to physical degredation

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17
Q

What was Gorbachev’s plan for perestroika?

A

Economic reform:

To increase investment into technology

To decentralise the economy

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18
Q

What was Gorbachev’s plan for Glasnost?

A

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
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19
Q

When was the Congress of People’s Deputies established with elections held for it?

Why arguably not so big a deal atm?

A

May 1989

No power at that point

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20
Q

When did Gorbachev cancel Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution?

What were the effects of this?

A

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

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21
Q

What were Gorbachev’s policies towards disarmament?

A

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

22
Q

When did Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan?

Where there any downsides?

A

1989

Peace did not last…

23
Q

How did Gorbachev significantly aid in the Soviet bloc’s disintegration?

A

July 1989

Denounced the Brezhnev Doctrine and encouraged reform in eastern European Communist states

24
Q

Describe the fall of Communism in Poland

A
  • 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
25
Q

What was the agreement made about Solidarity’s position in the Sejm at the Round Table talks?

A

Could compete for 35% of seats in lower Sejm

Upper house elected in free elections

Houses would jointly elected a president

26
Q

Which ministerial positions did the Communist party take in the coalition government with Solidarity?

Why?

A
  1. Defense
  2. Interior
  3. Transportation
  4. Foreign Trade

Plus Jaruzelski = president

Because there was dissent within the Communist Party regarding the inclusion of Solidarity in a possible government

27
Q

How did communism fall in Hungary?

A
  • 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

28
Q

Why was the Bulgarian leader Zhivkov doomed to be kicked-out in this era of change?

A

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
29
Q

What became of Zhivkov?

A

July 1989 Bulgarian foreign minister Mladenov got Gorbachev’s permittal for a ‘change of direction in Bulgaria’

9 November Zhivkov forced to resign

30
Q

After Zhivkov’s fall, what became of Bulgaria?

A
  • 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

31
Q

What did the GDR need to do in order to survive into the Gorbachev era?

Why?

A

Win the loyalty of its population

Because could no longer appeal to Soviet power to maintain law and order

32
Q

Why did it seem unlikely that the GDR would survive?

A

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

33
Q

What major challenge did the GDR face regarding Austria, Poland, and Prague?

What previous crisis could you link this to?

A

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

34
Q

Did Honecker’s belated grants of exit visas help restore confidence in the GDR?

A

No - made his handling of the crisis seem unsure

35
Q

What was Honecker forced to tolerate, and why?

A

A series of large but peaceful strikes in Leipzig in Sept-Oct 1989

Gorbachev would not support a hardline policy

36
Q

When did Gorbachev visit the GDR and what was his message to Honecker?

A

5th October 1989

‘Life punishes latecomers’

37
Q

What event pushed the government to let people cross the Berlin Wall?

What was the response to the government’s proposed action?

A

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

38
Q

What final events lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall?

A

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

39
Q

What did the fall of the Berlin Wall inspire in Czechoslovakia?

A

The Velvet Revolution

40
Q

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, what was the situation in Czecholovakia?

A

Small opposition group

Adamec announced only economic reforms similar to Prague Spring, but not political

41
Q

What caused the Velvet Revolution?

A

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

42
Q

Describe the events of the Velvet Revolution

A
  • 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
43
Q

Why was Ceausecu so unpopular?

A

Corrupt:

11,00 room palace while country in economic hardship

44
Q

Describe Ceausescu’s fall and Romania’s changes

A
  • 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
45
Q

When was Germany reunified?

After what?

A

2nd October 1990

‘Two-plus Four talks’ between

  • FRG Chancellor Khol
  • Bush
  • Gorbachev
  • GDR
  • British
  • French
46
Q

What did the ‘Two-Plus Four talks’ agree?

A
  • Germany remained in NATO
  • Cancelled allied power residual rights
  • Accepted Oder-Neisse Line
47
Q

When did the Warsaw Pact dissolve?

What did this mean?

A

1991

East + West ‘no longer adversaries’

48
Q

What were the main factors for Communist decline 1979-88?

A

Soviet Problems 1979-85

US Pressure

Gorbachev’s policies

49
Q

What made 1989 a ‘year of change’?

A

Overthrow of communism in Poland

Hungary

Bulgaria

GDR + fall of Berlin Wall

50
Q

What were the main consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

A

Velvet Revolution

Fall of communism in Romania

Reunification of Germany

Dissolution of the Warsaw Pact

51
Q

Overall, what were the three main factors that led to the end of the Cold War?

A

Communist decline 1979-88

Popular unrest + ‘year of change’ in 1989

The fall of the Berlin Wall

AS History (Cold War) (10 decks)

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