The Ending of the Cold War, 1985-1991: Gorbachev and the ending of the Cold War Flashcards
Problems under the Brezhnev Era?
- Failing agriculture - suffered crop failures in 1972
- Cost of military/ arms race - under Brezhnev 25% of USSR’s GDP went to military - significant as Reagan wants to increase arms race again/ restart tension
- Lack of consumer goods in the market
Gorbachev background
- Born into a peasant family
- First Soviet leader to be born during USSR
- His family were subject to the purges under Stalin
What were Gorbachev’s key policies?
Perestroika
Glasnost
Part of Gorbachev’s ‘New Thinking’
What was Perestroika?
Gorbachev’s policy to increase econimic performance of Russia
What did Perestroika involve?
- Gave more autonomy to managers of production (without loss of state control)
- Ended state-controlled finances - opened USSR up to investment
- Allowed joint ventures of business in Soviets - so some businesses foriegn owned
Was a restructuring, not dismantling
What was Glasnost?
- Gorbachev’s policy of openess
- Announced 1988, inrecognition of criticism of how the USSR had preseneted themselves
- Most stalinists dead, so Gorbachev can do this
What did Glasnost involve?
Alowed critics of USSR more freedom to discuss political problems
What 2 events encouraged Glasnost?
- Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986, where 31 died, which was revealed despite the government’s attempts to hide it
- After the return of dissident Andrei Sakharov from exile, he began discussing the conditions in Soviet prison camps and the suppression of citizen’s voices
How did the Soviet Union’s foreign economic policies change as a result of economic problems?
By 1988, Comecon members were able to trade with the European Commission, rendering the Comecon now pointless.
The policy was suggested by the Genereal of Comecon Sychov in 1985.
USSR’s satellite states could now make own trade agreements.
How successful was Perestroika?
- More FDI, but still many grain imports needed
- Led to inflation, which wages did not match.
- Failed for most of the population
How successful was Glasnost?
- Led to a re-examination of government
- Criticism of previous policies such as forced collectivisation paved the way for wider reforms such as the end of collectivsation and shift towards more privitisation in agriculture.
What did Gorbachev believe was the key to the USSR’s security?
Political and economic strentgh rather than nuclear strength
Therefore ending the cold war was needed
What was Gorbachev the first USSR leader to do?
To foster the notion that there would not be inevitabke class conflict between capitalism and communism
Why did Reagan and Gorbachev begin diplomacy?
Had some common interests; both feared MAD, wanted arms limitations.
When was the Geneva Summit?
Novemeber 1985
What was established at the Geneva Summit 1985
A general agreement that both the USSR and US would work towards a goal of cutting offensive nuclear weapon by 50%
A provisional agreement of limiting and hopefully eliminating medium range nukes
But no concrete outcome - symbolic only
What did the joint statement from Reagan and Gorbachev from Geneva say?
‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’
What was disgreed upon at Geneva?
SDI, as it would create a power imbalance
When was the Reykjavik Summit?
October 1986
What caused tension at the Reykjavik Summit?
- SDI
Reagan was in favour of eliminating nukes, but Gorbachev wouldn’t discuss this unless Reagan agreed to abandon his SDI plans, which he refused.
No agreements reached, although had discussions on human rights which gave the powers insights into each other. Gorbachev became convinced that Reagan would not comprimise on SDI.
When was the Washington Summit?
December 1987
What was the INF Treaty
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
Ended using missiles between 500 - 5500km, and all these missiles would be destroyed by June 1991.
First time the powers had agreed to remove a whole class of nuclear weapons, a massive success.
Included no demands on SDI
How many Intermediate-Range missiles were destroyed by the US and USSR after the INF Treaty?
846 were destroyed by the US
1,846 by the Soviet Union.
Why did Gorbachev agree to stop insisting on Reagan dropping SDI?
- Gorbachev became convinced that Reagan would not comprimise on SDI.
- He took a gamble and stopped insisting on its removal, assuming it would hopefully never be created.
- This was because ending the arms race was more important, and Gorbachev needed to resume limitation talks to reduce economic spending on the arms race.
- This shows that Gorbachev favoured economic health over nuclear arms race domninance unlike previous USSR leaders.
When was the Moscow Summit?
May - June 1988
What happened at the Moscow Summit?
Officically stated goal was to agree to START, plus big things were expected as it was Reagan’s last year in office.
But, the focus was rather on cultural exchanges and human rights.
Reagan and Gorbachev signed 7 agreements on things such as fishing rights and student exchange programmes, but nothing on START.
START was intended to reduce the number of nuclear weapons to 5000 each
What did Reagan do while in Moscow?
The summit gave him an opportunity to access the Russian people.
* He made an address at the Moscow State University, where he spoke about freedom and a vision of the Soviet Union without totalitarian rule (shows underlying ideological differences with Soviet Union remains)
* Reagan was asked if he still considered the USSR an ‘evil empire’, he said “No, that was another time, another era”. Just 5 years after he gave the evil empire speech.
