CW - The End of the Cold War (Lesson)

The End of the Cold War

The Cold War Melts: Communism Falls in Poland

Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev believed in communism but realized it was failing to keep up with Western capitalism and technology, thus eroding the Soviet Union's status as a superpower. He wanted to save communism by revitalizing it with reforms. The USSR at this time was plagued with allegations of corruption and incompetence as well as a nationwide epidemic of alcoholism. Gorbachev issues Perestroika – which saw an easing of government controls allowing more independence for some enterprises and the establishment of some private companies. Yet by 1988 the economy is still in shambles.

Gorbachev also institutes "Glasnost" or openness, a policy for government transparency and honesty in regard to tragedies such as Chernobyl and Stalin's purges. Yet the policy soon went beyond expectations and moved closer toward freedom of speech. Free elections are held in 1989, Gorbachev is re-elected and the proceedings of the Communist Party Congress are televised. A new political thinking emerged and the arms race is halted. The USSR also repudiates the Brezhnev Doctrine and withdraws from Afghanistan.

Poland

In 1988, with growing inflation and labor unrest, Solidarity comes out of the shadows and begins to reassert pressure on Communist leaders, demanding to share power in order to alleviate a stalemate. In 1989, Solidarity is legalized and free elections are announced for June of that year. The elections, however, are arranged to guarantee the Communist Party would be in the majority thereby enabling the current leader to remain in power for an additional four years.

Despite no access to media, Solidarity gains the support of the people and wins a majority of the seats. Gorbachev announces that Moscow would not intervene in the election. In August 1989, Lech Walesa is sworn in as Poland's first non-communist leader since 1945. In his first 18 months, Walesa eliminated the secret police, abolished controls on most prices, and reformed the monetary system.

 

The Cold War Splits in Half: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

After the fall of Poland, Hungary soon follows. Its government had permitted economic liberalization in exchange for political obedience after the revolt in 1956. By 1989, opposition groups were growing and the Hungarian Communist Party renounced 1 party rule and announced there would be free elections. The Communist Party had popular support and believed they would remain in power even after the elections. In an effort to keep that support, they opened the border with East Germany and tore down the "iron curtain" - the barbed wire fence separating them from Austria. Tens of thousands of East German "vacationers" begin defecting to Hungary, which helps aid the rapid growth of the reform movement in East Germany. In an attempt to stabilize the situation, East Germany opens the Berlin Wall in November of 1989.

November also saw the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. Led primarily by students and intellectuals, this 10-day non-violent revolution is often referred to as the Velvet Revolution. Vaclav Havel, playwright and leader of the Velvet Revolution, was elected president of a newly free Czechoslovakia. Because of longstanding issues between the Czech and Slovak sides, the nation split into 2 in 1992, creating the Czech Republic, still headed up by Havel, and Slovakia.

Romania had the only violent revolution. Nicolai Ceausescu had long been a brutal Stalinesque ruler. He ordered security forces to slaughter revolutionaries. An armed rebellion follows; the forces are defeated and Ceausescu, along with his wife, is executed on live tv on Christmas Day.

In Russia, most areas begin demanding autonomy and the communist party suffers a major defeat in local elections in February 1990. Lithuania declares independence. Gorbachev initiates an economic embargo but does not send in an army. He then issues a new constitution, which eliminates the one-party system although he keeps his post as Party Secretary and eventually is elected as President of the Soviet Union.

Also in 1990, Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Parliament. He announces that Russia will declare its independence from the Soviet Union. Gorbachev counters by arranging a loosely held confederation – the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In 1990, Gorbachev is kidnapped by communist hardliners hoping to take back control, but in 1991, the coup collapses, the Soviet Union begins to dissolve and Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia.

 

Learn more: Download an outline of The End of the Cold War. Links to an external site.

 

Consider This: Was it Inevitable?

Do you believe that the collapse of the Soviet Union and its control over the Eastern Block countries was an inevitable outcome of the natural evolution of political change or that there was a fundamental flaw in the Soviet system which made its survival impossible?

 

 

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