Transcript The End of the Cold War

The End of the Cold War Part II
Causes of the Collapse of the
Soviet Union
• Government leaders were disillusioned by
Khrushchev’s secret speech, the rise of capitalism,
and the lack of world revolution
• New freedoms, such as assembly, speech, and
religion undermined the familiar and rigid sense of
order – there were many protests and demonstrations
• Ethnic and social conflicts reappeared in the Balkans
leading to strikes and growing incidents of crime
– Czechoslovakians versus Slovakians
– Serbs versus Albanian Kosovars in Kosovo
– Serbs and Croats versus Muslims in BosniaHerzegovina
Causes of the Collapse of the
Soviet Union
• During the mid-1980s, there was a fall in world
oil prices, which deprived the USSR of currency
• In Apr. 1986, a melt-down at a nuclear reactor
at Chernobyl caused an expensive clean-up
• In 1988, a terrible earthquake in Armenia killed
25,000 and massive destruction. There was a
poor response from the rest of the USSR, which
showed apathy and a lack of unity
Causes of the Collapse of the
Soviet Union
• People were depressed
because:
– Lack of honesty from the
government on the economic
situation and other things
– Lack of consumer goods
– Spending on military
– Lack of a good future or ability
to move up
– Inability to participate in
government or talk freely
Mikhail Gorbachev
• In order for his reforms of glasnost and
perestroika to take place, he needed to end the
Cold War to lower defense spending
• He declared that the satellite nations were in
charge of their own future and he assured them
that he would not intervene in their affairs
• He supported change and opposed the use of
force to stop it
• Satellite nations had been kept in check
through the use of Soviet force
Poland
• “Reform communists” and Solidarity leaders came
together in a roundtable talks from Feb.-Apr 1989
• Solidarity was legalized, strikes were legalized,
elements of a free market were introduced, and
Senate elections were to be held
• The communists had control of the media and money,
so they expected to win the elections, but they lost 99
of 100 seats
• They formed the first non-communist majority in the
Eastern Europe
• The President resigned in 1990 and the leader of
Solidarity, Lech Walesa, was elected President in Dec.
1990
Hungary
• Economic problems in Hungary led to the people
urging for reform
• Janos Kadar resigned in April 1988 and the President
of Hungary was now a “reform communist” named
Imre Pozsgay
• President George H.W. Bush met with opposition party
leaders in July 1989
• He wanted a multi-party system and other reforms
• Gorbachev consented to a request to cut down the
barb wire fence (iron curtain) between Hungary and
Austria
• Elections were held in October 1989 that replaced the
communist leader with a democratic one
East Germany
• The hard line president, Erich
Honecker, rejected Gorbachev’s
glasnost and perestroika
• In October, Gorbachev visited
East Germany and claimed that
change was needed. He also
ordered Soviet troops stationed
in East Germany not to
intervene
• As a result, huge crowds were
gathering in the major cities to
demand the end of Communist
East Germany
• Thousands fled from East Germany to Austria
to Hungary to West Germany
• Demonstrators were beaten by police
• On Oct. 18, Honecker resigned
• When new arrangements for travel to the West
were announced, reporters asked the
government spokesman when the checkpoints
would be opening. He said “Right away”
• Thousands of East Berliners began gathering at
the checkpoints, to the surprise of the border
guards, who had received no orders
East Germany
• The crowds told the guards that
they had heard on the television
that the Wall was to be
immediately thrown open
• The commander at one of the
check points decided to let the
crowd through
• Soon crowds were clambering all
over the wall, and many began to
break it with hammers
East Germany
• December 1989
– The government of East
Germany collapsed
– This marked the
beginning of the end of
the Cold War
• October 1990
– Germany reunited
Czechoslovakia
• In Nov. 1989, a student demonstration was crushed by
police
• Alexander Dubcek came back to Czechoslovakia to
support Civic Forum, a reform movement/party/union
of workers
• Workers demonstrated and threatened a general
strike if the government didn’t resign
• The government resigned in Dec. 1989 and Dubcek
and other reformers were elected to leadership
positions
• All this was called the Velvet Revolution because there
was no violence
Causes of the Collapse of the
Soviet Union
• Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania
communism fell in 1990
• In June 1990, Russia declared their
independence from the USSR
• August 1991
– Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and
perestroika caused the old-guard communists to
want to preserve the system
– They tried a military coup, but it was foiled with the
help of Russian Republic president Boris Yeltsin
(one of the republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, or USSR)
The Fall of Communism
• December 1991
– Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president
– The Soviet Union dissolved into 15 republics
loosely confederated in the Commonwealth of
Independent State (CIS), with Russia the most
powerful state and Yeltsin the president
– To varying degrees, all the new governments in
the CIS repudiated communism and embraced
democratic reforms and free-market economies
1 – Armenian SSR
2 – Azerbaijan SSR
3 – Byelorussian SSR
4 – Estonian SSR
5 – Georgian SSR
6 – Kazakh SSR
7 – Kirghiz SRR
8 – Latvian SSR
9 – Lithuanian SSR
10 – Moldavian SSR
11 – Russian SFSR
12 – Tajik SSR
13 – Turkmen SSR
14 – Ukrainian SSR
15 – Uzbek SSR
The Fall of Communism
• Results of the Fall of the Soviet Union
–The demise of the Soviet Union was a
complete end to the Cold War
–No more tension over nuclear war
between the U.S. and Russia
–It also marked the virtual end of
communism world-wide
–Democracy now had no more
ideological battles left to fight
Boris Yeltsin
• Russia’s first popularly elected
president, Boris Yeltsin, introduced
further reforms (i.e. – freedom to
import and export)
Results of No More Cold War in
Russia
• Russia’s transition to a free-market
economy has not been smooth
• 25% of the population lives in poverty,
which was largely nonexistent in the last
decades of the Soviet Union
• Law and order has broken down and
organized crime has flourished
Results of No More Cold War
• GDP has dropped
• The U.S. is left as the “world’s policeman”
• There has been a wave of
democratization throughout Latin America,
Africa, and Eastern Europe
• Space exploration has declined without
the competitive pressure of the space race
New Cold War?
• In 1999, ailing Boris Yeltsin
named Vladimir Putin, a former
KGB agent, his replacement
• Defense Shield –
– Fear that a U.S. defense shield
in the Czech Republic and
Poland would be offensive
– Putin threatened to face missiles
on those countries who
participated
New Cold War?
• U.S. Influence in Eastern Bloc
– Russia is resentful at attempts to get former satellite
nations and former parts of the USSR into NATO
and the EU
– Former President Vladimir Putin compared it to the
Third Reich
• Disabled Spy Satellite
– U.S. hit a disabled toxic spy satellite in Feb. 2008
– China and the USSR believed the U.S. was testing
anti-satellite technology
New Cold War?
• Chechnya
– Republic that seeks
independence from Russia and
has used terrorist tactics to gain
Russia’s attention to their goal
– Russia has used torture to gain
information out of Chechnyans,
summarily executed people,
and sent troops to squash
rebellions
New Cold War?
• Elections
– In Mar. 2008 were deemed by some to be unfair
because:
• the government controls censorship
• intimidated voters
• harasses opposition groups
• authorities would fill out and cast ballots
• Oppose Kosovo Independence
– UN and EU support Kosovo independence
– EU wants to send peacekeeping troops, which
Russia believes needs Security Council
approval