The Collapse of the Soviet Union And the world watched with wonder …

Eastern Bloc Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 15 Republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan 7 Satellite Countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia

Was the Collapse Due to Force? No  The Cold War cost more than $11 trillion. But the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites was not a result of force.  No NATO tank fired a shot.  No bomb fell on the Kremlin.

A Home-Grown Insurgency  A massive, home-grown insurgency contributed to the collapse:  Workers  Dissident intellectuals  Advocates of national self-determination  Reformers

Polish Trade Union: Solidarity  The downfall began in 1980 when striking Polish workers organized Solidarity, an independent trade union of nearly 10 million members.

Support from Catholic Church  Solidarity had strong support from the Polish Catholic Church  Demonstrated how a working-class movement could offer an entire nation moral and political leadership.

Solidarity’s Chairman: Lech Walesa  The military drove Solidarity underground in  In 1983, Solidarity’s chairman, Lech Walesa, won the Nobel peace prize.  1990: 1 st elected president of Poland in more than sixty years.

The Gorbachev Revolution  MikhailGorbachev:1985 General Secretary of CPSU recognized that the USSR could not remain politically and economically isolated.  The Soviet system had to be changed if it was to survive.

Gorbachev's Five-Point Plan  The key pieces to Gorbachev's plan for the survival of the Soviet Union were a series of reforms: 1. Glasnost (openness) – greater freedom of expression 2. Perestroika (restructuring) – decentralization of the Soviet economy with gradual market reforms 3. Renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine (armed intervention where socialism was threatened) and the pursuit of arms control agreements 4. Reform of the KGB (secret service) 5. Reform of the Communist Party

The Objective: Survival   Gorbachev knew that the Soviet Union had to change to survive.   Central planning: Inefficient   Factory management system: provided little incentive to make technological improvements   Many incentives to ensure low quotas   Socialist farm system: Inefficient –poor worker incentives and storage and transportation problems.   USSR could no longer afford the high defense spending of the Cold War.

Insistent Calls for Change  Gorbachev believed that his reforms were necessary.  Used his power to attempt to implement them.  Glasnost made it possible for people to more freely criticize the government.  People realized it was safe to speak out  Calls for change became more insistent.

Reforms Were Too Slow  Market reforms and decentralization of the economy (perestroika) were too slow.  Failed to keep pace with the crisis and his people's demands.  The Soviet Union suffered a deterioration of economic and social conditions and a fall in the GNP.

Party Reforms a Failure  His attempts to reform the Communist Party were a failure. Change was too slow  Hampered by need to give in to hard-liners  As communism collapsed in Eastern Europe, reform of communism in the Soviet Union became unlikely.

Release from Soviet Domination  The renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine released the Eastern European states from Soviet domination.  These states could not survive without the support of the Soviet Union. The Brezhnev Doctrine was articulated in 1968 when the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia to end the Prague Spring, an attempt by Alexander Dubcek to build “socialism with a human face.”

Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate Speech  President Ronald Reagan called upon Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall: "In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards... Even today, the Soviet Union cannot feed itself. The inescapable conclusion is that freedom is the victor. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

President Reagan giving a speech at the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Federal Republic of Germany. June 12, 1987

Wave of Demonstrations  September 1989: a wave of demonstrations shook Communist regimes in eastern Europe  A massive tide of East German emigrants surged through Czech and Hungary to the West. undermined the authority of the hard-liners who clung to power in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

A tram is blocked by East German demonstrators in the center of the city in October Their banner reads: 'Legalization of opposition parties, free democratic elections, free press and independent unions.'

The Wall Came Down  November 9, 1989: East Germans poured through the Berlin Wall.  GDR disintegrated  By the end of 1990, all of East Germany had been taken into Federal Republic of Germany.

The Rise of Nationalism  The iron grip of the USSR relaxed  The state to failed to adequately feed and clothe its people  Nationalism in the republics surged  separatist movements threatened the existence of the USSR

Events in Eastern Europe  Communist governments either fell or underwent reform.  Czechoslovakia  Hungary  Bulgaria  The dictatorship in Romania fell after a week of bloody street battles between ordinary citizens and police who defended the old order to the bitter end.

Radical Change  Radical change reached the USSR in August  Thousands of Russians into the streets to defeat a reactionary coup d'état.

Independent Republics  The Communist party quickly collapsed  USSR began the painful and uncertain process of reorganizing as a loose confederation of independent republics.

Boris Yeltsin  Boris Yeltsin, who headed the Russian Republic, replaced Gorbachev as president of a much- diminished state. Gorbachev found that there was no Soviet Union to lead and retired into private life. Time magazine's July 15, 1996, issue, featured a 10-page spread about a squad of U.S. political pros who "clandestinely participated in guiding Yeltsin's campaign.“

Nobel Peace Prize  Gorbachev won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. He brought dramatic change to the USSR’s economy.  But not in the way he intended.

The End of the Cold War  The Cold War wasn’t brought to a close by the missiles and tanks of the participants, but by the collective courage and willpower of ordinary men and women.

Ronald Reagan’s Role  Reagan's frank denunciation of the Soviet Union as an “evil empire  military buildup said to have inspired eastern bloc dissidents at the same time the  Arms race exhausted the productive capacity of the Ussr and the inefficient Communist regimes.

Nuclear Stockpiles, Source data from: Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, "Global nuclear stockpiles, ," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 62, no. 4 (July/August 2006), Online at

The National Debt US Pop: 304,998,272 Share of Debt/Person: $34, Daily Increase: $3.84 billion $438 billion deficit

Another Side to the Story  George Kennan architect of the containment policy: the West's militarized posture helped the Communists to rationalize their authoritarian rule. The more U.S. policies held a hard line, the greater was the tendency in Moscow was to tighten the controls and to discourage liberalizing tendencies.

Lech Walesa's SOLIDARITY Gorbachev’s REFORMS John Paul II’s CATHOLIC CHURCH Glasnost Ronald Reagan’s FOREIGN POLICY No Brezhnev Doctrine Perestroika Reform KGB Reform Comm Party EVIL EMPIRE Speech MILITARY BUILDUP ARMS RACE East German NATIONALISM The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the End of the Cold War Ordinary MEN & WOMEN WILL POWER COURAGE Eastern Bloc Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Remaining Communist Countries  At its peak, communism was practiced in dozens of countries:  Soviet Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan  Asian Countries: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Yemen  Soviet Controlled Eastern bloc countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia.  The Balkans: Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.  Africa: Angola, Benin, Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Mozambique.  Currently only a handful of countries identified as communist remain: Laos, North Korea, Vietnam, China, and Cuba.