{ The Collapse of the Soviet Union

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

Military Strength Arms Race Technological Ambitions Space Race Democratic Ideological Differences Democratic Capitalism v. Totalitarian Communism

FORCE?  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 Instead, a massive, home-grown insurgency, led by a number of different participants, 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, which had strong support from the powerful Polish Catholic Church, demonstrated how a working-class movement could offer an entire nation moral and political leadership.

Solidarity’s Chairman: Lech Walesa The Polish military drove Solidarity underground in However, in 1983, Solidarity’s chairman, Lech Walesa, won the Nobel peace prize. In 1990, he would be the first freely elected president of the Polish nation in more than sixty years.

The Gorbachev Revolution Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985 as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), recognized that the Soviet Union could not remain politically and economically isolated and that 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 would have to change if it was to survive. Central planning in a modern industrial economy brought many inefficiencies. The factory management system provided little incentive to make technological improvements and every incentive to hide factory capacities to ensure low quotas The socialist farm system was inefficient – there were poor worker incentives and storage and transportation problems. The Soviet State could no longer afford the high defense spending that accompanied the Cold War.

Insistent Calls for Change He believed that his reforms were necessary and used his leadership and power to attempt to implement them. The policy of glasnost (openness) made it possible for people to more freely criticize the government's policies. When people realized it was safe to speak out, the calls for change became more insistent.

{ Reforms= Failure  Perestroika- too slow  Economic failure, GNP decline  Communist part reforms- too slow, failures

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.” The renunciation of the Brezhnev Doctrine (armed intervention in support of socialism) released the Eastern European states from Soviet domination. The communist rulers of these states could not survive without the support of the Soviet Union.

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!” Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate Speech

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

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.'

Finally, on the night of November 9, 1989, ordinary Germans poured through the Berlin Wall. The GDR quickly disintegrated, and by the end of 1990, all of East Germany had been incorporated into the wealthy, powerful Federal Republic of Germany.

Rise of Nationalism  Soviet Union weakens= satellites free to revolt  Government failure to feed the people

Eastern Europe  Communist governments in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria either tumbled or underwent reform.  The Communist 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  August 1991  The Russian people rebel

Communists Collapse  Reorganization of independent states

Boris Yeltsin  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.

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. Remaining Communist Countries