Day 10 The Fall of Communism

Helsinki Accords 1975 accords finally recognized the borders that had existed since WWII Communists agreed to respect human rights

Break up of Eastern Europe

Prague Spring and Brezhnev Doctrine The Czechs attempted to open communism in 1968 in the Prague Spring as Hungary did in 56, but Soviet tanks ended the spring This will be the last straw for western communist parties and they begin to call themselves socialists or “Euro Communists” distancing themselves from the soviets The Brezhnev Doctrine was developed which declared that the soviets could intervene in any satellite state This ends the hope for the reform of communism in Eastern states

Solidarity Eastern European states had overborrowed to prop up communism This led to hardship in Eastern Europe and resentment among the people Membership in the communist party declined throughout Eastern Europe In Poland Solidarity formed, a non-communist labor union Eventually Solidarity became a political movement as well, this led to a crackdown and martial law

Romania and Yugoslavia Romania was different from other communist nations in that its dictator Ceausescu believed in his own cult of personality He tore down villages of Hungarians, reshaped Budapest for better parades, and tried to forge a command economy to make Romania an industrial center These all failed and left Romania the second poorest country in Europe and turned many against him Yugoslavia was the only independent communist nation with Tito resisting control from Russia Although Tito will hold his polyglot country together, this will lead to disaster in the 90’s

Gorbachev: Glasnost and Perestroika Gorby will try and liberalize the Soviet Union somewhat after 1985 Seeing the spending for the military, expanding of the KGB and cooling of relations during Brezhnev’s tenure, Gorbachev will try to make communism more tolerable to the average person Glasnost (openness) will open the government some and allow for free expression Perestroika (restructuring) will try and make the Soviet system more efficient Perestroika looks like Lenin’s New Economic policy and in many way Gorby will reject Stalinism in favor of Leninism as more free market ideas are allowed such as the end of farm collectivism

Reasons for the Fall of Communism 1. Nationalist movements gained momentum within the Soviet Union in the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania), Caucuses (Georgia and Armenia), Ukraine, and Moldovia 2. Glasnost led authors like Andrey Sakharov and Alexander Solzhenitsyn displaying the issues of the Stalinist regimes. This led to widespread dissatisfaction with communism 3. The Soviet Union could no longer keep up an arms race with the U.S. or afford interventions in Europe to maintain the status quo This led to a major arms reduction treaty, and the rejection of the Brezhnev Doctrine Eastern European countries attempt to hold on to power by force Gorbachev refused to intervene ending the Brezhnev doctrine, this will be the beginning of the end