Breakup of the USSR Review – add details based on intro to the unit: Ethnic tensions Glasnost and economic reform Desire for democracy Started in Baltics and spread east/south
b. Human rights 1975 Helsinki Accord - US, Canada, USSR, 30 European countries Ease tensions between non-Communists/West & Soviets USSR control over Warsaw Pact Boundaries only change w/ peace treaties Respect human rights Protect freedoms & cooperate in scientific, economic, humanitarian efforts USSR not accept human rights conditions (internal matter) Rebels formed within the Soviet bloc countries (ex. Hungary, Poland) Challenged their gov’ts openly - free speech, free assembly Andrei Sakharov - Soviet human rights advocate – Nobel Peace Prize winner 1975 Exiled for 6 years for his protests USSR responds with forced labor camps, censorship, emigration restrictions
Breakup of the USSR Review – add details based on intro to the unit: Ethnic tensions Glasnost and economic reform Desire for democracy Started in Baltics and spread east/south
a. What leads to USSR downfall a. What leads to USSR downfall? Built extensive military, nuclear weapons Spread communism around world Totalitarian system with economic stagnation and isolation LED TO: Not enough food or modern goods for its citizens Lack of technology and agriculture
Break up of USSR led to movements in Bloc countries
Reunification of Germany and Fall of Berlin Wall Gorbechev's liberal reforms caused great distress in East Germany Mass demonstrations demanding reforms econ in W. improving, E. as bad as USSR 1989 – Neighboring countries allowed in thousands of E. Germans Berlin Wall falls November 1989 Citizens dismantle the infamous wall Reunification treaty signed in Sept/Oct 1990 December 1991, the first all German free election since the Nazi period was held
Legacies of Soviet policies 1. Language barriers 2. Ethnic minorities forced relocation Often to a place where people already lived = ethnic cleansing 3. Econ and gov’t issues Economies underdeveloped or not developed at all in USSR communism Now responsibility of new independent country Many of these countries remain in the same state (BAD) today that they were in when the USSR collapsed
Personal story
Solidarity labor movement, Lech Walesa 1980 Polish gov't caused prices to increase , wages to decrease Workers in the shipyard began their strike Leader was Lech Walesa Demanding Right to unions and to strike Success = union called Solidarity Ten million participants 1981, “state of war” declared Loss of jobs Arrested/harsh sentences, six-day work week was re-imposed, full censorship 1989 – Poland held first elections in 75 years Solidarity made legal More media freedom First union movement in a Soviet-bloc country Gave rise to non-violent, anti-communist movement Over 9.4 million members
Research – former USSR countries