End of the Cold War (1980 – 1991) Second Cold War & The Collapse of Communism

Key Players – Ronald Reagan  1981 – elected President  Former Hollywood film actor – was questioned as part of HUAC hearings of the 1950s  Staunchly anti-Communist and anti-USSR – called them the Evil Empire  Supported anti-Communist forces in Afghanistan & Nicaragua  Supported by many European leaders in his tough stance against the USSR  Bold plan – escalate the arms race in order to end it (spend, spend, spend so the USSR could not keep up or go broke trying)  Defence spending increased to $32.6 billion  1982 – implemented the Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars)  Multi-billion dollar system designed to use satellites and lasers to destroy missiles before they could hit their targets

Key Players – Mikhail Gorbachev  Born 1931  One grandfather was a kulak (land owning peasant) – sent to gulags by Stalin for resisting policy of collectivisation  Other grandfather a loyal Communist Party member  Studied law at Moscow University (1950s) – became a persuasive speaker  Worked as local Communist Party official in his home area  By 1978 – part of Central Committee in charge of Agriculture  1980 – joined Politburo  Close friend and supporter of Andropov (Soviet leader ) and his ideas about reforming the USSR.  1985 – became leader of the USSR  1990 – awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Reform in the USSR  When Gorbachev came to power in 1985 he inherited significant problems  USSR’s economy had continued to shrink (approx. half the size of USA in 1985)  Spending too much money on arms race  Locked into costly war in Afghanistan  No economic reform since Stalin (1940s)  Regardless of their nuclear weaponry, the USSR effectively resembled a third world country and not a superpower  Living standards were low, infant mortality was high, and life expectancy was declining.

Reform in the USSR  Gorbachev very concerned about the attitude of Soviet people to work  They were protected under Soviet system from economic problems  Guaranteed a job and a home (no matter what)  Issue – the system gave no incentive to work harder or better  Communist slogans would not be enough to solve the problem so he developed new policies and released them slowly.

Reform in the USSR  Gorbachev slowly implemented a four-part program to overcome these issues. The four parts were:  Glasnot (openness)  Cultural freedom and reduced censorship  Perestroika (restructuring)  Restructuring and reform of the economy  1987 – under perestroika the Soviet economy was exposed to market forces for the first time  Democratization  Spreading of democratic processes through Soviet institutions  Novomyshlenie  New foreign relations with the West and and en end to hostility.

Reform in the USSR  Gorbachev was popular but his policies were not successful  After two years of perestroika, it was clear that the economy could not be modernised as quickly as people wanted  Led to dissent from the masses

Soviet Collapse in Eastern Europe  Economic troubles plague all of USSR  March 1989  Gorbachev tells leaders of eastern European countries that they would no longer be propped up on the Red Army  They would be forced to listen to their people

Re-unification of Germany  November 1989  Demonstrators in Berlin began to pound away at the Berlin Wall  Wall was dismantled within five days  Following removal of wall, West German Chancellor Helmut Khol proposed a speedy reunification of Germany  Idea enthusiastically embraced by Germans in both countries  Initially Gorbachev was hesitant about reunification – believed unified Germany would be friendlier to the West than the East  After many months of negotiation Gorbachev accepted reunification and Germany becoming a member of NATO  3 October 1990 – Germany officially reunifies

Collapse of the USSR  1990 – Gorbachev visited Lithuania (part of USSR)  Leaders made clear desires to be independent country and not part of the USSR  Gorbachev disallowed this, but they did it anyway in March 1990  Almost immediately Azerbaijan made a similar demand  Gorbachev sent troops to Azerbaijan and Lithuania to end rioting  Reformers in USSR itself demanded an end to the Communist Party’s domination of government  1990 – Russian Republic  Boris Yeltsin elected President  Made it clear that he saw no future in the USSR for Russia

Collapse of the USSR  July 1990 – Ukraine declared its independence and was followed by other republics  January 1991 – events in Lithuania turned bloody as Soviet troops fired on protesters  April 1991 – Republic of Georgia declared its independence  USSR disintegrating and Gorbachev was struggling to hold it together  August 1991 – hard line Communist Party members & leading military officials attempted a coup

Collapse of the USSR  Huge crowds gathered in Moscow protesting the coup.  Russian President (Boris Yeltsin emerged as the leader of the opposition)  Faced with this resistance, the conspirators lost faith and the coup collapsed  25 December 1991 – In a televised speech, Gorbachev announced the end of the Soviet Union