The Cold War II

The Berlin Wall Tells The Story West Berlin was a free western city inside Communist East Germany Stalin failed to take the city by blockade. The Communists were further frustrated by citizens fleeing East Berlin to the West West Berlin had a more successful economy than East Berlin In 1961 East Berlin premier Walter Ulbrict ordered a wall be built. - wall was eventually about 96 miles long - East German guards shot anybody trying to escape (about 200 people were killed escaping) When the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 it symbolized the end of the cold war

Detente Détente is a French word meaning relaxation - Starting in the 1970’s relations between the East and West improved Both sides relaxed some of the bitter words and began to hold peace summits An example of improved relations was the Salt I treaty which eliminated some nuclear weapons for both superpowers and resulted in further discussions. Salt stood for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Détente ended when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. President Carter boycotted Moscow Olympics in response

Regan the cold warrior Ronald Regan came to office in 1980 and promised to be tough on the Soviet Union oversaw massive build up of armed forces Described Soviets as an “evil empire” Eventually Regan signed important peace agreements with the Soviets

Gorbachev Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet Premier in the early 1980’s He believed the USSR needed to change its economy and government - Perestroika was a term meaning reform. This referred to economic changes. Example – people were allowed to own their own businesses - Glasnost was Russian for openness. Citizens were allowed to express opposition opinions for the first time. Eventually opposition political parties were formed and free elections took place He allowed the satellite nations to make their own decisions. As a result, many of the satellite nations decided to break away from Soviet dominance

Old Style Communists Try to Regain Control Old regime communists opposed Gorbachev’s reforms - Wanted to see a traditional Communist state in the Soviet Union Gorbachev’s allowed freedom of the press and the Communists were widely criticized for the first time Glasnost showed how inefficient the Soviet economy was leading to Gorbachev to demand more changes. In August hard line communists temporarily had Gorbachev removed from power in a coup. People did not support the Coup and Gorbachev was restored to power.

The Soviet Union ends Gorbachev’s policies led to demands for greater change. Eventually Gorbachev stepped down and the USSR seized to exist - Some former Soviet Republics stayed together to form the Commonwealth of Independent States. Many are now independent. Boris Yeltsin became the first democratically elected president of the Russian Republic

East Germany During the course of the cold war many people had demanded the removal of the Berlin Wall When Gorbachev made it clear that he would not send troops in, the East German government allowed the wall to come down and East Germans to cross to the West East and West Germany then united back into one Germany with a unified Berlin as its capital

Poland Only a short time ago, Poland had been under martial law. During this time, the communist government arrested protestors In large numbers the Polish people demanded to be free of the USSR and then got rid of its communist government The new ruling party was known as Solidarity and was led by Lech Walesa - Solidarity had been outlawed only a few years earlier

Czechoslovakia This country is very hard to spell! People also rose up and demanded that their country be free of the USSR and got rid of their communist government Vaclav Havel became their new leader

Romania In Romania people also wanted to be free of the USSR and to get rid of the communist government. However, things were more violent in Romania than in the other former satellite states Nicolae Ceausescu had been the communist leader during the Cold War. - He resisted the protests and demand for change with troops. People were killed in the fighting. - He and his wife were arrested and executed - Romania then elected a new non-communist government

Yugoslavia Like many of the others, Yugoslavia got rid of their communist government and held elections Eventually ethnic tensions led to the establishment of separate countries and warfare - Slobodan Milosevic (leader of Serbia) attempted to dominate much of the former Yugoslavia - NATO took military action to prevent Milosevic from waging war and carrying out ethnic cleansing (removal of people based on ethnicity)