1. Lesson #1: The End of the Cold War
GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA
1980s, the Soviet Union was engulfed by a multitude of problems
economy, especially the agricultural sector, began to fall apart
Gorbachev
launched Perestroika ("restructuring") in 1985
and Glasnost (open discussion of political and social issues)
Believed basic economic structure of the Soviet Union sound
required only minor reforms
Goal was to bring the Soviet Union economically level with the West
Economists advised him that Western-style success required
true market economy
He wasn't willing to go that far (break from Command economy)
 His reforms brought economic chaos to the country and made Gorbachev very unpopular

2. 1988 Communist Party conference:
Set up a new Soviet parliament of elected members called Congress of People's Deputies
Gorbachev created a new state presidency
Brought an end to the Cold War
Gorbachev and the U.S.
1987, the Intermediate-Range INF Treaty - eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons
Gorbachev and U.S. president Ronald Reagan wanted to:
Slow down the arms race
  Sought to reduce their military budgets to solve domestic problems
Gorbachev focus resources on social and economic change
Reagan wanted to cut its national debt - tripled during his presidency.

3. June 12, 1987: President Reagan speaking at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, 2pm. President Reagan said, "As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner, 'This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.' Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom”.
The speech received "relatively little coverage from the media", Time magazine reported 20 years later.
Nov. 9, 1989
Just before midnight, border guards began to allow people to pour from one side of the wall to the other, and East and West Berliners joyously reunited with their friends and relatives.

4. Gorbachev and Eastern Europe
Stopped giving Soviet military support to Communist governments in Eastern Europe
Opened the door to the overthrow of Communist regimes
  Peaceful revolutionary movement swept through Eastern Europe in 1989.
Reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, was a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.
Revolutions in Eastern Europe
Poland (1980) – Lech Walesa (worker)
Organized a national trade union known as Solidarity – gained support of the workers
Roman Catholic Church, which was under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope
Walesa was arrested
1988; the Polish regime agreed to free parliamentary elections
December 1990; Walesa was chosen as president

5. Czechoslovakia
Soviets crushed and then repressed the Czechoslovakian reform movement 
Writers and other intellectuals continued to oppose the government – no success
‘88 – 89’ – Mass demonstrations (500,000) in Prague
Communist government collapsed (1989)
The new government soon faced old ethnic conflicts
Czechs and Slovaks agreed to a peaceful division of Czechoslovakia
Czech Republic has one of the most stable and prosperous economies of the post-Communist Eastern European states

6. Romania
Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu
Ruled Romania with an iron grip, using secret police to crush all dissent
Economic policies led to a sharp drop in living standards 
Food shortages caused rationing
December 1989:
Secret police murdered thousands of people who were peacefully demonstrating
Army refused to support any more repression
Ceauşescu and his wife were captured and executed

7. • The Soviet Union was a nation of great diversity.
Fall of the Soviet Union
• The Soviet Union was a nation of great diversity.
o 15 separate republics
o 92 ethnic groups, 112 languages
• As Gorbachev eased strict Communist control, old ethnic tensions reappeared, fueling nationalist independence movements.
• Conservative Soviet leaders arrested Gorbachev in an attempt to restore order. The coup failed when Boris Yeltsin and thousands of Russians resisted the rebel forces.
• Individual republics moved quickly to vote for independence. In 1991, the Soviet Union broke up into 15 independent states.

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=028gd8Sn3m0 Fall of the Soviet Union
• In his resignation speech, Gorbachev summarized the reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union, emphasizing the failure of the Communist economic system and the burden of the arms race.

9. Russia the New Russia: Under Yeltsin
• Boris Yeltsin gained widespread popular support in 1991, when he led the resistance against Soviet leaders who had attempted to seize power.
• As president of the Russian Republic, Yeltsin was committed to building a free market economy. Yet he faced many difficulties.
o Economic hardships
o Social disarray
o Rise in organized crime

10. Russia Under Yeltsin
• Another problem was unrest in the Russian province of Chechnya.
• Many Chechens wanted to secede from Russia and become independent.
• Yeltsin used brutal force against the Chechens to crush the rebellion.
• Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly at the end of 1999.

11. Russia Under Putin
• Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, was elected president in 2000.
• Putin launched a series of reforms to boost growth.
o More freedom to sell and buy land
o Tax cuts
• Putin’s reforms led to rapid economic expansion, much of it due to oil and gas exports.
• In international affairs, Putin took a more assertive role with world leaders.
o He also vowed to restore Russian authority in Chechnya, where fighting continued.
• Unable to run again for president, Putin became prime minister in 2008, sharing power with President Dmitry Medvedev.

12. October 18, 1990, National Intelligence Estimate
The Breakup of Yugoslavia, 1990–1992
October 18, 1990, National Intelligence Estimate
Yugoslavia will cease to function as a federal state within a year
Yugoslavia—the land of South (i.e. Yugo) Slavs
was created at the end of World War I
Austro-Hungarian Empire united with the Serbian Kingdom
 country broke up under Nazi occupation during World War II
Croat State
Reunified - Josip Broz Tito
Reasons for the country’s breakup:
Tito’s death
cultural and religious divisions between the ethnic groups
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989
unification of Germany 
collapse of the Soviet Union

13. Yugoslav political scene was complex
Slobodan Miloševic, leader of Serbia
Wanted to form a new Greater Serbian state
Rejected efforts toward independence
Republics’ borders first needed to be redrawn
Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence in June 1991
Yugoslav army (mostly Serbs), attacked Croatia
Serbian forces captured one-third of Croatia’s territory
Serbs next attacked Bosnia-Herzegovina – took 70% of it’s territory
Ethnic Cleansing – Serbs kill Muslims
NATO air attacks – formal peace treaty signed
1991 to 1999, he presided over mayhem and
mass murder in south-eastern Europe
indicted for war crimes in Kosovo.
Milošević was found dead in his prison cell
on 11 March 2006

14. Kosovo
Albanians begin campaign for independence
Serbs massacre ethnic Albanians
NATO intervenes – Kosovo independent country
 Last political vestiges of Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 2004
All six republics that formed Yugoslavia in 1918 were again independent nations
A new one (Kosovo) was born